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• 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

• Capabilities | Ethical Capability: Resources

  A range of resources to assist with implementing the Victorian Curriculum F – 10 are available. Please visit the following websites to access these resources (links open in a new window):

  • Victorian Curriculum F – 10 Resources and Support (VCAA)

  Includes general advice and information...

  Overview material | Ethical Capability

• Capabilities | Ethical Capability: Rationale and Aims

  Rationale

  The Ethical Capability curriculum explores what it means for both an individual and society to live well. Students examine what we ought to do, how we ought to live, what kind of society we should have and what kind of person one should be. These questions concern individuals alone and...

  Overview material | Ethical Capability

• 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

• 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