Student reflections on the value of a professionalism module
Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
ISSN: 1477-996X
Article publication date: 22 February 2013
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze written reflections of final year computing students taking a professionalism module that covered the social, legal, professional and ethical aspects of computing. Society's dependence on computers makes it essential that computing students, whose future work may involve the analysis, storage and security of private data, are capable of identifying ethical issues and of making reflective moral judgements. The capacity to make moral judgements has been linked to an ability to reflect, so the aim of this research was twofold, to investigate students' familiarity with the concepts the module covered and their reflective ability.
Design/methodology/approach
The research takes the form of an exploratory case study with qualitative data from written reflections examined using NVivo and word cloud analysis.
Findings
The students found it difficult to write reflectively and the majority of their reflections were either descriptive writing or descriptive reflection which considered events from one perspective. Awareness of the topics covered by the module appeared to be low prior to taking the module.
Research limitations/implications
This research identifies the need to develop students' reflective skills and professional awareness in order to enhance their professional performance.
Practical implications
Reflective writing and concepts such as profession and ethics need to be included throughout computing degrees, not just in a final year module. As students are strategic learners these topics also need to be covered in enough depth at each level so they are assessed and treated seriously by students.
Social implications
Given the ubiquitous nature of computers and society's high level of dependence on them it is essential that students' moral reasoning skills are developed throughout their course, so on graduation they are capable of ethical thinking and can make reflective moral judgements.
Originality/value
No other qualitative research was found which covered this area and no research was found which raised these issues.
Keywords
Citation
Holland, L. (2013), "Student reflections on the value of a professionalism module", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961311304130
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited