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• Capabilities | Ethical Capability: Rationale and Aims

  The VCAA has published the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0. To view the curriculum, familiarisation resources and support material, go to the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 website.
  
  Go to the VCAA website to explore the timeline for familiarisation and implementation of...

  Overview material | Ethical Capability

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Ethical Capability: Foundation to Level 2 achievement standards

  By the end of Level 2, students identify and describe ethical concepts using illustrative examples from familiar situations and a basic vocabulary about ethical problems and their outcomes.

  Students identify and explain acts and situations that have ethical dimensions, using illustrative examples...

  Level description | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Foundation to Level 2

• 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

• Capabilities | Ethical Capability: Structure

  The curriculum consists of two strands: Understanding Concepts and Decision Making and Actions.

  Strands	Understanding Concepts	Decision Making and Actions
  	Students explore: key concepts and ideas important to identifying ethical problems and their relative importance concepts concerned with ethical...

  Overview material | Ethical Capability

• 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

• VCECD007

  Explore how apparently wrong actions can sometimes lead to good outcomes and the reverse

  Elaborations

  • using examples to show how an act could lead to good or bad outcomes, or both, such as an act of generosity (for example sharing lunch, helping a friend with homework, providing welfare) or selfishness or greed; or an act of apparent duty (for example keeping a promise or being respectful, or honest)
  • evaluating the consequences of responses to problems and whether these were intended or foreseeable, for example, playing a prank on someone
  • researching changes of opinion before, during and after a development in the local community

  VCECD007 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 3 and 4 | Decision Making and Actions

• VCECU006

  Discuss the ways to identify ethical considerations in a range of problems

  Elaborations

  • considering questions such as ‘does this matter and why?’, ‘is this about something where the outcome can be judged good, bad, right or wrong?’ for usefulness in identifying an ethical problem
  • identifying an ethical problem, such as whether to help a friend or stranger first and considering questions such as ‘Who is involved and how are they likely to be affected?’ and ‘Does this involve breaking a rule or other commitment?’
  • using if…then reasoning to identify possible consequences as an ethical consideration in a situation, for example, if animals thought to be cuter were protected ahead of other animals then…

  VCECU006 | Capabilities | Ethical Capability | Levels 3 and 4 | Understanding Concepts

• 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

• 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

• Capabilities | Ethical Capability: Learning in Ethical Capability

  The Ethical capability curriculum focuses on the conceptual and analytical skills necessary for informed deliberation on ethical issues. This curriculum enables students to identify the assumptions and implications of different ethical positions, recognising the areas of contestability within...

  Overview material | Ethical Capability

• 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

• 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