Construction and application of a professional ethics assessment framework for university teachers in China

Introduction: Clarifying the conceptual boundaries and assessment dimensions of university teachers' professional ethics is a prerequisite for strengthening ethical standards in higher education. This study aimed to examine the connotation and constituent elements of university teachers' professional ethics, develop a systematic assessment framework, and preliminarily evaluate its applicability. Methods: An integrated qualitative and quantitative research design was employed. On the basis of theoretical analysis and empirical investigation, a two-dimensional assessment framework was developed by combining psychological components with relational domains. The resulting framework was subsequently applied in a survey of 1,230 university teachers, and teacher self-evaluations were compared with student evaluations. Differences in professional ethics across teacher groups were also examined. Results: The assessment framework comprised four psychological components-moral cognition, moral emotion, moral volition, and moral behavior-and four relational domains: teacher-student relations, teacher-institutional collective relations, teacher-teaching relations, and teacher-academic research relations. These dimensions generated a total of 50 specific assessment items. The survey results indicated that the participating university teachers generally reported relatively high levels of professional ethics. Nevertheless, discrepancies emerged between teacher self-evaluations and student evaluations, and significant variation was observed across different teacher groups. Discussion: The proposed framework provides a multidimensional approach to conceptualizing and assessing the professional ethics of university teachers by integrating psychological processes with major professional relationships. The preliminary findings also highlight the importance of incorporating multiple evaluative perspectives and attending to group differences. Based on the framework development process and the assessment results, corresponding strategies are proposed to promote the professional ethics of university teachers.