Trends In The Ethical Judgment Of Engineering Students

This paper presents a basic trend study conducted at a large university in the midwestern United States. The results of the study suggest a progressive decline in the understanding of a particular component of ethical judgment among the civil engineering students at the academic institution where the study was conducted. The study included twenty separate assessments administered to engineering students between 1991 and 2008. This paper contains a detailed discussion of the assessment tool, administration procedures, and analysis of results. The component of professional ethics, as presented by the assessment tool, will be evaluated in relation to ABET EC 2000, and assessment items will be evaluated relative to the engineering codes endorsed by IEEE, ASCE, and NSPE. Finally, data trends will be evaluated relative to their implications with respect to the role of the engineering profession in society.