Students’ Values and Ethical Concerns in a Biosciences’ Course in Higher Education

摘要

In this small-scale study in higher education, a good educational practice on teaching bioethics based on transformative learning and accomplished by debates, is presented. The research was carried out in June 2016 at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece and it focuses on the concerns over their value system and moral dilemmas underground students in the field of biosciences have. Reflections occurred after the debating experience they participated in during this course. The research followed the qualitative method and data were collected through a single question posed to students, asking them to critically reflect on their debating experience. Content analysis was used for analyzing their responses. Debates seem to be a good practice for teaching bioethics, since it led them to critically think over their values and morals regarding their role as future biologists. They seem eager to reflect, question, and deal with moral dilemmas concerning the difficult ethical issue of bioethics, a key-point for every junior scientist.