Observational Study Essay

After spending the day observing a fourth grade inclusive class and attending a fourth grade PLC meeting focused on testing, I began my community service at the after school program. I was quite curious to see what the after school program is like as I work as a supervisor at an after school program in Sussex County. At dismissal, all the students came to the cafeteria and began their homework. They were very talkative and sitting in close proximity as there were only a few tables left down for the students. Once everyone had arrived, the teachers called out that all students were to quietly work on homework.

Respect for human dignity includes two rights; the right to self-determination and the right to full disclosure. When conducting a research study these two rights must be maintained to ensure that the participants are not coerced into participation and that they are making the choice of their own free will. Patients must be provided with all the information necessary to make an informed decision and voluntarily participate. No deception or concealed data collection can be done because it will violate the patients’ rights.

Education theory can either be descriptive like the sciences or normative like in philosophy. Education theory postulates what education processes are supposed to consist of; it sets the standards, norms, and goals in carrying out an education process. The scientific education theory gives a set of hypotheses, which have to be experimented and verified. The two approaches have produced two broad categories of education theories, which are the functionalist’s theory of education

The research ethics, especially with the human subjects, is a very complex topic, and the completion of the certification opened my eyes on many aspects of research process. I learned how important it is to fully understand the research purpose and the methodology especially when selecting participants. I learned which populations are considered vulnerable, how to balance risk and potential benefits of research, and the importance of obtaining an informed, voluntary consent. I learned how important it is for researchers to ensure subjects confidentiality and privacy. Hardicre (2014) said that the research would be impossible without volunteers, and that the researchers “must act as patient advocates to ensure that every stage of the research

Failure to protect subject’s personal information, is an example of not complying the above two principles in the research industry. Researchers are in a position of dealing with a great deal of very personal information that their participants have agreed to disclose. Depending on the type of study, personal identifiers such as names, birthdates, places of residence etc. may or may not have to be collected. In situations where these data are collected, researchers may take several steps to ensure the confidentiality of their participants’

A number of key terms describe the system of ethical considerations that the modern research establishments have set up to protect the rights of research subjects. Voluntary participation and confidentiality are principles that demands that the respondents to be free from coercion in any way when participating in the research, protected in the raw data, and published

In the article, “Researching Dealers and Smugglers,” Patricia Adler discusses her and her husband’s experience using participant observation to collect data from drug dealers and the problems this qualitative method brought. A qualitative method focuses on collecting rich, non-statistical data. This method involves face-to-face interviews and actual participation with the group being researched. The Adlers use this method because it is almost impossible to gather accurate information on people who smuggle drugs. This is true because they are such private and deceitful people. The only way to get the real facts is if the smugglers trust the person. Unfortunately, participant observation brought problems such as the dealers and smugglers

The retrospective observational study was performed in Great Ormond Street Hospital. All admissions to the critical care services over a 9 year period (March 2003-December 2011) were included for analysis. Repeat admissions were excluded. The prevalence of 'extreme hypoxaemia' was explored. 'Extreme hypoxaemia' was defined as admission $PaO_{2}$ $< 2.67$ kPa (20 mmHg). This threshold was chosen from reported literature.\cite{Anonymous:2013vh}\cite{Grocott:2009jj}\\

The researcher most honor commitments to respondents and respect reciprocity, exercise objectivity and professional integrity in performing and reporting research, and protect confidentiality and privacy of

Bell (2005) mentioned that ethical research involves acquiring informed consent of people to be interviewed, questioned, observed or taken materials from and reaching to an understanding of how the data will be used and analysis will be reported and published. In guiding the activities of researchers, Denscombe (2010) described three ethical; “protection of participants’ interest”, “avoiding deception or misinterpretation” and “informed consent of participants”.

Ethics are a big part of research, in order for research to be conducted and the findings be used then they must follow ethics set by the Ethics committee. Ethics are a set of rules and rights. The rules must be followed by the researchers and the rights are for the participants. All participants must fully consent to the research and if they are too young then a guardian must consent for them. The participants’ information must be kept confidential and they can opt out of any parts of the research that they are uncomfortable completing.

The Belmont Report establishes ethical standards for researchers seeking to involve human subjects (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1979). Among these standards is respect for persons- the right of people to be treated as autonomous agents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1979). Privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality (PAC) fall under this standard (Farrimond, 2013). In research studies, privacy refers to an expectation that access to participants ' information will be limited to those that have a legitimate right to it (Farrimond, 2013). It is also expected that reasonable steps will be taken to prevent unauthorized access to the information. To expand on privacy, most studies allow anonymity- the removal of names and other identifying information (addresses, job titles, age) to protect the identities of participants (Farrimond, 2013). Anonymity increases the likelihood that potential subjects will agree to participate in a study, as they feel more comfortable disclosing information that may otherwise result in negative consequences (Farrimond, 2013). Confidentiality ensures study participants that their information will not be shared beyond the scope of the study (Farrimond, 2013).

There are several ethical issues that can arise when conducting research. A few of these are field of study dilemmas, the researchers’ integrity, social and economic issues, physical and psychological issues. Field of study refers to areas of research that are controversial in nature. Ethical dilemmas that can arise under fields of study are contentious topics such as embryo research and fetal tissue research (National Institute of Health, 2008). Studies such as this could be deemed not ethically acceptable research. Researchers’ integrity can pose problems when researchers behave in ways that are not appropriate for the sake of research. Social and economic issues in research include problems such as stigma, embarrassment within social groups and financial burdens. If research data is disclosed to outside sources it could damage a participant’s reputation, they can become

Ethics comes into play when data is collected. Specifics pertain to all individuals included when data is being collected. Studies should not be conducted for a self-serving reason; they should be conducted in a way that keeps individual or group information confidential and the individual who is conducting the research should remain open minded and accept the results whatever they are. Also, subjects should not be forced to participate. All these things must be taken into account for

The names in this Observation Report have been changed to protect the privacy of the parents and the child.