Week 1 – Assignment 1

Obtaining Informed Consent

 Mills (2014) states, “The role of ethics in action research can be considered in terms of how each of us treats the individuals with whom we interact at our school setting…” (p. 38). As such, the participants must be informed of the nature of the research that is to involve them. Additional and important components of ethical considerations of action research are freedom from harm, anonymity, and confidentiality. Typically, the process of obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is required for action research as well as other types of research in the field of education for the purpose of protecting human research participants (Brydon-Miller & Greenwood, 2006). However, IRB approval for your action research project conducted in this class only will not be required since the consent form will be used. The process of obtaining permission by the participant and submitting a completed Consent Form is pivotal to the continuation of this research project and in the successful completion of this course. Some students received approval for the Informed Consent process from your EDU671 Instructor. If this is the case, please submit the approved Informed Consent document only. If you have had a change to your organization, research, or parties, you are required to submit a revised Action Research Informed Consent Form or Informed Consent Alternative for your Instructor’s review. 

Submit Consent Form (4 points): Submit a completed and accurate Informed Consent Form signed by the research participant in your study no later than Day 7. For some of you, you will upload the form approved in EDU671. For others of you who have made a change to your research proposal, the revised Informed Consent form is required to be submitted. For example, if you are observing a teacher, you are required to have that teacher review and provide their signature on the Informed Consent Form.

Reminder: You are expected to follow your proposed intervention or innovation previously approved during your enrollment in EDU671 and for which your Action Research Proposal describes and your signed informed consent form represents and was approved. If a change to your setting or circumstances has occurred since EDU671, you will work with your instructor to propose a different action research focus and intervention/innovation in time to stay on track with the course work in this course (EDU675). 

If you previously proposed performing your action research intervention or innovation within your own home with your family members, your signed Action Research Informed Consent Form still applies with your signature as the researcher and participant, granting permission for your minor child(ren).

Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.