Cross-cultural and cross-national impact of ethics education on engineering students

Engineering ethics education is taking on increasing importance due to globalization, where current and new global issues need to be addressed with both technologies and values. In particular, multiculturalism is part of the process of globalization, and that can be seen in U.S. universities whose students have different nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures. But we know very little about the impact engineering ethics education has on students´ ethical values or attitudes and moreover, if diversity contributes to it. An empirical study is conducted to first, assess the relative impact of an ethics class in student´s individual and inherent moral values, and second, to determine if demographic characteristics of the students as individuals and as a group contributes to this impact. An initial Schwartz value profile of each student was obtained at the beginning of the semester and compared to their after-class value profile. This study concludes the team interaction among members of multicultural teams is the main contributor influencing moral values.