Policy for Conducting Research at the Child Development Center for Learning and Research in the Department of Human Development

We welcome investigators using our site, independently or in collaboration with core or affiliate Center faculty. The following policies guide our research enterprise:

1. If you are considering conducting a study at our site, please schedule an initial meeting with the Research Director to review your study, procedures and to become acquainted with the facility, technological equipment and parental informed consent procedures. If you are interested in future use of the site and do not yet have a formulated study, you are welcome to make an appointment for a tour of the facility to see if it will suit your purposes.

2. If the site and set-up work for you and your study seems appropriate to us (which we expect most will be), we will need to have a copy of the study protocol, the IRB approval letter, and any form of communication that is to go out to parents. We ask that parents be informed about how and approximately when they might be informed of the study’s results. Please note that any direct parent communication must be approved by the Research Director before it can be disseminated.

3. An approximate start date and time expected to complete the study should be agreed upon between the Lead Investigator and the Research Director, to ensure that research projects are properly staggered.

4. We will arrange with you use of the videotape system if you need it.

5. If the study is purely observational, separate parental informed consent is not required (it will be covered under our blanket permission form).
However, any interaction with the children or solicitation of information from children, teachers, administrators or parents will require parents to provide separate consent.

6. Data collected at our site remains the property of the lead investigator. However, we do ask that results are shared with our community in two ways – a brief summary of the study written in layperson terms, that we can include in our site study book and possibly be sent to participating parents; and a presentation in the spring at a research roundtable (please see next section).

Faculty affiliation

7. We ask that the lead investigator become an affiliated faculty member of the CDCLR for the duration of the study (including data analysis phase). This would require participating in a research roundtable symposium in the spring of each affiliate year, part open to the public (mostly probably families of the children and adults in our programs) and part in-house for faculty and students, to share what research has been or is being conducted at the CDCLR, future directions, and troubleshooting.

8. Faculty members who are sponsoring student research at the Center are also strongly encouraged to become affiliate faculty members for the duration of the student’s project. The student and supervising faculty member would both participate in the spring research symposium.

9. Other faculty with related research interests or who are interested in possibly using our site or collaborating on Center projects are also invited to become affiliate members, attending the research symposium and welcome to be part of other affiliate activities.

Procedures for Observational Research:

1. Observers should introduce themselves to the Research Director and the Assistant to the Director, to ensure safety for our children, senior citizens and staff.

2. For each observational period, observers must wear name tags (first name is fine), and sign in at the appropriate window, including what study they are part of.

3. Observers are requested to restrict themselves to the observational windows, except under the following circumstances: a) they cannot see or hear adequately in the classroom; b) the class is in the Intergenerational Studio or on the playground, out of the range of the observational windows. In these cases, observers may position themselves within the children’s “space.” They should not initiate interaction. If children or teachers initiate interaction, observers should identify their role as a “listening friend,” and clarify they are not teachers.

4. Any questions or concerns about any facet of this process should be addressed promptly with the Research Director.

Use of Child Development Center Dataset

1. Parents complete a packet of questionnaires on their family and enrolled child, as part of their introduction to the CDCLR community. This information is available for outside investigator use with the permission of the Research Director. If you are interested in using these data, schedule an appointment with the Research Director to review procedures for use. A list of the questionnaires and topics covered is available through the Center’s Research Program Handbook.

Policies last updated March 31, 2005