Activity 11 - Applied and Professional Ethics

After reading Collste's article I was able to highlight some key points that I find are applicable to me and my practice.

Collste (2012) describes applied ethics and professional ethics.

Applied ethics Collste (2012) describes as the art or science of reflecting on moral dilemmas and moral problems in different social contexts.  This is the human and moral side of ethics with regard to your private and public life.  

Professional ethics develops within a community of professionals.  For older and established professions, professional ethics is the result of a tradition of moral thinking (Collste, 2012).   This is where the theory and pedagogy related to our profession comes into our ethics.  this is the side of ethics where the Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers comes into play.  We must abide by this code and morals to supply the best education for our students and experience for their families and whanau.

As I was reading through the article there were several key points that jumped out to me as interesting.

They include:

* the differentiation between applied and professional ethics

* the history of ethics dating back to Plato and Aristotle

* that less people going to church and receiving their moral guidance from the church led to individuals themselves formulating answers.

In my own practice I am faced with varying degrees of ethical problems on a continual basis and they  may take on many different forms.  The Code of Ethics we abide by have not been plucked out of thin air, but are a well researched and thought out set of words that relate to us and our profession.  

References:

Collste, G. (2007). Applied and professional ethics–an introduction.Perspectives on applied ethics, 22.
retrieved from - http://web.usm.my/kajh/vol19_1_2012/KAJH19_1_2012_2.pdf