Mid term and ethics

Hmm a bit of a lull here, not that I haven't been reflecting but reflects that I have been busy getting my assignments in (not only for this course but two others as well, and submission to PG forum!)

Actually I really enjoyed getting back to course work and being done (for now) with assignment deadlines. Was quite relaxing and enjoyable reading some interesting articles and answering some questions! I particularly enjoyed Mary's session on Monday because ethics is always so interesting to think and talk about, because there is no "right answer". It's very enriching to be in a diverse class, especially with a mix of practice experience, study experiences, life experiences, ages, because everyone's opinion is a bit different (sometimes a lot different) and really gets the thinking going. It's easy to fall into established patterns of thinking within ourselves or within a close community of like-minded people so I find it really good to stimulate a bit of debate especially when things seem so "obvious", to go hang on, take a step back and think about "who says its obvious" and "why do I think it's obvious"?

Very stimulating conversations on Monday, it was great to be surrounded by people in practice who each contribute a slightly different take based on their practice settings. I think there is real value in this because as students our examples (or I should only speak for myself, so my examples) are theoretical or taken from very meagre placement memories or generalised. Usually quite generalised, maybe deducted/derived from theory. Or my own stereotyped thinking/accepted and unchallenged beliefs and prejudices.

And it really made sense to me to talk about ethics and ethical reasoning as part of this course (I must admit I did not see this coming! Duh!) because it's all about how we reason and why. We've touched on ethics before, in other courses in undergrad level but I think the literature shows people don't really consciously apply models of reasoning and a lot of action stems from intuition (which people then reflect upon afterwards). So it'd be useful to think about situations and principles that may guide us, before we are faced with ethical conundrums. I love being challenged by "what would you do" scenarios because it really makes me stop and go, "That's right, what WOULD I do?" Often, it's not that "obvious".

Anyway one assignment down and one to go. And 2 more other courses' assignments. This semester has gone/is going so fast!