Public events in 2019
Conferences and workshops
On 9th of December 2019, Centre for Ethics held the yearly, already 12th values-based education conference “Practicing shapes the character”. Topics such as 1) why do you need to pay attention to character education, 2) how virtues develop, and 3) what is the role of teachers and school leaders in creating an environment supporting the development of good character were discussed at the conference. Dr Eija Hanhimäki (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Dr Melinda Bier (Center for Character and Citizenship, USA), Deborah Sanders O’Reilly (Center for Character and Citizenship, USA), Prof Margit Sutrop (Center for Ethics, University of Tartu), Siim Värv (Tartu Herbert Masing School), and Erli Aasamets (Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium) gave presentations. The Ministry of Education and Research, and British Council in Estonia supported the conference. See the presentations and photo gallery.
On 26th of September 2019, Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu held the values-based education conference “Values-based education in Kindergarten: all I need to know in life I learned in kindergarten”. The state of values-based education in Estonian preschool education was discussed. Prof. Eve Kikas (Tallinn University, Professor in School Psychology), Pärje Ülavere (Ministry of Education and Research, External Evaluation Department Expert) and Merike Mitt (critical friend, Centre for Ethics) gave presentations. The conference was supported by the Ministry of Education and Research. View the photo gallery.
Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu organized an international workshop in co-operation with the Institute of Computer Science (University of Tartu) and professor Dietmar Pfahl. The workshop, which took place on 10th of May 2019, discussed ethical questions in domains such as Intelligent Decision Support, Autonomous Systems, and Bioinformatics. The workshop is a part of the H2020 project PRO-RES that focuses on non-medical fields. At this event it is aimed to discuss the role of researchers, research organizations, and funding organizations in promoting ethical research in such fields.
On 27th of March 2019 the Centre for Ethics, University of Tartu held a research integrity seminar “What to do with plagiarism? Misconduct in academic world” Presentations were given by Prof. Margit Sutrop (the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the head of the Centre for Ethics), Diana Lõvi (the instructional designer of the Faculty of Social Sciences), and Dr. Tiina Ann Kirss (senior research fellow in Estonian History of Thought, the author of soon-to-be-published textbook about academic writing). The presentations were followed by a discussion about various cases of scientific misconduct, where the answer to the question, how should the university react to such cases, was sought. The cases were commented by University of Tartu lawyer Aliis Liin and University of Tartu Academic Secretary Dr. Andres Soosaar. The discussions held at the seminar gave input to create procedures for possible cases of misconduct in the University of Tartu.
Presentations and colloquia
As a part of the Tartu Student Days: Autumn 2019 festival, Cente for Ethics organized a game night on 18th of September 2019. Participants could play our new discussion based game „Eesti rahva sada valikut. Väärtuste mäng“.
The Centre for Ethics held three discussions at the annual Opinion Festival. We played the prototype of our new board game “Eesti rahva sada valikut. Väärtuste mäng”, talked about artificial intelligence ethics in „Are you allowed to kick the package delivery robot?“ and discussed how to manage organizational romance in “How to cope with the Office-Cupid?”. All discussions were on 9th of August 2019. View the photo gallery.