Instructor-Student Alignment

The methods and goals of ethics education may vary considerably across courses. Given this diversity, it is critical to clarify what specific ethics-related learning is pursued in particular courses. To help educators and researchers better describe and understand ethics education, we have developed instructor and student surveys that help to illuminate the range of learning methods and outcomes in ethics education.

Beyond providing a more detailed account of ethics-related learning, the instructor and student surveys can be used to evaluate the degree of alignment between instructor and student perceptions of ethics-related learning in specific classes. Identifying points of alignment and misalignment can help educators adjust their pedagogy to more effectively engage learners in ethics education.


Above, you can see an example course alignment report that depicts responses from the instructor and students of a graduate-level course. As you can see, despite substantial alignment, there are some points of disagreement between students and the instructor, including regarding the relevance of the course to different domains of human development.

Use the Surveys



To use the surveys, you may download the following Qualtrics files and upload them to a Qualtrics account. You will need to add your own introductory text and, if appropriate, an IRB-approved consent form. You may also modify the surveys to refer to specific courses or to add additional items.




Please use the following citation for any works using the surveys:

Kidd, D., Miner, J., Schein, M., Blauw, M., & Allen, D. (2020). Ethics across the curriculum: Detecting and describing emergent trends in ethics education. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 67, 100914.