工学教育の変革に資する技術者倫理教育の研究

A study on engineering ethics education for improving engineering education in Japan Engineering ethics has multi-meanings, and commentators and teachers of engineering ethics have different understandings and opinions. What is required for engineering education in Japan is the shift from the conventional education on engineering science to the new model that focuses on nurturing professional skills as responsible engineers. So what we are expected to do is to meet such a requirement, by developing desirable and effective educational contents. The conventional model of education for engineers in Japan are facing with three weak points: engineering ethics, engineering design（solution for problems that is not structured）and communication. These three are often considered to be separate issues and thus dealt with separately. However, these problems should not be understood as three mutually independent ones as they are mutually interrelated and interlocked in conventional Technological Program education. It presupposes knowledge as hierarchical and top-down, with “general principles”at the highest level and “concrete problem solving” at the lowest level. To overcome these problems and to provide a theoretical foundation for engineering design and communication, engineering ethics education will be expected to offer the following seven elements:（1）to clarify differences between practical life as an professional engineer and academic life as a student,（2）to understand characteristics of the non-uniformity of ethics and pluralistic nature of values that often make communications difficult,（3）to develop a trial-and-error method to transcend the limits of “correctness” in science and engineering knowledge,（4）to understand the relationship between the creation and rules,（5）to understand methodology of recognition to deal with reality, （6）to understand values and norms, and（7）to acquire a way of thinking on safety that is determined from both internal and external rationality of technology.