Round Square Ethics Collaboration
On Monday 24 March, nine Year 8 girls travelled to Redlands with Bridget Kovats and Penny Hewett to participate in the first Round Square Ethics Collaboration.
Students across 4 schools learnt about the fundamental tenets of ethical reasoning that form the basis of Round Square ideals, particularly internationalism and democracy.
All students in attendance had the opportunity to exchange ideas around topics related to morality and ethics, such as:
- At what stage does a child develop moral awareness?
- What are the stages of moral development through which individuals attain increasingly complex skills in ethical reasoning?
- Is morality a set of core principles/laws that are universal? Or are those principles shaped and dependent on different cultural perspectives?
- Should moral principles be focused on the consequences of actions or the intentions behind them?
- Should moral principles focus on achieving absolute justice/ equity for all, or on maximising happiness for the most people?
Through engaging with these complex questions and designing their own ethical principles for a more fair and just society, students developed independent, critical thinking skills as well as their ability to solve problems collaboratively.
Discussions and activities were facilitated by Year 10 to Year 11 Redlands students who are part of the School’s Round Square Committee under the direction of Redlands teachers and staff from other Round Square schools.
After the seminar students were asked to write a couple of sentences about what they enjoyed, their observations and learnt from the attending:
“The Ethics Seminar at Redlands has led me to think about possible solutions and alternatives to ethical and moral dilemmas that don’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer, these questions have challenged my thinking and hinted that perhaps the best way to resolve certain problems that don’t have a good solution any way is to prevent them from happening in the first place. I really enjoyed this day and got to socialise with lots of new people with different perspectives.”
“I really enjoyed the Ethics Seminar as it challenged my thinking and pushed me to my limits. It was nice to talk to people outside of school as it helped me socialise more.”
“I really enjoyed working my brain and thinking about morals and the reasons behind our actions, mainly since I wouldn’t really think about this on a daily basis. I also enjoyed talking with new people and understanding their opinions on it as well.”
“At the Ethics Seminar, I learnt about the Hienz Dilemma and the stages of moral development. The stages of moral development included, avoiding punishment, self-interest, good boy attitude, law and order morality, social contract then the universal principle. Based on the seminar, it really made me challenge to think about when a child first begins the moral development and what it would be like for them, and to back up opinion with three cons and three pros.”
“I enjoyed this experience as it changed my perspective on how different people at different stages of life can act upon different issues with different approaches. I particularly liked when we discussed The Heinz Dilemma.”
“I enjoyed that we got to socialise with other schools and see how they work and how they see things. At the start of the day, I had no knowledge of what ethics or moral meant, and by the end of the day I had a full understanding of what each of those words meant with examples.”
MLC School look forward to hosting the second seminar in Term 2 for Year 9 and Year 10 students.
– Xavier Maling
Round Square Coordinator
