VISTA Unit C1: Ethical issues and the law 1 Module C: Responsibilities and Rights Unit C1: Ethical Issues and Children’s Rights Dobrinka Chankova 1 , Tanya Poshtova 1 , Gie Deboutte 2 and Stephen Minton 3 1 Bulgaria 2 Belgium 3 Ireland Objectives of Unit C1 • To be familiar with basic concepts of ethics, law and children’s rights • To be prepared to promote ethical and lawful behaviour among youth • To consider strategies for raising students’ awareness of moral standards at school Facilitation skills to be developed through this Unit Knowledge and understanding of: • the way to design improvement plans for individual pupils, groups and the school as a whole • the methods to include pupils’ opinions in any decision about their education • the way to raise moral standards in a school Personal qualities and attributes include: • the ability to influence the ethos in a school and effect and sustain change there • a good understanding of and ability to model effective behaviour management strategies • the ability to facilitate and value pupils’ opinions about their own education. Pre-unit reading Freeman, M. (Ed.). (1996). Children’s rights: A comparative perspective. Aldershots: Dartmouth. Jacob-Timm, S., & Hartshorne, T. S. (1998). Ethics and law for school psychologists (3 rd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development. New York: Harper & Row. Koocher, G., & Keith-Spiegel, P. (1990). Children, ethics, and the law: Professional issues and cases. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.