The Russian developmental psychologist Lev Vygotsky provides important theoretical underpinnings for an alternative to business ethics pedagogy. Although Vygotsky’s constructivist approach has been applied to other disciplines, such as cognitive development, moral development, and network analysis and learning, its application to business ethics education is virtually nonexistent. Vygotsky’s focus on language and peer influence provides a novel approach to ethics education. Although many business ethics instructors already use group discussion in their classes, we provide evidence that will reinforce such techniques as a crucial pedagogical method. This study is an exploratory application of Vygotsky’s developmental theory to business ethics education. Data were gathered in business ethics and management courses, with experimental and control groups, and analyzed using the Defining Issues Test and thematic-coded journal entries. Results indicated that discussions created a zone of proximal development improving the moral reasoning for most students giving them multiple perspectives and providing support to engage in deliberations and peer dialogue when discussing ethical frameworks, ethical scenarios, and ethical decision making.

俄罗斯发展心理学家 Lev Vygotsky 为商业道德教育学的替代方案提供了重要的理论基础。尽管维果茨基的建构主义方法已应用于其他学科，例如认知发展、道德发展以及网络分析和学习，但它在商业道德教育中的应用几乎不存在。维果茨基对语言和同伴影响的关注为道德教育提供了一种新颖的方法。尽管许多商业道德讲师已经在课堂上使用了小组讨论，但我们提供的证据将加强这些技术作为一种重要的教学方法。本研究是对维果茨基发展理论在商业伦理教育中的探索性应用。数据是在商业道德和管理课程中收集的，与实验组和对照组，并使用定义问题测试和主题编码日记帐分录进行分析。结果表明，讨论创造了一个最近发展的区域，提高了大多数学生的道德推理能力，为他们提供了多种视角，并在讨论伦理框架、伦理情景和伦理决策时为参与审议和同伴对话提供了支持。