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• VCECU009

  Examine the contested meaning of concepts including truth and happiness and the extent to which these concepts are and should be valued

  Elaborations

  • using ethical dilemmas, as a prompt for exploring whether it is ever desirable to lie, for example, lying to protect a friend from getting into trouble, to stop someone’s feelings being hurt, or about an injury in order to get picked for a team
  • asking a range of people what their views on happiness are, how important it is and what is necessary for happiness
  • investigating whether everyone should have the right to be happy and if so, whether this is possible, using as stimulus issues of treatment of prisoners or bullies, or how much the wealthy should help the poor or the strong the weak

  VCECU009 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 5 and 6 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECD013

  Discuss the role and significance of conscience and reasoning in ethical decision-making

  Elaborations

  • defining conscience and discussing examples where conscience could influence reasoning and decision-making, such as when faced with an opportunity to gain by doing the wrong thing, with little likelihood of getting caught, for example acknowledging the use of someone else’s ideas, tampering with evidence or data, or accessing internet content without paying

  VCECD013 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 5 and 6 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECU011

  Examine how problems may contain more than one ethical issue

  Elaborations

  • exploring the nature of an ethical dilemma in which there is a choice to be made between at least two options, none of which gives an ethically acceptable result, for example, choosing who to put in a lifeboat when there are limited places, or whether someone should tell the shop owner that they their friend is shop-stealing expensive medicine for their poverty stricken mother, or, whether to stop and help someone and miss an entrance exam, or whether to quit a sport team in a small town knowing that then there will not be enough players and the team will fold
  • investigating a problem such as responding to a natural disaster and identifying the ethical issues involved immediately and into the future
  • researching an historical example such as Batman’s 'treaty' and its validity, identifying the different ethical issues involved and from whose point of view

  VCECU011 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 5 and 6 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECD012

  Explore the significance of ‘means versus ends’ by considering two ways to act when presented with a problem: one that privileges means and one ends

  Elaborations

  • investigating a choice such as posting an image of a friend and justifying why someone should or should not post the image, in terms of means and ends
  • responding to a range of ethical dilemmas and comparing responses that focus on means (where the most important consideration is the action itself, such as being honest regardless of the consequences) and responses that focus on ends (where the most important consideration is the likely outcome, such as making someone happy even if it means lying to them)
  • analysing the position 'the end justifies the means' and the tension between means and ends in different contexts, for example, experimentation on people or other animals, the collection and use of data, making consumer decisions, selecting/training teams in sport or making civic decisions such as removing homeless people from areas during an event

  VCECD012 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 5 and 6 | Decision Making and Actions