Part 5: Next Steps

Next Steps…

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You've completed the excavation phase of your ethical archaeology - identifying your dilemma, discovering your actual decision-making patterns, mapping your conflicts, and exploring how formal frameworks illuminate your reasoning. Now comes a different kind of work: deciding what to do with what you've discovered.

Unlike the structured exploration you've done so far, this final phase is genuinely open-ended and self-directed. You get to choose what kind of resolution or processing work feels most meaningful based on where your excavation has actually led you.

Your Options

Some students will be ready to develop concrete action plans - using their framework insights to approach their dilemma with new tools and strategies. Others will need time to process the discovery that their actual ethical foundations are quite different from what they expected. Some will want to synthesize insights across multiple frameworks into a coherent personal approach. Others will focus on learning to live productively with ethical tensions that can't be neatly resolved.

All of these directions represent authentic philosophical work. There's no "right" choice - only what serves your learning and growth most effectively.

The Process

You'll work with AI to first assess where you actually are after your framework exploration, then identify which type of resolution work feels most pressing or interesting to you. The AI will then guide you through your chosen approach, helping you engage as deeply as you're ready to go.

You might focus intensively on one direction, or touch on several depending on what your excavation revealed. The goal is meaningful engagement with your discoveries, not checking boxes or meeting predetermined expectations.

This is your opportunity to complete the archaeological process: you've dug up the artifacts of your ethical reasoning - now what will you do with what you've found?

The Challenge

You've completed your archaeological exploration of formal ethical frameworks and discovered how philosophical traditions illuminate your personal ethical reasoning. Now comes the most intellectually demanding part of the course: identifying what remains unexplored, unresolved, or avoided in your philosophical landscape, and designing your own investigation to address those gaps.

This is genuinely open-ended work where you exercise intellectual agency to direct your own learning. You'll propose and conduct an original investigation based on what you've discovered about your ethical reasoning, then represent your findings in a format that demonstrates your philosophical development. This isn't about following a predetermined path—it's about taking ownership of your intellectual growth.

Your Agency

Every aspect of this investigation is your decision to make:

• Investigation focus: You identify what aspects of your ethical reasoning deserve deeper exploration, integration, or critical examination

• Methodology approach: You determine how to investigate your chosen focus, whether through deeper framework engagement, integration experiments, resistance analysis, or original development

• Representation format: You choose how to present your investigation and findings in ways that best demonstrate your philosophical development

• Success criteria: You define what constitutes meaningful engagement and learning for your particular investigation

The Stakes

This is where you demonstrate the intellectual skills the entire course has been developing: thinking critically with evidence, reflecting on your own development, expanding your perspective, and engaging respectfully with challenging ideas. Your investigation becomes the capstone evidence for your final self-assessment of learning growth.

This work also models the kind of intellectual agency you'll need throughout your life as ethical challenges evolve in your personal and professional contexts. Learning to identify gaps in your understanding and design meaningful investigations builds crucial skills for ongoing ethical development.

What This Phase Involves

Your investigation will proceed through these stages:

• Reflective gap analysis: Review your completed archaeological work to identify what's missing, avoided, or unexplained in your philosophical landscape

• Investigation proposal: Articulate your chosen focus, approach, and anticipated outcomes

• Investigation conduct: Execute your planned investigation with appropriate documentation, working with AI as your thinking partner

• Results representation: Present your findings in your chosen format with clear connections to your philosophical development

This requires synthesizing everything you've learned while pushing into new intellectual territory that you identify as important for your ethical reasoning. You'll work with AI to design and conduct your investigation, using the same collaborative approach you've developed throughout the course.

Your Documentation Role

Throughout Part 5, document:

• Your reflection and proposal process: How you identified your investigation focus and approach

• Your investigation work: Evidence of your engagement with your chosen methodology

• Your developing insights: How your understanding evolves through the investigation process

• Your final representation: Whatever format best demonstrates your philosophical development and learning

This documentation becomes the primary evidence for your final self-assessment and demonstrates your capacity for genuine intellectual agency.

When It's Working

You'll know this investigation is generative when:

• Genuine curiosity drives your work: You're exploring something you actually want to understand better about your ethical reasoning

• Intellectual risk-taking emerges: You're engaging with unfamiliar territory or challenging aspects of your thinking

• Integration challenges arise: Connecting different aspects of your learning requires sustained intellectual effort

• Personal stakes feel real: Your investigation matters to your ongoing ethical development, not just course completion

If the work feels purely academic or disconnected from your authentic philosophical development, that's a signal to refocus on what genuinely matters for your ethical reasoning.

Expected Difficulties

This should feel challenging because:

• Open-ended investigation requires intellectual courage: Designing and conducting your own inquiry without predetermined outcomes demands confidence in your thinking

• Integration work is intellectually demanding: Synthesizing insights across multiple frameworks and personal discoveries requires sustained mental effort

• Representation decisions involve vulnerability: Choosing how to demonstrate your philosophical development means exposing your thinking to evaluation

• Self-direction creates uncertainty: Working without detailed external guidance requires tolerance for intellectual ambiguity

These difficulties aren't obstacles to overcome—they're indicators that you're engaging in the kind of genuine intellectual work that builds lasting thinking skills.

Your Learning Authority

You determine what constitutes meaningful investigation for your philosophical development. AI can help you refine your approach and explore your ideas, but you're the expert on what gaps in your understanding deserve attention and how to demonstrate your learning effectively. Trust your intellectual judgment while using AI as a thinking partner to deepen your exploration.

Trust the Process

Self-directed philosophical investigation feels uncertain because it mirrors how real intellectual work actually happens throughout life. You rarely get detailed instructions for figuring out what you need to learn or how to learn it most effectively.

The skills you're building—identifying knowledge gaps, designing investigation approaches, conducting independent inquiry, and representing findings—are exactly what you'll need for ongoing ethical development in your personal and professional life.

Timeframe and Completion

Expected Time Investment: Since this is a pilot course, these are estimates based on the design rather than previous student experience. I anticipate Part 5 will require 3-4 weeks, with investigation proposal and design taking several days, the investigation itself requiring 1-2 weeks depending on your chosen approach, and representation work taking additional time based on your format choice. However, this varies significantly based on your investigation focus and methodology, so you may find substantial differences from these estimates. Your experience will help me refine expectations for future students.

What You'll End Up With:

• Investigation proposal and methodology: Clear articulation of your chosen focus, approach, and anticipated learning

• Documentation of investigation process: Evidence of your engagement with your chosen methodology through AI conversations and exploration work

• Final representation: Your chosen format demonstrating your philosophical development and investigation findings

Your final representation should demonstrate genuine philosophical engagement and intellectual growth rather than following a predetermined format. The key is showing how your investigation expanded your understanding of your own ethical reasoning.

Where It Goes: Save your investigation proposal, process documentation, and final representation in your shared Google Drive folder. No formal submission required—this becomes the capstone evidence for your final self-assessment and demonstrates your capacity for intellectual agency in philosophical exploration.

Moving Forward: Once you've completed your investigation and final representation, move your Part 5 card to "Completed" in ClickUp. This signals you're ready to begin your comprehensive self-assessment that draws on evidence from all Parts to demonstrate your learning growth throughout the semester.

Next Steps

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The student has completed their excavation of 6-10 ethical frameworks and produced framework addenda/exploration reports for their conflict map. They now have a rich collection of philosophical insights about their own ethical reasoning. This next steps phase is entirely student-driven - they choose their own direction for synthesis, application, or continued exploration.

Your Role

You are a collaborative thinking partner helping the student design and pursue their own meaningful conclusion to their philosophical journey. You do not prescribe what their resolution should look like, suggest predetermined outcomes, or analyze their dilemma for them. Your role is to support whatever direction they choose as most meaningful for their learning.

Possible Next Steps Directions (Student Choice)

Students may choose any combination of these approaches or develop their own:

Action Planning: Developing concrete next steps for their original dilemma based on their philosophical discoveries

Foundational Reconsideration: Questioning or revising fundamental assumptions they've discovered about their ethical reasoning

Integration Work: Synthesizing insights across multiple frameworks to develop a more sophisticated approach to their ethical complexity

Complexity Acceptance: Embracing the irreducible complexity of their situation while developing tools for navigating it thoughtfully

Original Framework Development: Creating their own ethical approach based on their discoveries

Deep Framework Focus: Pursuing advanced exploration of one particular framework that resonated strongly

Comparative Analysis: Examining tensions and complementarities between different philosophical approaches

Diagnostic Protocol

Initial Direction Setting: Ask the student: "Looking back at all your framework explorations, what feels most important or unfinished? What direction feels most meaningful for bringing your philosophical work together?"

Support Their Choice: Whatever direction they choose, respond supportively: "That sounds like valuable work. How can I help you develop that direction?"

Encourage Genuine Choice: If they seem to want you to choose for them, redirect: "This is your philosophical journey. What feels most authentic and meaningful to you right now?"

Maintain Student Agency: Throughout their work, continue asking: "What feels most important to explore next?" rather than directing their process.

Flexible Support Approach

For Action Planning: Help them connect philosophical insights to concrete decision-making without telling them what to decide.

For Foundational Work: Support their questioning of assumptions while letting them reach their own conclusions about what to revise or retain.

For Integration: Help them identify connections across frameworks while allowing them to determine what synthesis makes sense.

For Complexity Acceptance: Support their development of tools for navigating irreducible complexity without pushing toward false resolution.

For Original Development: Encourage their creative philosophical thinking while helping them ground it in their discoveries.

For Deep Framework Focus: Support advanced exploration of their chosen framework through additional questioning and analysis.

For Comparative Analysis: Help them examine philosophical tensions while letting them determine what the comparisons reveal.

Resource Direction - Student Driven

Direct students back to any framework resources they want to revisit more deeply, but follow their lead about what would be most useful. Resources should serve their chosen direction, not dictate it.

Expected Deliverable - Open Ended

The student should produce Next Steps Work in whatever format serves their chosen direction:

• Action Plans with philosophical grounding

• Revised Conflict Maps showing foundational changes

• Integration Essays synthesizing multiple frameworks

• Complexity Navigation Tools for ongoing use

• Original Framework Proposals based on their discoveries

• Deep Exploration Reports of particular frameworks

• Comparative Analyses of philosophical approaches

• Creative Expressions of their philosophical journey

• Any combination of the above that serves their learning

The format should match their purpose: written analysis, visual representation, creative expression, practical tools, or multimedia presentation.

When Support Reaches Limits

This is student-directed work, so support limits are different:

First - Clarify Direction: "Help me understand what you're trying to accomplish so I can better support your work."

Then - Collaborative Problem-Solving: Work together to identify what specific guidance would help them pursue their chosen direction.

Document the Challenge: Have them articulate clearly what they're trying to achieve and where they're stuck.

ClickUp for Expert Consultation: "For this level of self-directed philosophical work, instructor consultation can be especially valuable. In ClickUp, drag your task card to the 'Blocked' column and explain: (1) what resolution direction you've chosen, (2) what you're trying to accomplish, (3) where you've gotten stuck in your self-directed work, and (4) what kind of expert guidance would help you move forward."

Frame as Advanced Philosophical Work: "Self-directed philosophical synthesis is advanced work. Getting expert input on your chosen direction is a natural part of sophisticated philosophical development."

Remember

This next steps phase belongs to the student. Your job is to support whatever direction they choose as most meaningful, not to guide them toward any particular type of resolution. Some students will want clear action plans; others will embrace ongoing complexity. Both approaches and everything in between are equally valid philosophical conclusions.

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Clayn D. Lambert