Assessment of progressive learning of ethics in engineering students based on the model of domain learning

This work presents the results of an assessment instrument designed to assess the progressive learning of ethics in the engineering curriculum at different stages known as acclimation, competency, and proficiency, and to determine the relation of the development stages with three components that contribute to learning: interest, knowledge and strategic processing. The questions in the instrument were defined following the Model of Domain Learning (MDL) to capture the level of ethics skill development. The questionnaire was administered to engineering students of increasing class standing (i.e., freshmen to senior). The results show that the instrument successfully captures the ethics skill development in engineering education taking into consideration the components and stages of learning described by the MDL framework.