Ethical Considerations of Educational research

Ethical Considerations of  Educational research

Ethical Considerations of Educational research





Introduction

 

•       The term ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning custom or convention. 

•       Moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity -  Oxford Dictionary (2014)

•       The branch of philosophy that dealswith morality. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between goodand evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non virtuouscharacteristics of people – The American Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (2005)

 

Four basic tenants

 

•     Honesty – Conveying information truthfully and honoring commitments.

•     Accuracy – Reporting findings precisely and taking care to avoid errors.

•     Efficiency – Using resources wisely and avoiding waste.

•     Objectivity – Letting the fact speak for themselves and avoiding improper bias.

 

Main Stakeholders in Research Ethics

•     The researcher

•     The subject/participant

•     Funding organization

   • The university

•     Regulatory bodies

•      Publishers

•      Society as a whole

 

Ethical Principles/ guidelines for educational Research

Research Ethics should have some principles or guidelines or elements which is also known as the Belmont Report (1979) as Belmont was the 1stperson who initiated with the principles of Research Ethics. Those principles are discussed here:

 

1.     Principle of respect for human dignity- Prior approval of participants is necessary while collecting data about participants.The participants should be treated as autonomous agentsso that they control their own activities. The researcher should make the person aware of the nature of the study, its responsibility and they have also the right to refuse participation.

2.     There should be no discrimination or biason the part of researcher against any individual on the basis of caste, class, sex, race, religion etc.

3.     Research ethics should also include the protection of human and animal subjects.

 

4. Transparency and Accountprocedure-  Data, results, methods and procedure should be maintained and interpreted honestlyby the researcher.

5. Openness in sharing data, results, ideas, tools and resources would make the study open for criticism and this would result in the creation of new ideas.

6. Researcher should maintainobjectivity so that it avoids bias in research design, data analysis and peer-review etc.

7. The researcher should be carefulwhile doing research and avoid any mistakes or negligence.

8.  Confidentiality is maintained- While conducting research the Researcher should  maintain confidentiality about participants data, a personal record and privacy issues as the participants might not want to disclose its identity to the public( annonemity).

 

 

Things to avoid

 



• Falsification

•  In this, data is manipulated by researcher and researcher shows results which are not accurate.


• This is done by the researcher to prove his/her point in research by manipulating the data. This is ethically wrong.

 

Fabrication

• In this, the researcher adds data which does not exist in reality and is used by the researcher in studies.


• Creation of spurious data by a researcher, their recording, and drawing inference is wrong.

 

 

•      Plagiarism
In this, the researcher uses other people while claiming it to be their own.
It is the act of appropriating somebody’s else’s ideas, thoughts, pictures, theories, words as your own.
Researcher work ethics becomes questionable in this.
It is an illegal and punishable act.
Copying your own work from one research to another also amounts plagiarism. Therefore, to avoid this reference should be made.

 

 

There are many websites and software available to check plagiarism.

√  grammarly.com

√  paperrater.com

√  plagiarism.net

√  urkund.com

√  Turnitin.com

 

 

•      The issue with funds, incentives or gifts

The researcher should not lure any participant by offering gift or incentives for providing data.
Small gifts as a token of appreciation could be given.
Funds allocated to research should not be used for any other purpose, and fake bills should not be submitted for claiming money.

 

 

•  Other import aspects of ethical research

•  Ethics has to be observed in every stage of the research process like:


•  When the researcher collects information.
•  While seeking the consent of Participants.
•  While seeking confidential information and providing incentives to Participants.


•  Even after conducting research, the researcher should make sure that no harm is done to participant like in medical testing, invasion pf privacy, harassment and dehumanizing procedure.

 

•      References:

•       Net guide book of KVS  Madan

•       researchgate.net

•      scielo.ora.za

•      Net guide book of Uddalak

 

 

 

 

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis Of The Problem

Image
Analysis Of  The  Problem Meaning of Analysis: Analysis  is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. Meaning of Problem: A thing that is difficult to deal with or to understand.   What is a Problem Analysis ? A  Problem Analysis  investigates a situation/ problem  to understand more fully the  problem , in order to recommend practical solutions for solving it. Steps of Problem Analysis:- Ø Understand Your Problem.   You must understand the issue, problem or symptom you are experiencing before you can realistically try to figure out what to do about it. As a first step towards self-help, take steps to understand the nature of your problem or issue. Watch for any tendency you might have to externalize your problem (e.g., to see the cause of your problem in someone else's actions rather than your own). Own up to any responsibility you may have for creating or maintaining the problem.    
Read more

Criteria of a Problem Statement

Image
Criteria of a Problem Statement         Introduction                                          PROBLEM STATEMENT                A problem statement is an issue or problem currently existing tha needs to be addressed. Ø It identifies the knowledge gap between the present state and the desired state. Ø It provides the context for the research study and generates questions that the research aims to answer. Ø A research statement is not very lengthy.   CRITERIA OF A PROBLEM STATEMENT The criteria or the requirements that a problem statement should fulfill are Ø The five Ws-   what, who, when, where and why ·        What   is the problem- the topic of the investigation is to be clearly mentioned ·        Who does the problem affect- the population from whom we will be collecting the data ·        When   does the issue occur- the time ·        W here is the issue occurring- the area of our research ·        Why is it necessary to fix the problem- the aim of the research t
Read more

Identification of Research Problem

Image
Identification of Research Problem   INTRODUCTION   ·          A research problem is a question that researcher wants to answer or a problem that a researcher wants to solve. ·          Identification & formulation of a research problem is the first and most important step of the research process. ·          Selection of research problem depends on several factors such as researcher’s knowledge, skills, interest, expertise, motivation & creativity with respect to the subject of inquiry. ·          Generally, a broad area is selected & then a broad topic is delimited or narrowed down to                   a specific one sentence statement of the problem. ·            This step of the research process is considered as the most difficult & challenging, & need slots of time.   IDEFINITION RESEARCH PROBLEM   “A problem is an interrogative sentence or statement that asks what relation exists between two or more variable. The answer to question will provide what i
Read more