Tips for interesting students in ethics as a tutor?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I taught philosophy for about three years and am now tutoring in philosophy for the first time (undergrad Intro to Ethics for mostly criminal justice majors, and Biomedical Ethics for mostly nursing majors). What tips do you have for tutoring students in ethics, particularly students who lack basic understanding of or motivation in the subject? Many thanks.

Interesting question. I've never been a tutor, so I'm not sure that I have any helpful tips to share here. 

Are any readers who have served as an ethics tutor able to weigh in?

Comments

[William Peden]

For many years now, this has been the main type of teaching I have done. I very rarely teach students who chose philosophy as a major. so I have tried a lot of methods.

I have been amazed at how effectively "Put your hand up if you think X" and "Put your hand up if you think not-X" almost always gets students talking. Even if they don't speak, you might see a facial cue (incomprehension, ambivalence, frustration etc.) that could lead to a discussion. I find that directly going for e.g. issues raised in a text is more effective than asking about their opinions on the text itself, where they are more liable to be deferential or lazily relativist.

The only tricky step is moving from a dialogue between you and the student to a group discussion, but I think a lot of that is having the right environment and atmosphere, which is something developed and maintained over a whole semester.

My other tip seems obvious, but I have seen so many people not do it: link everything back to their area of study. Be shameless and anti-perfectionist about it, because a hokey or tenuous link is much better than no link at all. If you are teaching students from several or more areas, this can be challenging, but still possible with enough effort.

[graduate student]

Use online resources such as games and YouTube videos. Crash Course has some great videos on introductory ethics. Neal.fun has a trolley problem game that is mostly silly but can be a way to start talking about ethics. Or ncase.me/trust is a game to play about Axelrod's work on the prisoner's dilemma and how repeated versions can lead to cooperation.

[Derek Bowman]

I'm not sure how well this works in a tutoring environment, but I used to incorporate the following quote from two Naval medical officers in the introduction to my bioethics courses. The paper itself is a bit of a conceptual muddle, but the conclusion is spot on: we all have to make our own choices, so we better take the opportunity to think seriously about our values before we're faced with the inevitable tough choices.

"In the final interpretation, each person must continually reflect on the key elements of personal and professional ethics and consider the following questions: What should I do; What can I do; What will I do; and What will I not do. Notice that only the last has a negative. This guardrail or “red line” must be established—even if hypothetically—well before one is faced with the events of the moment and potentially
overcome by them."
https://www.cgscfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/McPherson-Shimkus-MultipleLoyalites.pdf