Task 5D

 

At the moment I feel I am still fine tuning the wording of my question of inquiry, however at the moment it stands at;

‘How beneficial is dance class to children between the ages of two and five for physical and mental well being?’

 With this question the ethics around research involving children need to be address, which is slightly different to that of researching adults and parental consent is a must!

When looking around this topic I found some guidelines on research involving children;

 

Research involving children and young people should only be conducted where:

·         the research question posed is important to the health and well-being of children.

However, a research procedure which is not intended directly to benefit the child

subject is not necessarily either unethical or illegal. Such research includes

observing and measuring normal development and the use of ‘healthy volunteers’

in controlled experiments;

·         the participation of children is indispensable because information available from

research on other individuals cannot answer the question posed in relation to

children;

·         the study method is appropriate for children;

·         the circumstances in which the research is conducted provide for the physical,

emotional and psychological safety of the child.

• All proposals involving research on children should be submitted to a research ethics

committee for approval.

 

1 Anne Greig and Jane Taylor: Doing Research with Children (Sage Publications) 1999 p.148

 

Aswell as making sure my research has a positive outcome for the children involved I have also listed some bullet points below that I also think are ethically important when I am carrying out my research.

• To inform the parents and children of the research that I am doing (I intend to do this via letter or email)
• Gain information from the parents on there opinions of the research and the limitations of the research. (I intend to do this via questionnaire)
• Make sure the research environment is a safe one. (I intend to do this by carrying out a risk assessment of the studio that is in use)
• To inform all teachers I will be observing of my research ( I intend to do this through interviews before I start the research)

 I feel that this is just the begin of the ethics that I will need to develop and work by during my inquiry and I intend to develop this more over the coming weeks through my blog and my SIG group

 http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

 Your opinions and ideas would be much appreciated.