Teaching Ethics Program

Read a recent article about our new high school Teaching Ethics Program for USC undergraduates (Dornsife Chronicle, December 2010).

The Teaching Ethics Program (TEP) is an ethics outreach program based on the successful USC College service learning model developed by the Center for Active Learning in International Studies (CALIS). Through TEP, USC students have an innovative opportunity to respond to the Levan Institute challenge: to engage with, understand, and internalize the timeless values at the core of our humanity.

TEP trains undergraduate volunteers each year to introduce competing ethical perspectives and lead ethics case study discussions in neighborhood high schools. TEP teams are primarily recruited from philosophy classes and supported by USC professors offering credit options as part of their courses.

TEP’s semester consists of a “core introduction” series of four 1-hour class sessions. To participate, USC undergraduates must undergo a training session in the following core lesson plan:

Session 1 -- Main Approaches to Ethics (consequences/rules/character): Trolley cases, transplant surgeon case, United States v. Holmes

Session 2 -- Moral Awareness (ethical paradigms): Applying different ethical paradigms to the dilemmas of a one-child policy and eminent domain.

Session 3 -- Moral Decision-Making – Part 1 (Simulation): An international business role-play exercise where students advise Google/Yahoo/Microsoft as they face censorship demands from the Burmese government, with China watching their policy decisions.

Session 4 -- Moral Decision-Making – Part 2 (Simulation): The same teams must now advise the US government on potential privacy violations in surveillance for the war on terrorism. Different ethical approaches and ethical paradigms are applied with a focus on moral decision-making.

If you are a student interested in volunteering with TEP or a professor interested in supporting TEP by offering a credit option in your course, or a high school teacher interested in inviting a TEP team to your classroom, please contact CALIS

Upcoming Training Dates:

Monday, January 30 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (THH 208)

Thursday, February 2 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (THH 202)

USC students who are new to TEP must attend one training session. Sign-ups begin Friday, February 3 and close Thursday, February 9.

2012 Classes offering credit for participation in TEP: