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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

• VCECU004

  Explore the contested meaning of concepts including fairness and harm and how they can seem to differ in different situations

  Elaborations

  • testing a proposed definition of fairness as equal treatment by considering whether an older sibling should do more at home or whether there should be special parking places
  • testing a proposed definition of harm as involving a deliberate intention that caused mental or physical suffering, by considering whether an accidental injury to someone on the playground is harmful or whether taking offence to teasing or a joke is a choice
  • exploring the concept of fairness by setting a task where resources are distributed unevenly and reflecting on the desirability of the outcomes

  VCECU004 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 3 and 4 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECU014

  Explore the contested meaning of concepts including freedom, justice, and rights and responsibilities, and the extent they are and should be valued by different individuals and groups

  Elaborations

  • exploring the meaning of justice by proposing and evaluating criteria that might be used for justice, such as what is deserved, adherence to laws or maximising the common good
  • comparing and evaluating two conceptions of freedom: the absence of anything that prevents you achieving what you want, and the ability to control your own interests (self- determination); and whether the harm principle should be used to limit freedom, as part of a study of an issue concerning freedom of speech, or freedom of action (such as restrictions to gambling or alcohol consumption)
  • using a range of examples, such as drink driving, to examine whether there are more important rights and responsibilities than others, whether rights are means or ends and the extent to which reasons involving rights do and should outweigh other reasons for actions

  VCECU014 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 7 and 8 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECU021

  Distinguish between the ethical and non-ethical dimensions of complex issues, including the distinction between ethical and legal issues

  Elaborations

  • assessing a complex ethical issue that is, one, such as euthanasia, that involves more than one question and area of contestability, a range of diverse people, and/or is part of a wider problem or historical context, to discriminate and explain those features that are of ethical significance, using these questions: who is involved, what are their intentions and what gave rise to the intention (including relevant dispositions)?, Is there something inherently right or wrong in the act itself or interpretation of the issue?, Is there a duty at stake (for example arising out of a perceived right or a particular relationship such as friend to friend, parent to child or doctor to patient)?, What are the possible consequences?, Who is likely to be affected?
  • examining and comparing the ethical significance of codes of conduct, protocols, and legal responsibilities as preparation for undertaking research or working collaboratively
  • exploring a response to an issue such as the use of someone else’s ideas, conditions of factory workers overseas, or the rescuing of adventurers, to identify if there is no legal, but arguably an ethical, obligation

  VCECU021 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 9 and 10 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECU005

  Explore the extent to which particular acts might be regarded by different people as good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse, and explain why

  Elaborations

  • inquiring into a proposal and examining reasons for a range of views on its desirability, for example, proposals to improve sustainability or resolve a local civic issue
  • investigating whether there are differences over time in views about issues such as treatment of animals in zoos and reasons for this
  • comparing different responses to a problem and classifying them as better or worse using a thinking tool and comparing the classifications with others and how the judgements were reached

  VCECU005 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 3 and 4 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECD022

  Discuss issues raised by thinking about consequences and duties, in approaches to decision-making and action, and arguments for and against these approaches

  Elaborations

  • defining and comparing ethical terms such as deontology and consequentialism, identifying the main contestabilities and applying findings to discuss the costs and benefits of a proposal such as diverting money from a planned pedestrian crossing to a hospital, or from the foreign aid budget to domestic farmers, or from programs that respond to health problems to those that claim to prevent health problems
  • using hypothetical ethical dilemmas to compare consequential and duty-based approaches to decision-making and their contestabilities, for example the trolley problem, where a switch can be flipped to divert a runaway carriage that would crash into five railway workers, but would instead kill one person standing on the other line (from Philippa Foot), or whether to stay and look after a family member or go and fight evil forces (from Sartre), or a politician lying in an attempt to protect citizens from harm (from Machiavelli - the problem of Dirty Hands)
  • examining issues in fiction that show problems with consequence and duties-based approaches to decision-making, such as conflicts between rights or duties or potentially causing the suffering of the few for the sake of the majority, for example, in “The Hunger Games” or “Les Miserables”, for example, when Jean Valjean faces the decision of whether to save the person mistakenly identified as him

  VCECD022 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 9 and 10 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECD008

  Discuss the role of personal values and dispositions in ethical decision-making and actions

  Elaborations

  • exploring, as part of a character analysis in a narrative such as Harry Potter or Aesop’s fables, questions such as: What do characters say and do that might suggest their dispositions? To what extent are dispositions such as being honest, cautious, persistent, selfish, proud, or empathetic necessary for ethical decision-making? Can someone be honest and brave and yet make the wrong choice? Are there some dispositions that are more important than others?
  • undertaking research to identify dispositions and values commonly associated with significant community leaders, heroes, sport champions and celebrities and discussing what counts as a desirable disposition and reasons for disagreements
  • discussing the actions of a character over time, for example, the father or friends in the book/film 'How to Train Your Dragon', to determine the values implicit or explicit in decision-making and what may cause personal values to be questioned

  VCECD008 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 3 and 4 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECU019

  Investigate the connections and distinctions between and the relative value of concepts including fairness and equality, and respect and tolerance

  Elaborations

  • discussing whether fairness and equality are the same thing, and if not, which is more important, using examples such as affirmative action, concessions for those with special needs, or differences in tax rates
  • discussing whether there are distinctions in attitudes of respect and tolerance, in relation to, for example, different views on child vaccination
  • discussing why punishments may be unequal and whether this is fair, for example, if applied to the same case in court or in a sporting tribunal

  VCECU019 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 9 and 10 | Understanding Concepts

• VCECD003

  Explore the effects that personal feelings can have on how people behave in situations where ethical issues are involved

  Elaborations

  • comparing the deliberations and actions of people who share a problem but experience different feelings, and reflecting on the influence feelings have on the outcome, for example, conflict over the sharing of a reward for a group effort
  • examining a range of issues to determine if feelings are important in reaching the best decision and why, for example, reaching a decision on who to invite to a party, or what jail sentence a judge should hand down
  • discussing whether a machine or robot would be able to make the best decisions in particular situations without being able to feel

  VCECD003 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Foundation to Level 2 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECD018

  Discuss the role of context and experience in ethical decision-making and actions

  Elaborations

  • discussing the impact of experience on the decisions of a character in response to ethical problems over the course of a narrative, for example, Lockie Leonard
  • investigating why people may apply different reasoning in different circumstances , for example, in situations involving friends or strangers, work or leisure, or different places or cultures
  • using examples of acts to investigate whether there are exceptions to claims such as ‘failure is never good’, ‘fighting is always wrong’, ‘selfishness is never good’, ‘caring is always good’ and considering the importance of context and experience in justifications for exceptions, for example, failure of a physical challenge versus a medical operation, fighting a war versus fighting in a brawl, aiming to win a game versus maximising profit, and doing something for someone when they are injured versus not injured

  VCECD018 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 7 and 8 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECD017

  Explore the extent of ethical obligation and the implications for thinking about consequences and duties in decision-making and action

  Elaborations

  • placing a range of acts on a continuum from strictly obligatory to ‘above and beyond the call of duty’, and comparing the reasons for and implications of the placements, for example, giving up a full-time job to help family/friends/strangers, obeying rules/the law, handing in small/large amounts of found money, fighting in a war to protect your own country/a neighbouring or far or poor country/a country that has helped you in the past, volunteering at school/in the community, giving first aid at an accident, rescuing people who have disobeyed safety signs
  • discussing the views of a range of major religious traditions and non-religious world views on ethical obligation, to inform a response to an ethical issue, for example responding to global people movements or armed conflict
  • discussing a philosophical view on ethical obligation, for example those of Peter Singer in relation to poverty, and the kind of community change that would occur if those views were followed

  VCECD017 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 7 and 8 | Decision Making and Actions