BIZZNA TUTOR ethics homework

Directions for Unit 5

Ethics

All the information you need for completing Unit 5 will be found on this directions sheet. Print a copy and please pay careful attention to the directions.

1. Keep the objective relevant to this unit in mind as you proceed: Following completion of this course, the student will understand ethical concerns in educational research.

2. First, complete the assigned readings . (all the assigned readings have been copied to this document, see below)

3. You have two tasks to complete:

a. Post on the forum a minimum of 200-words on some of your observations regarding ethics in education and in society as a whole.

b. 321 on ethics. List three important things you learned about ethics in education, list two other things you found interesting, and name one question that remains. Focus mostly on the reading assignments, but you may use Discussion Board feedback to a lesser extent. Be sure to give details under each item listed . Do not simply list!

Use a title page for every written assignment . Apply the following headings format for all 321 assignments:

Three things I learned

1.

2.

3.

Two things I found interesting

1.

2.

One question that remains.

(Ask your question and I will attempt to give you a good answer.)

ETHICS

Objective: Following completion of this course, the student will have an understanding of ethical concerns in educational research.

There is a terribly naïve concept by some that to do research and not find that the results are as expected is to fail. That is absurd, for learning that a new text, counseling procedure, curriculum, etc. is not better or not effective is a very important achievement. We all have our biases and expectations, but sometimes what we think should work better simply does not and to do a research project and find that your idea was wrong is certainly a disappointment, but it is a real contribution to the profession. Others will avoid that particular text, procedure, curriculum, etc. as they should.

Unfortunately, there are a few dishonest students, professors, and other researchers who will manipulate data or simply lie in order to prove a point and sell their idea. When this happens, several things, all bad, can happen. One is that administrators or teachers in another school system might read the faulty research, believe it, and invest time and money in their schools in implementing something that is doomed to failure. Not only time and money are lost, but children’s learning suffers. And inevitably other researchers will carry out similar projects and find that the original research simply cannot be duplicated or substantiated. The authors are then tainted and their peers will look at anything they publish later with disdain. In fact, as the word gets out, reviewers of their submitted papers will subject their manuscripts to such scrutiny that they will have more and more trouble getting papers accepted for publication. The chickens of unethical researchers eventually do come home to roost. For an in-depth view of concerns that have been addressed regarding research in education, go to the website of the American Educational Research Association and enter ethics in the search box at the top right. You’ll be able to download the AERA Code of Ethics for a thorough reading if you so wish.

Another unfortunate ethical problem in education frequently occurs in preparation for accreditation site visits at schools and colleges. I served for about two decades on the Board of Examiners for NCATE, visiting and evaluating programs all over the USA. One thing that impresses site-visitors is a situation where a unit recognizes existing weaknesses and is taking steps to remediate. What turns site-visitors off is an attempt to cover up or hide weaknesses. It is too bad that all educators cannot be honest and ethical but you can be sure that too many are not. There is nothing wrong with not being perfect. That is natural. Recognizing and admitting imperfection is a sign of strength. A healthy school or college is one that knows its strengths and weaknesses and takes steps to correct or minimize the latter. Pointing out your problems to accreditation visitors and showing them the corrective steps that are being taken is a sign of confidence and is the only ethical approach to take.

For your specific research, there are several points that must be made. Plagiarism has been discussed and is an ethical problem whether the mistake is an honest one or not. Good researchers cite diligently and avoid using the work of others without giving them the proper credit through citation. Another concern is anonymity in use of information collected in the process of doing research. You should never mention a subject’s name in a paper. You should never mention any aspect of a subject’s interaction with you to anyone else, even your spouse. Your data collection should ensure anonymity and your subjects should be informed of this. You can do this by avoiding having the subject’s name on the survey instrument. In other cases, when you’re working in an ex post facto project, for example correlating students’ IQs with their scores on a math mastery test, you should record your data using subject numbers, IQs, and math scores (See Table 1 below.). A separate page, accessible only to you, could put a name to each subject number for purposes of follow up in case of problems or suspected errors in the numbers recorded (See Table 2.). The point is that whatever lengths you have to go to in order to ensure anonymity, the effort is well spent.

Table 1. Subjects’ IQ and math scores.

Subject	IQ	Math score	Subject	IQ	Math score
1	105	74	6	95	60
2	116	90	7	120	80
3	100	70	8	110	70
4	150	99	9	90	58
5	122	88	10	130	95

Table 2. Subject key. For researcher’s eyes only.

Subject	Joe Brown	Jackie Black	Laura Doe	Abe Loncon	Jim Jones
Number	1	2	3	4	5
Subject	Aimee Lin	José Cuervo	Juan Valdez	John Doe	Sue Smith
Number	6	7	8	9	10

An ethical dilemma in educational research sometimes presents itself in assigning treatments to subject groups. If you are absolutely sure that a certain procedure in instruction is more effective than traditional methods, how can you justify withholding that strategy from one group while another uses it in your research project? That’s akin to the complaint by subjects in a control group in a medical study who found they were receiving a placebo for years while the experimental subject group all received the cancer preventive treatment that was found to be very effective. In this case, control subjects died. In the education scenario, control subjects simply didn’t learn as effectively. Is either situation justified or do we have an ethical dilemma? On the other hand, you cannot be absolutely certain prior to doing the research. Therefore, there is no ethical dilemma in either the medical or educational research examples given. You’ll only know for sure once the data is collected and analyzed.

It wasn’t so long ago that subjects in psychology experiments were given electric shocks, other painful stimuli, or subjected to mental stresses as a part of experiments. Dogs and cats and rats received even worse treatment, sometimes experiencing pain and suffering and even death. Of late, institutional review boards at universities have been charged with controlling ethical deviations in proposed research. Many school districts have administrators who are responsible for overseeing ethics in research done under their supervision. Some school districts are so concerned over possible problems, even litigation, that they simply refuse to allow research in their schools. This ensures that no ethical problems in research occur but it also hinders progress. Still, it is a way for a fearful superintendent to avoid lawsuits by offended subjects. You should learn about your school and school district policy on research before you embark on a questionable project. You must get your administrator’s approval if you plan to collect data from students, parents, teachers, or administrators at your school. This should be an easy selling process for a simple survey, but you never know and certainly don’t want to go against policy and suffer some degree of punishment for doing so.

Connected with ethics is obtaining subjects’ informed consent. Elements of informed consent include information about the study, why it is important, assurance of anonymity, and a statement of risk, if any. In many cases, there is a statement of potential benefits that are expected. Subjects must know that they can ask questions about the research, have the right to refuse to participate, and can withdraw at any time. It must be understood that even though a subject does give informed consent to participate, if something goes wrong and there are physical or emotional damages, the informed consent does not protect the researcher from litigation. There always remains the ethical responsibility of the researcher to protect the subjects at all times. A final and related point is that frequently subjects are given the option of receiving feedback regarding research findings. This is seen by many as an ethical obligation of the researcher. After all, the subjects are partners in the research and deserve such information if they wish to be so informed. In such cases, rather than give them a copy of the formal report or manuscript, a couple of brief paragraphs written in layman’s language will probably suffice.

You may not be aware that there is a Code of Ethics for Arkansas educators. It is available at several Internet sites, one of which is the University of Arkansas’ College of Education and Health Professions web page. Do you have a code of ethics for your school system or for your school? Ethics in society as a whole is a current concern. Actually that statement could have been written at any time in the history of mankind. Today we are bombarded with information illustrating failures of society that are related to ethics. Beyond the obvious problems associated with criminal activity, we can find a multitude of examples of poor ethical behavior in all aspects of society. We can decry that and we can lead children and students towards an understanding of the desirability of leading ethical lives. You have a grave responsibility in your molding young minds and your influence can be a major element in shaping future generations’ view of ethics in life. That is a grave responsibility, particularly when we consider the Biblical concept that nobody is without sin. None of us is ethically perfect, but we owe it to our students to give our best efforts in teaching them about right and wrong in addition to the academic content. The focus in this class is on ethics in research and academic pursuits, but I hope you think outside of the box and take ethics education directly to your students as well. Look for those teachable moments when ethics can be a part of the academic picture.