University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Coordinated Science Laboratory
National Center for Principled Leadership & Research Ethics

Skills

Skills to promote ethical practice in science include specific proficiencies, for example:

  • Ethical decision-making, including recognizing problems, identifying and examining assumptions underlying practices, using analytical skills and strategies in addressing issues and problems, and exploring implications of different courses of action.
  • Critical thinking and problem solving
  • Conflict resolution
  • Arbitration and mediation
  • People management
  • Stress management
  • Communication skills

A goal described by many authors is to enhance students’ ability to recognize and identify ethical issues and conflicts, analyze and develop well-reasoned responses to the kinds of ethical problems they are likely to encounter in the future (Sachs and Siegler, 1993; Bebeau, Pimple, Muskavitch, Borden, and Smith,1995; Swazey and Bird, 1997).

Originally published 1999-2013 at Resources for Research Ethics Education, a web project directed by Michael Kalichman, Ph.D., and Dena Plemmons, Ph.D., from the University of California-San Diego Research Ethics Program and the San Diego Research Ethics Consortium. Republished with permission.