INVESTIGATING KNOWLEDGE TASK DIFFICULTIES IN DESIGNING PROFESSIONAL ETHICS INSTRUCTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATORS

Abstract

Ethics education and professional conduct are inextricably linked for people entering the labour market and professional practice in their professions. Despite the importance of teaching ethics, there is considerable uncertainty on how ethics and professionalism should be taught in institutions of higher learning, owing to a lack of directives and guidelines for instructors, delivery techniques, and instructor ability for teaching ethics. In this light, this article intends to investigate knowledge task difficulties in designing professional ethics instructional framework for technical educators particularly in the higher learning institutions. Applied Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA) was employed to elicit the difficult cognitive elements identified by a group of experts. Interview sessions were conducted in two phases i.e., task diagram and knowledge audit technique, and the data are analysed based on the common cognitive tasks identified. From the task diagram, three cognitive tasks which considered difficult by the experts: (i) assess learners’ profiles (ii) select and set learning objectives (iii) select instructional methods. These cognitive tasks are then investigated further in knowledge audit phase whereby the experts suggested strategies which novice technical educators could adopt: i) conduct preliminary assessment on students’ profiles to determine the appropriate method of delivery, ii) technical educators are encouraged to attend courses on teaching and learning theories and practices, iii) provide trainings for technical educators on alternative pedagogical approaches, iv) students are to be treated as active learners whereby the teaching and learning process is interactive. For further study, it is suggested that workshops, seminars, and peer collaborations need to be implement to foster the exchange of best practices and alleviate educators' apprehensions about trying new methods.