Report: Poland scoping visitAnna Pacholczyk, iSEI, University of Manchester
September 2012
Neurobiopsychology (Gdansk) professor Mariola Bidzan, director of Institute of Psychology
Cognitive science (Torun) dr Tomasz Komendzinski, Head of Studies
Cognitive Science (Poznan), dr Marisz Urabanski, Head of Studies
Cognitive Science (Krakow), professor Jozef Bremer, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, Neuroethics Lecturer: dr Stefan Florek, other staff
Cognitive Science (Lublin) professor Jacek Pasniczek, Head of Cognitive Science studies [telephone interview]
Where?
What kind of course?
Year Focus/strengths
Gdansk A 5-year BSc+MA, 2-year MA for biology graduates
2010 Neuropsychology, training students to work with patient groups
Lublin Starting a 3-year BSc course
2012 Linguistics and AI
Torun 3-year BSc course, starting a 2-year MA course
2009 neurorehabilitation
Poznan 5-year BSc+MA course
2007 Psychometrics, cogsci of intelligence in healthy population
Krakow A three-year BSc course
2009 Philosophy
To assess the state of ethics education, with particular focus on neuroethics and applied ethics
To learn from the experiences of ethics teaching
To assess exact needs as to teacher training, content, materials depending on teaching methods
To learn about attitudes towards ethics education
To assess the scope for co-operation, challenges and possibilities
Email or phone contact with basic information about the network and its aims followed by an interview (in one case a phone interview)
A semi-structured interview, with a marked scope for discussion
A more formal meeting usually followed by a less formal discussion part
Little formal teaching as a part of a separate course. Neuroethics not taught.
Caveat: in Krakow a Neuroethics an optional neuroethics course offered from this year onwards but, most probably, not start running due to low student interest
Ethical reasoning skills, research ethics mainly conveyed during courses preparing for empirical research and in supervisor-student contact when discussing research project. Virtue-based, professional ethics perspective.
A perceived need for more research ethics teaching on courses with a strong empirical component.
Ethics often perceived as an academic humanities subject, strongly connected to philosophy but with little application and utility for researchers. ‘Ethics? In my opinion it has nothing to do with cognitive science.’
On the one hand, there is a perception of ethics as a purely theoretical subject, on the other hand a recognition that there need to be more discussion about the ethical aspect of scientist’s work
E.g. There is a recognition that students are not prepared to go beyond compliance with ethical guidelines, and sometimes also struggle with compliance.
There is a fear that neuroethics as a subject would turn out to be a dry list of facts and ethical issues, in the best case only ‘raising awareness’ but fail to develop student’s skills
Various systems of ethical approval A need for more training for students
A recognition of lack of ethical expertise of members of ethics committees (beyond professional ethics)
A recognition of lack of more systematic knowledge about the ethical issues and social context about the members of committees
1. ethical questions that arise from neuroscientific orneurotechnological advances
2. Research ethics training3. moral reasoning skills4. social responsibility of researchers5. Legal and policy issues in neurocognitive
research6. right vs legal in neurocognitive research
Lack of expertise in teaching applied ethics; this exacerbated by reluctance to involve philosophers from other departments
Lack of materials to make courses ‘hands-on’, skill-focused
Lack of resources for developing staff’s skills
In some places: demographics+rigid organisational structure, course characteristics
students have some courses in English
Openness and readiness for co-operation
Cognitive science as a degree is very new in Poland with first course recruiting in 2007, so there is organisational flexibility
Some expertise in the neuroscience of morality
Good idea about desired learning outcomes
Poznan: an declaration of interest in introducing a optional neuroethics course on the third year if supported
Torun: a possibility of introducing an optional course and designing 1.5- year postgraduate diploma
There is lack of expertise and so training of staff would be needed.
Assess more carefully how our course can fulfil their needs with regard to expected learning outcomes
Provide materials
Think about teacher training- how? When?
Think about further funding – EU funding?
Don’ts Do’s
A purely philosophical, factual, sociological subject matter
An ideological agenda Only theoretical
considerations History of ethics or
bioethics, purely philosophical examination of concepts or dry facts about law, regulation
Mainly lectures Topics not related to
cognitive scientist work
Skills development: moral reasoning, analysing a situation from a moral point of view
Embedding moral reasoning in a legal and regulatory context
Focused on being directly applicable and action-guiding
Direct relevance to research- case studies, examples focused around area of research in the given institute
Developing the attitude of social responsibility
Training future ethics committee members
Transferable skills Connecting the knowledge
about ethical issues/regulation to what and how can be done
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