Report: Poland scoping visit Anna Pacholczyk, iSEI, University of Manchester September 2012

 Neurobiopsychology (Gdansk) professor Mariola Bidzan, director of Institute of Psychology  Cognitive science (Torun) dr Tomasz Komendzinski, Head of Studies  Cognitive Science (Poznan), dr Marisz Urabanski, Head of Studies  Cognitive Science (Krakow), professor Jozef Bremer, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Science, Neuroethics Lecturer: dr Stefan Florek, other staff  Cognitive Science (Lublin) professor Jacek Pasniczek, Head of Cognitive Science studies [telephone interview]

Where?What kind of course? YearFocus/strengths GdanskA 5-year BSc+MA, 2-year MA for biology graduates 2010Neuropsychology, training students to work with patient groups LublinStarting a 3-year BSc course 2012Linguistics and AI Torun3-year BSc course, starting a 2-year MA course 2009neurorehabilitation Poznan5-year BSc+MA course 2007Psychometrics, cogsci of intelligence in healthy population KrakowA three-year BSc course 2009Philosophy

 To assess the state of ethics education, with particular focus on neuroethics and applied ethics  To learn from the experiences of ethics teaching  To assess exact needs as to teacher training, content, materials depending on teaching methods  To learn about attitudes towards ethics education  To assess the scope for co-operation, challenges and possibilities

 or phone contact with basic information about the network and its aims followed by an interview (in one case a phone interview)  A semi-structured interview, with a marked scope for discussion  A more formal meeting usually followed by a less formal discussion part

 Little formal teaching as a part of a separate course. Neuroethics not taught.  Caveat: in Krakow a Neuroethics an optional neuroethics course offered from this year onwards but, most probably, not start running due to low student interest  Ethical reasoning skills, research ethics mainly conveyed during courses preparing for empirical research and in supervisor-student contact when discussing research project. Virtue-based, professional ethics perspective.  A perceived need for more research ethics teaching on courses with a strong empirical component.  Ethics often perceived as an academic humanities subject, strongly connected to philosophy but with little application and utility for researchers. ‘Ethics? In my opinion it has nothing to do with cognitive science.’

 On the one hand, there is a perception of ethics as a purely theoretical subject, on the other hand a recognition that there need to be more discussion about the ethical aspect of scientist’s work  E.g. There is a recognition that students are not prepared to go beyond compliance with ethical guidelines, and sometimes also struggle with compliance.  There is a fear that neuroethics as a subject would turn out to be a dry list of facts and ethical issues, in the best case only ‘raising awareness’ but fail to develop student’s skills

 Various systems of ethical approval  A need for more training for students  A recognition of lack of ethical expertise of members of ethics committees (beyond professional ethics)  A recognition of lack of more systematic knowledge about the ethical issues and social context about the members of committees

1. ethical questions that arise from neuroscientific or neurotechnological advances 2. Research ethics training 3. moral reasoning skills 4. social responsibility of researchers 5. Legal and policy issues in neurocognitive research 6. right vs legal in neurocognitive research

 Lack of expertise in teaching applied ethics; this exacerbated by reluctance to involve philosophers from other departments  Lack of materials to make courses ‘hands-on’, skill-focused  Lack of resources for developing staff’s skills  In some places: demographics+rigid organisational structure, course characteristics

 students have some courses in English  Openness and readiness for co-operation  Cognitive science as a degree is very new in Poland with first course recruiting in 2007, so there is organisational flexibility  Some expertise in the neuroscience of morality  Good idea about desired learning outcomes

 Poznan: an declaration of interest in introducing a optional neuroethics course on the third year if supported  Torun: a possibility of introducing an optional course and designing 1.5- year postgraduate diploma  There is lack of expertise and so training of staff would be needed.

 Assess more carefully how our course can fulfil their needs with regard to expected learning outcomes  Provide materials  Think about teacher training- how? When?  Think about further funding – EU funding?

Don’tsDo’s  A purely philosophical, factual, sociological subject matter  An ideological agenda  Only theoretical considerations  History of ethics or bioethics, purely philosophical examination of concepts or dry facts about law, regulation  Mainly lectures  Topics not related to cognitive scientist work  Skills development: moral reasoning, analysing a situation from a moral point of view  Embedding moral reasoning in a legal and regulatory context  Focused on being directly applicable and action-guiding  Direct relevance to research- case studies, examples focused around area of research in the given institute  Developing the attitude of social responsibility  Training future ethics committee members  Transferable skills  Connecting the knowledge about ethical issues/regulation to what and how can be done