Author Date

2025-12-07

Degree Name

Department

Biology

College

Life Sciences

Defense Date

2025-12-01

Publication Date

2025-12-07

First Faculty Advisor

Dr. Steven Peck

Keywords

Contractualism, DBER, Education Ethics, Education Research

Abstract

As universities grapple with funding cuts and heightened social and political pressure, the emerging field of Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) aims to improve student learning outcomes through experimental instruction. While using instruction as an experiment, with hypotheses and experimental tests, DBER research may affect student learning and experience in unintended ways for students involved in these classes. To address this concern, I impose ethical frameworks, namely contractualism, to better understand how the values of each stakeholder, students enrolled in experimental courses and researchers using these courses to test hypotheses, interact. I also identify potential misalignments. Following a contractual ethical framework, I suggest five practices that should be adopted to best meet the values of all stakeholders: (1) DBER experiments should inform prospective student participants at registration, before any instruction, that they are enrolling in an experiment. (2) DBER experiments must clearly explain what the ‘opt-out clause’ excludes students from and ensure that opting out does not disadvantage the student or the researcher; (3) DBER experiments should include criteria for ending experimentation when treatment harms student participants; (4) DBER experiments must compensate students adequately for any treatment-related harm that surpasses a set threshold; and (5) DBER experimental designs should be structured to minimize potential biases from the individual(s) who developed the treatment.