Moral Rules and Ethical Decision Making

This engaging lesson explores moral rules and ethical decision-making, encouraging students to question whether there is always a clear right or wrong answer. Students examine key ethical theories such as deontology (duty-based ethics) and utilitarianism (outcome-based ethics), and apply these ideas to a range of real-world and hypothetical dilemmas, including the Trolley Problem. Through discussion, debate, and reflection, students evaluate whether moral rules should be absolute or flexible depending on context.

Learning Intention: To evaluate the importance of moral rules and how we decide what is right or wrong.

Success Criteria:

• Identify key moral principles that guide behaviour.
• Apply moral rules to different ethical scenarios.
• Explain key ethical theories such as deontology and utilitarianism.
• Evaluate whether moral rules are absolute or depend on context.

Activities Included:

• Starter discussion exploring what moral rules are and why they exist
• Group-based ethical dilemma tasks analysing real-life and hypothetical scenarios
• Introduction to key theories including deontology, utilitarianism, and contextual ethics
• Video-based exploration of dilemmas such as the Trolley Problem
• Debate and discussion tasks evaluating different viewpoints
• Reflection activity assessing how moral decisions are made

Format: PowerPoint lesson resource

Ideal For:
KS3 / Middle School PSHE, Citizenship, MSC or Religious Studies
Lessons exploring ethics, morality, and decision-making
Topics focused on philosophy and critical thinking
Discussion-based learning developing reasoning, debate, and evaluation skills