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EthicsMiddle schoolKey Stage 3

How to teach ethical dilemmas

An ethical dilemma is a choice between two things you ought to do when you can't do both. This page explains how a dilemma differs from a temptation, with examples and a free activity where Sparky maps each choice and the value it protects.

Jemel Fanfan

Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint

Title card reading 'How to teach ethical dilemmas', next to three chat cards: a student says cheating is wrong so there's no dilemma, Sparky points her to a branch on the choice map that protects something too, and she says she can't do both in a harder dilemma about a promise.

"After using Flint to help create research questions with students, I was able to conference with them about their AI-generated dialogue, guiding them in refining their research. It was such a neat experience and the final products were fantastic!"

Claire OsborneClaire Osborne, 6th Grade Academic Enrichment Teacher at The Kinkaid School

Why this matters

A middle schooler who hears the word dilemma often looks for the right answer, the way a quiz question has one. Asked what to do when a friend posts quiz answers, she says honesty and stops, without seeing the loyalty that pulls the other way. On paper that one-sided answer looks correct, and the teacher has to wait for the class discussion to find out who can only see one side.

What makes something an ethical dilemma

An ethical dilemma is a choice between two things a person ought to do when doing both is impossible. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy lists the features: the person is required to do each of two actions and can do each one, but cannot do both, so "no matter what she does, she will do something wrong (or fail to do something that she ought to do)" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). When one requirement clearly outweighs the other, the entry calls the situation a conflict but not a genuine moral dilemma.

Rushworth Kidder calls these right-versus-right choices ethical dilemmas and reserves "moral temptations" for right-versus-wrong ones, such as cheating on taxes or lying under oath (Kidder, How Good People Make Tough Choices). He names four patterns so common that they stand as models: truth versus loyalty, individual versus community, short-term versus long-term, and justice versus mercy.

In the Flint activity, each student answers dilemmas from their own life, and Sparky draws a choice map that labels each choice with the value it protects and leaves one value as a question mark. Unlike a worksheet, Sparky reads the student's answer and sends them back to the branch they skipped, then gives a harder dilemma once they name both sides.

Sparky gets Grace to find the value on the other side

Grace starts out sure that telling the teacher is the only answer, and ends up explaining why a dilemma has a good value on both sides. Every student gets the same first dilemma, and Sparky's next dilemmas and questions depend on each student's interests and answers.

Sparky's choice map shows the value each choice protectsSparky sends Grace back to the branch she skippedNaming both values gets a harder dilemma
G

Grace

Interest: Her group chat and volleyball teamStarting point: Thinks a dilemma has an obvious right answer

Sparky

A friend posts a photo of the answers to tomorrow's quiz in your class group chat. What would you do, and why? Branch B, "Say nothing," has a ? for the value it protects. That's for you to figure out!
A choice map Sparky drew in the chat. In the middle: A friend posts quiz answers in the group chat. What do you do? Branch A, Tell the teacher, protects honesty and fairness to classmates who studied. Branch B, Say nothing, protects a question mark. Branch C, Text the friend privately to delete it, protects the friendship and fairness, and notes the friend may still be mad.
PictureChoice Map: Quiz Answers in the Group Chat

Grace

A obviously. cheating is wrong so you just tell the teacher, theres not really a dilemma here

Sparky

Look at Branch B on the map. That branch protects something too, even if it feels like the wrong choice. If you told the teacher, what might happen to your friend?

Grace

she could get a zero and maybe get benched from volleyball. and she would probably never trust me again. so if i say nothing im being loyal to her i guess?

Sparky

Honesty and fairness on one side, loyalty on the other. You can't fully protect both at once. Your best friend on the volleyball team tells you she's quitting after this season and makes you promise not to tell anyone yet. Then your coach asks you who's coming back next year. What do you do?
A second choice map Sparky drew, titled Dilemma 2. In the middle: Your best friend tells you she's quitting volleyball and makes you promise not to tell. Then the coach asks who's coming back. What do you do? Branch A, Keep the secret or say nothing to the coach, protects a question mark. Branch B, Tell the coach the truth, protects a question mark.
PictureDilemma 2: Volleyball Choice Map

Grace

ugh this one is harder. if i keep it secret im keeping my promise to my friend. but if i tell coach im being honest and its fair to the team so she can plan. i cant do both, theres no obvious right answer

Understanding check

What if you had just used the answers yourself to cheat on the quiz? Is that the same kind of situation as the group chat photo dilemma?

Grace

different. using the answers myself is just wrong, nothing good is on that side, its more like being tempted. the group chat one has a good value on both sides

Found the loyalty behind saying nothing, then named both values in a harder dilemma

Grace is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened.

What Flint did for Grace

  • Sparky drew a choice map of the group chat dilemma with a question mark on the branch Grace would skip.
  • When Grace said there was no dilemma, Sparky sent her back to Branch B instead of naming loyalty for her.
  • Once Grace named both values, Sparky drew a harder volleyball dilemma with both values left blank.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

The activity page shows who still sees only one side

While the class works, Needs attention shows the teacher which student is stuck and on which message. After three or more students submit, activity analytics lists what the class explained well, where students went wrong, and a follow-up to practice next.

Flint's activity page for the Ethical Dilemmas: Map Both Sides activity. Needs attention shows that one student has answered three dilemmas with 'just tell the teacher' and hasn't named a value on the other side. Activity analytics says most students found the hidden value on Branch B after one look back at the choice map, and 17 named both values in the volleyball promise dilemma. 6 students called copying the answers yourself a dilemma instead of a temptation. The follow-up suggests sorting five situations into dilemmas and temptations. The Sessions table lists three students: two submitted and one still in progress.

Example activity page

After a middle school ethics class maps its first dilemmas

The school and students are made up for this page.

Set up the activity for free

Open the ethical dilemmas activity in Flint's public library, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. Sparky draws each choice map because the activity's guidelines ask for one, so there is no setting to turn on. Students answer in the chat, and Sparky builds the next dilemma from the team, club or group each student names at the start.

For more ethics activities, see Flint for ethics.

Start the activity for free

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