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Education Research By A Consulting Firm?
Maria D asks: "I am thinking of starting a small consulting and tutoring business in mathematics for children when I graduate with a Ph.D. I will also conduct parent and teacher workshops. As I do this, I would like to collect data for my research and, hopefully, publish it in peer-reviewed journals, present at conferences, etc.
Now, the procedure for research is pretty straightforward if you are at a university. You do a human subject form, then you do your study, then you submit the articles mentioning your university affiliation at the appropriate place on the form. What if you are not affiliated with a university? How do you approach the whole human subject permission issue? Can you collect data at a workshop if you charge money for the workshop? Will the whole thing be easier if I get a university affiliation? How do I approach it if I do not want to work at a university full time?"
For your purposes, just make sure to tell the subjects that participation is purely voluntary, and don't publicize personally-identifying information (or record it in the first place if you can help it).
-- ;-)
Kuro5hin.org: where the good times never end.
Hi,
This isn't very ontopic, but I have also been looking at doing tutoring for children. I'm not interested in money from this (A rich parent would be able to afford a tutor anyway, I wanted to try to help out the other kids.) but I'm unsure where to start. I've asked around and tried various things, but no-one trusts anyone anymore around children in the UK. It is possible to do talks in a classroom, but the rules are very strict (fair enough), and I wouldn't be ready to face that many.
I would really like to do something, but don't know what. I used to help out in primary schools on the IT side, but even that I can't seem to do anymore, even with my experiance and references.
Ask your supervisor. Unless I'm misreading the submission, you're a PhD student right now; your supervisor (and the university ethics committee) will be *far* more capable of answering this question than anyone on slashdot.
Personally, I'd just get parents to sign the same sort of forms as you'd have them sign right now (saying that they give permission for you to record proceedings, that they give permission for you to publish your research after removing any details which would identify the participants, and saying that they can withdraw at any point); but I'm sure your university can give you a much more detailed answer than this.
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To teach 2+2 to kids?
You're missing a level of indirection. 2+2 is easy. Teaching kids that 2+2=4 is easy. Working out the best way of teaching kids that 2+2=4 is not easy.
A graduate degree in education isn't about being good at teaching; it's about being able to explain to other people how to be good at teaching.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Outside the context of (1) a corporate structure of a university and (2) federal funding... there are not legal requirements for IRB review that I have ever known. Companies do user studies all the time without oversight.
...all just my opinions. good luck. where in the country are you doing this?
Once you cross either of the lines above, then you would to determine the rules from the university and your funding source.
You do open yourself up to liability, like everything in this world. If I were in your shoes, I would use a standard consent form like those used in human subjects research. These forms typically inform the person that theywill be partofa study, the aims and methods of the study and what about that person and their actions will be made publically available. By doing this, you have 2 results -- no one can reasonable expect to win if they sue you over "You didn't tell me" and when someone sues you over "I never let you use me" you will have a firm standing because you have their consent. It is also honest.
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