April 11, 2017

How can we prepare students to face challenges to integrity and ethical dilemmas?

On 15 April 2015, the Ministry of Education introduced the Framework for 21st Century Competencies and Student Outcomes, which outlines the competencies that have become increasingly important in this century. One of the six core values of the framework is integrity. Ms Sarah Wong (Graduate student – Department of Psychology), A/P Stephen Lim (Department of Psychology), and Dr Kathleen Quinlan conducted a qualitative study to understand how students at NUS define integrity in their lives as students, and how they would demonstrate integrity in their lives after university. Based on qualitative surveys with 127 students, they found that students defined integrity in a university context as not plagiarizing, not cheating, completing tasks independently, not manipulating data, being honest, fulfilling group work commitments, and reporting ethical violations such as reporting someone who has cheated on an exam. The authors noted that students’ definition of integrity in the workplace shared many similarities with their definition of integrity in a university context. Reframed in a workplace setting, these themes included not taking credit for work that is not theirs, being honest in interviews, holding true to their values at the workplace, and adhering to work ethics by being honest in their professional work and not sacrificing hard work for other methods of career advancement. Importantly, students also saw integrity in the workplace as using their skills and knowledge to benefit society after graduation, and bringing about progressive change as leaders of the future. The researchers conclude by highlighting the role of educators to reconsider integrity more broadly beyond good academic conduct, towards nurturing students’ holistic moral reasoning and social responsibility.

Learn more about the article here.