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The paper begins with an examination of traditional attitudes towards business ethics. I suggest that these attitudes fail to recognize that a principal function of ethics is to facilitate cooperation. Further that despite the emphasis on competition in modern market economies, business like all other forms of social activity is possible only where people are prepared to respect rules in the absence of which cooperation is rendered difficult or impossible. Rules or what I call the ethics of doing, however, constitute just one dimension of ethics. A second has to do with what we see and how we see it; a third with who we or what I describe as the ethics of being. Of these three dimensions, the first and the third have been most carefully explored by philosophers and are most frequently the focus of attention when teaching business ethics is being discussed. I argue that this focus is unfortunate in as much as it is the second dimension which falls most naturally into the ambit of modern secular educational institutions. It is here that moral education is most obviously unavoidable, and most clearly justifiable in modern secular teaching environments. I conclude by describing the importance of this second dimension for the modern world of business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to use a learning inventory (the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, ASSIST) to measure the impact of a curriculum change on students' approaches to learning in two large courses in a health sciences first year programme. The two new Human Body Systems (HUBS) courses were designed to encourage students to take a deep approach to learning. ASSIST was completed by 599 students enrolled in a biology class in 2006 that was part of the old curriculum, and by 705 students at the beginning and end of the new HUBS courses in 2007. Changes in students' approaches to learning over time were examined. The ASSIST scores for both HUBS courses reflected the dominance of a surface approach, followed by a strategic and then a deep approach. However, by the end of the year, students were taking a deep and strategic approach to their studies to a greater extent, and a surface approach to a lesser extent. Moreover, students enrolled in the new course adopted a deep approach to their studies to a significantly greater degree than those studying the old curriculum. Despite the predominance of a surface approach, the results suggest that it is possible to bring about small but significant positive changes in students' learning behaviour in a very large class through curriculum change. The proportion of students preferring a surface approach, and results showing that high performance on the final exam was significantly correlated with a surface approach, probably reflected contextual factors, including assessment, and is the focus of ongoing curriculum development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities want to prepare students intellectually so that they might eventually find successful, fulfilling work. Since work is synonymous with business -- no work ever exists outside of business -- one of the academy's primary goals is to help students enter the world of business, regardless of their majors. Many universities also declare within their mission statements a desire to cultivate a student body capable of making ethically informed decisions. Consequently we might conceptualize "business ethics" as not simply one field within the academic constellation, but rather the conceptual glue holding together the curriculum. And since the most significant new development in business within the past decade is arguably the emergence of theories of sustainable business practice, we would do well to consider the role business ethics can play in the creation of a new "sustainable curriculum". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interns are expected to teach medical students, yet there is little formal training in medical school to prepare them for this role. To enhance the teaching skills of our graduating students we initiated a 4-hour ‘teaching to teach’ course as part of the end of the fourth-year curriculum. Course evaluations demonstrate that students strongly support this program (overall ratings 2000 to 2005: mcan=4.4 [scale 1 to 5], n=224). When 2004 course participants were surveyed during the last month of their internship, 84% ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ with the statement: ‘The teaching to teach course helped prepare me for my role as a teacher during internship’ (2005: mean 4.2 [scale 1 to 5], n=45, response rate 60%). A course preparing fourth-year students to teach during internship is both feasible and reproducible, with a minimal commitment of faculty and resident time. Participants identify it as an important addition to their education and as useful during internship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]