Developing a bioethics education program (BEEP) for teacher education

A qualitative needs analysis

Abstract

 https://doi.org/10.21860/j.17.1.1  

Rapid scientific and technological developments increasingly generate bioethical dilemmas affecting decisions about human life, other living beings, and the environment. Addressing such dilemmas requires systematic bioethics education, and teacher education provides an important pathway for fostering ethical awareness in future generations. This study aims to identify prospective teachers’ needs regarding the development of a BEEP. Using a basic qualitative design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 35 prospective teachers from a Faculty of Education in western Türkiye and analyzed through content analysis. The findings indicate that participants generally have limited prior knowledge of bioethics and lack formal education on the subject. Nevertheless, they emphasized the importance of bioethics education for professional development and for fostering an ethically aware society.
The identified needs were organized around four components: learning outcomes, content, teaching-learning processes, and evaluation. Participants highlighted competencies related to understanding bioethical concepts, critical thinking, empathy, and ethical decision-making, and emphasized interdisciplinary content, experiential and dialogic pedagogies, and reflective assessment practices. These findings provide an empirically grounded basis for developing BEEP in teacher education.