IRB Protocol Starting Point for Those New to Geoscience Education Scholarship and Publication

Abstract

Scholarly endeavors in geoscience education span a spectrum from the development and application of new geoscience teaching innovations and curricula to the development and testing of geoscience education research questions and hypotheses. These can be characterized as the scholarship of geoscience teaching and learning (geo-SoTL) and geoscience discipline-based educational research (geo-DBER). Both geo-SoTL and geo-DBER are important for improving the geoscience teaching practice. In terms of Journal of Geoscience Education (JGE) publication, geo-SoTL best aligns to the Curriculum & Instruction (CI these distinctions are largely in the purpose, study design, and methods. Data needed to determine if a teaching innovation is meeting its goal in a C&I study, or to test a particular research question or hypothesis in a Research study, often involve surveys or interviews of people. These could be, for example, students in a class, or participants in a workshop or field trip. While such human subject data is common to research in the social science disciplines, it is distinctly different from physical, chemical, or paleobiological data that geoscientists are trained in collecting and analyzing. For that reason, geoscientists who are interested in getting started in geo-SoTL or geoDBER need to become familiar with the rules that guide human subject research.The federal government, your institution (in most cases), and JGE each provide resources to help you understand what your responsibilities are when conducting research that involves human subjects. If you are new to geoscience education research and publication take the time to look at each of these resources as you plan your study:* Federal Government Resource: Recently the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) published human subject regulation Decision Charts (http:// www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/checklists/decisioncharts. html) to assist investigators and institutions in determining whether an intended activity is human subject research, and if a study protocol may be eligible for exemption by a college or university's Institutional Review Board (IRB). These Decision Charts are in (mostly) plain language and ask a series of straight-forward yes/no questions. Working though the charts will not take long and can help investigators place their intended research in context of federal guidelines on human subject research.Based on the OHRP Decision Charts, most of the types of data collected, analyzed, and disseminated in geoscience education studies of adult populations are of minimal risk to study participants, and are therefore typically eligible for exemptions or expedited review by IRBs. For example, in most cases research that is conducted in classrooms or labs that focus on investigations of instructional strategies, curricula, and classroom management, and use educational tests, surveys, or interviews meet this criteria. In addition, studies that involve existing data (e.g., collected for the purpose of student assessment in a course) also meet this criteria. In all cases the privacy of the individuals will need to be assured so that study subjects cannot be identified or harmed by the reported results. …