Steven,
If the goal of her study is to assess the educational value of the exercise in
her class, and she has no plans to present the results anywhere, what she is
doing is not research. As such it should not be reviewed by the IRB.
If she is doing research, it is not the purview of the IRB to suggest that
change unless the IRB has determined that the assessment tool posses a risk for
the students, and I can't see that it does.
Joel
Joel S. Freund 216 Memorial Hall
Department of Psychology
Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201
Phone: (479) 575-4256
FAX: (479) 575-3219
E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sun, 14 Oct 2007, Steven Specht wrote:
:-)Dear TIPsters,
:-)Argh! I need some help. A colleague of mine submitted a study for
:-)approval by our IRB. She proposed a pre-/post- design to assess
:-)students' attitudes before and after a particular chemistry lab
:-)experience. I can provide more detail if necessary, but the point is
:-)fairly straight-forward. The IRB rejected her proposal and told her
:-)that she should use a different assessment instrument before (i.e.,
:-)pre-) and after (i.e., post-). They also told her that instead of a
:-)Likert scale, she should use open-ended questions.
:-)#1 - Changing the assessment tool from pre- to post- certainly
:-)introduces a serious confounding variable, imho
:-)#2 - Although an open-ended (qualitative?) assessment might be useful,
:-)there is nothing wrong with asking the same questions using Likert
:-)scales (and shouldn't this be a decision that the researcher makes?
:-)
:-)With regard to concern #1, I am having a bit of difficulty finding
:-)information specifically which addresses this issue (since it is so
:-)fundamental, in terms of confounding). Does anyone have any specific
:-)information from a source which indicates that the same instrument
:-)should be used to avoid confounding the research?
:-)
:-)Thank you.
:-)
:-)-S
:-)
:-)
:-)========================================================
:-)Steven M. Specht, Ph.D.
:-)Associate Professor of Psychology
:-)Utica College
:-)Utica, NY 13502
:-)(315) 792-3171
:-)
:-)"Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it is
:-)quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran up
:-)the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958)
:-)
:-)---
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