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Bioethics Forums- A Critical Thinking Training Ground
Videodiscovery's Bioethics Forums is a multimedia program for
laserdisc or CD-ROM that provides students with hypothetical case
studies for the practice of bioethical decision making. A combination
of dramatized video, text articles, photos, and graphics creates
a focused information-base that students use to explore the stakeholders,
values, alternatives, and tradeoffs to various problems. The focus
of the program is to have students apply their science knowledge,
experience many points of view, and come to better understand
why people behave the way they do.
Background on Bioethics Forums
Bioethics Forums was modeled after Videodiscovery's Science Technology
Society Forums (1993), a middle school laserdisc program in which
students prepare position presentations for a lively classroom
debate. Students research their assigned point of view as small
groups, and then use visual aids from the videodisc as part of
their presentation. STS Forums incites classroom discussions and
debate in using the adversarial format. In 1994 Videodiscovery
received NSF funds to produce a new high school curriculum for
Genetics. The NSF wanted students to explore the bioethical and
social aspects of new genetic advances. The resulting laserdisc
and CD-ROM Genetics: Fundamentals and Frontiers provides a state-of-the-art
learning tool for the study of genetics. It's companion product,
Bioethics Forums, provides motivating scenarios to inspire biology
learning and to assess whether students are able to apply their
science knowledge in real life situations. While the goal for
STS Forums was to persuade, the goal for Bioethics Forums is to
think and understand.
Bioethics Forums is adapted from the decision making model from
the Hastings Foundation curriculum New Choices New Responsibilities
and from the NSF funded decision-making curriculum Decision Research.
Students complete a bioethical analysis worksheet as they research
and view multimedia resources. The steps include; 1. Identify
the decision and the decision maker, 2. Identify the stakeholders,
their values, and priorities 3. Identify the alternatives and
the tradeoffs and, 4. Propose a solution that is the most acceptable
and explain it to the stakeholders. This model leads students
from general scientific research and problem solving skills to
higher level thinking in which they must deal with the real world
of people, their personal agendas and values. Students travel
from the black and white world of scientific fact to the gray
area where peoples desires conflict within themselves and with
others.
Each fictional episode provides 5 to 7 interviews with characters
who have a some kind of message related to the story. Students
must distinguish between those characters with a real stake in
the decision, those with opinions but no immediate stake and those
who are simply bringing neutral information to the story. The
episode topics such as fetal alcohol syndrome, euthanasia, and
preserving biodiversity are all close to true events. The vehicle
of fiction allows us to freeze the issue in time and provide much
fuller access to the possible points of view. The dramatized segments
with professional actors are intended to elicit an emotional response
from students. Once students buy into the drama, they are eager
to participate in discussion and suddenly see an immediate need
for the abstract science that they have been studying.
The fictional supporting articles are also closely based on real
sources and reflect the real information sources that people use.
Students compare the "facts" presented in a daily newspaper,
a scientific journal, or a trashy tabloid. Critical thinkers must
always question the source of information and realize that people
can interpret facts in different ways depending on their values
and biases.
As students delve deeper into the story it becomes an onion with
layer after layer of facts, inferences, and viewpoints. The decision
making model provides a scaffolding for sorting out the information
provided. We do not encourage students to make up their own minds
on these issues. The key to negotiation is to appreciate the rightness
of each person from each perspective. A good negotiator is able
to distinguish those opinions that are held strongly from those
which are more open for compromise. Sometimes the most important
belief of a stakeholder is only mildly affected by the decision
at hand and the character, and some compromise is possible.
Building a course around the theme of bioethical decision making
has the ability to enfranchise many students who are uninterested
in abstract science. We often hear about students who usually
do not participate suddenly having a lot to say during a Bioethics
Forums discussion. Perhaps these discussions of human values and
personal situations tap into other kinds of intelligence such
as moral reasoning. These students can participate on an equal
footing and begin to build self confidence and a desire to look
deeper into the science behind these issues. Since each episode
has its own scientific focus, it is possible to integrate the
Bioethics Forums episodes across a year of high school biology.
Students practice applying the decision making model over and
over again as the year progresses thereby building real critical
thinking skills.
For more information about Bioethics Forums and other critical
thinking and problem solving programs from Videodiscovery, visit
the Videodiscovery Web site.
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