PHIL517 - Directed Study in Bioethics

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit provides students with the opportunity to frame and explore a particular issue in contemporary healthcare ethics of relevance to their professional practice. The research should be largely theoretical in nature, involving reading and reflection on the nature and complexities of the issue under consideration and the contributions of scholars and practitioners to our understanding of the issue.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - analyse the nature and scope of the healthcare ethics issue under investigation and its clinical implications (GA8; GA10);

LO2 - work autonomously to gather pertinent data and perspectives, bringing to bear relevant clinical and scholarly literature on the problem (GA8; GA10);

LO3 - critically assess some major schools of thought on the issue (GA4; GA8);

LO4 - effectively communicate research findings in different modes and contexts (GA9).  

Graduate attributes

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Students are required to submit a research proposal (500 words) to the course co-ordinator at least 4 weeks prior to the start of the semester, in which they set out the proposed issue for study, and a bibliography of 8-10 relevant scholarly works. The research should be largely theoretical in nature, involving reading and reflection on the nature and complexities of the issue under consideration and the contributions of historical and contemporary figures to our understand of the issue. It should not, therefore, involve original empirical research for which ethical clearance would be required, though that does not preclude the use of general case studies or reference to existing published empirical or clinical data.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of focused learning including discussion with the applicable staff member guiding the project, attendance at seminars (as applicable), and preparation of assessment. The unit has been designed as a predominantly project-based learning opportunity that builds on learnings from earlier units. The two early textual analysis provide early skills development that then leads directly into the research essay project on which students work throughout the second half of the unit.

Assessment strategy and rationale

 The assessment strategy for this unit is essentially designed to facilitate a directed piece of research. The two early written analysis tasks provide the students with the opportunity to engage with some key readings in the area of their research, and skill development in the analysis and critical engagement with texts in this area. The research essay task provides students with the opportunity to undertake sustained philosophical reading and research, culminating in an extended piece of formal writing that examines their capacity to develop a coherent argument in response to an important philosophical question. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Texts will be chosen in consultation with the supervising member of staff.