MULTIDISCIPLINARY CO-DEVELOPMENT FOR SSI-BASED NEUROETHICS EDUCATION: APPLICATION TO THE BRAIN DOPING ISSUE WITH TDCS

Developing socioscientific issues (SSI) education on emerging technologies such as neurotechnology confronts the challenge of distributed expertise, wherein requisite knowledge spans multiple domains, neuroscience, neuroethics, and pedagogy, that no single educator can possess. This study proposes Multidisciplinary Co-Development (MCD) as a methodological framework to address this challenge and applies it to an SSI-based neuroethics education on brain doping through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technology. A multidisciplinary team comprising experts in neuroethics, neuroscience, and public engagement collaboratively developed an education program guided by three MCD principles: distributed expertise recognition, dialogic knowledge integration, and boundary artifact facilitation. The program was piloted with 38 Korean university students, and data were collected through group activity artifacts and a questionnaire. Qualitative analysis showed that the MCD principles enabled effective cross-disciplinary knowledge integration through structured dialogue and shared artifacts. Participants demonstrated the ability to identify scientific, ethical, and social problems of brain doping and to propose varied solutions, suggesting that the program supports the development of civic competencies. These findings indicate that MCD offers a viable framework for addressing distributed expertise challenges in emerging technology-related SSI education and provides a systematic methodology for translating neuroethics research into educational practice. Keywords: brain doping, distributed expertise, multidisciplinary co-development, neuroethics education, socioscientific issues (SSI)