Understanding Ethics and
Codes in Research
Before learning this topic, I had understood
the norms that supposed to obey in research. This was caused that when I was a
member of research organization in my undergraduate campus, the institution paid
a lot of attention to this issue by creating a guide for conducting research.
All of members had to follow the rules and codes in that book when organizing
research.
The course enriched my
knowledge about norms and codes in research by reviewing some references such
as Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. I knew some codes that were generally accepted as
guidelines for all researchers in all institutions: honesty, objectivity, integrity,
carefulness, openness, respect for intellectual property, respect for
colleagues, confidentiality, responsible publication, responsible mentoring,
social responsibility, non-discrimination, competence, legality, animal care
and human subject protection.
One of the activities in
this lesson was playing role via online. This task helped me construct new
insight about ethics. For example, I recognized that each university using
public finding should possess an Officer of Research Integrity, having
responsibility in assessing the research misconduct. Misconduct was research
involving fabrication,
falsification, and/or plagiarism in proposing, performing and reviewing
research.
To conduct research in the University of Adelaide such as thesis and dissertation especially the one involving human and animals as objects, students must submit the request of ethics. In a session in this course, it was explained that it took approximately five weeks to get approval of ethic document. Therefore, it was suggested to the students who wanted to choose dissertation at the fourth semester to prepare their proposal as early as possible, ideally at semester three.
English Writing Skill
Weekly
task in this course was writing reflective blog. The students supposed to write
self-reflection on the blog on MyUni regarding what they had acquired and done in
a previous meeting and what improvement that they had experienced. In my point
of view, this method was like reinforcement in learning. In addition, this was very
beneficial for students to recognize that the activities they underwent were
not useless. Also, writing could aid the students remember the lesson. I
believed that repetition together with impression and association was the
effective way to remember something―rewriting was a kind of repetition.
I
had been creating six blogs during the course and this resulted in advantages
not only in terms of reflection on content of lesson, but also in improving my
English writing skill. This task forced me to produce 700-1,000 English words
per blog. It meant that I had opportunity to increase my “saving” of vocabulary
and to correct my grammar mistakes. I detected this enhancement when I wrote assignments
both in Research Design and in other courses. For instance, I could write
faster than at the beginning of this semester.
Presentation in English
Presentation is a compulsory part of
research. It is conducted to inform the audience about the research that wants
to organize. I witness three points of the importance of research presentation.
Firstly,
by doing presentation a researcher can explain the audience the idea of
research such as the problems that want to solve, the questions that want to
answer and its benefits to society. The audience will get insight about the
research and probably want to assist the researcher. Those who want to get support
from institution such as funding are strongly recommended to present their
research to convince the donors so they want invest their money. Meanwhile,
presentation of completed research becomes accountability for the public
especially for the donors.
Secondly,
presentation is the way to persuade people to read the paper presented. By
reading the paper, public can access and apply the findings. However, they will
not read the article if they are not interested in reading it.
Finally,
presentation is committed to get feedback on what will do or have done.
Feedback from the audience will assist the researcher in correcting mistake, getting
inspiration and fostering himself such as how to determine appropriate analysis
method.
A
challenge that I faced in presentation was how to speak English well. I believed
that exercise could solve this challenge. The more I practiced, the easier I did
presentation. It was why I did presentation exercise in my unit and in campus with
my friends. I applied what my lecturer said about tips of doing presentation, for
example, showing body language and doing eye contact. As a result, I displayed
a significant improvement. When I presented my research question at the first
time with Martin and Lucia, I felt nervous; but now, I like a course which has
many assignments of presentation.
Conclusion
To conclude, Research Design course has fostered
me in understanding research, both in concept and practice. There are a lot of
aspects that become indicators of this, but some that I highlight in this essay
are writing literature review, collating systematic review, avoiding
plagiarism, searching reference and creating citation, understanding ethics and
codes in research, English writing skill and presentation in English. These
skills help me complete task not only in this course, but also in other
courses. The skills will be applicable in the next semesters, even after I finish
my master degree in this university.
I experienced this growth because I
allocated a lot of energy and time in learning, struggling to challenges.
Persistence was the key in this process. I acknowledge the assistance of the
lecturer of Research Design, Mr. Richard Warner, who has given the lesson
patiently and provided course material for us. I also say thank to my friends who
became my partners in discussion on every Friday.
Student name :
Wahyuddin
ID number :
1685024
Subject :
Research Design
Program : Master of Education
School :
Education
University :
The University of Adelaide
Date :
10 November 2015
