Article title: THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF INTRODUCING THE 5E MODEL OF INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ CONCEPTUAL LEARNING
Authors: Francesc Garcia I Grau, Cristina Valls, Núria Piqué and Héctor Ruiz-Martín
Journal: International Journal of Science Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2021.1918354
This article had ethical concerns raised by a reader, which were investigated in accordance with COPE guidelines. The authors, Editors, and Publisher have agreed to the addition of the below statements for clarity.
Ethics statement
Regarding ethical procedures, clear and comprehensive information about the objectives and proceedings of the study was given to all participant schools in written form. All participant schools provided informed consent to collect students’ answers and use them exclusively for our research with academic purposes. Informed consent was provided by the school in place of individual consent from the participants since this was in accordance with the Spanish personal data protection laws in force (Ley Orgánica 15/1999, de 13 de diciembre, de Protección de Datos de Carácter Personal and Ley Orgánica 3/2018, de 5 de diciembre, de Protección de Datos Personales y Garantía de los Derechos Digitales), which allow for schools to act as “data controllers” and be fully responsible for the use of students' data they collect. In this regard, the consent form we used declares that the signatory possesses the authorization to share the type of student information collected from the classroom surveys. Nevertheless, no personal data from the individual participants was stored (names were replaced by codes). Our study was based on resources previously approved for their use in schools. Other schools that did not participate in this study had already been using these resources for years. The experimental groups in this study freely chose to use the resources and implement the 5E model in their schools before they were ever approached to take part in the study. Considering that the data obtained for the article is from individuals with unknown identities, and the research is conducted in established and commonly accepted educational settings, this study was exceptionally exempted from an IRB review by the University of Barcelona.
Competing interest statement
Hector Ruiz-Martin (HRM) is an independent researcher affiliated with the International Science Teaching Foundation (ISTF), the nonprofit organization that has developed the resources that were used by the experimental groups in this study (the Science Bits project). HRM is the Director of the ISTF and he held shares of the company that distributes the Science Bits project in Spain (Learning Bits) from 2019 to 2021.
HRM was involved in providing the resources used for the study and contributed to the introduction of the article (on the 5E Model of Instruction and conceptual change) only. HRM did not participate in the design of the research. He did not have access to the tests and the data obtained and did not participate in its collection, analysis, or interpretation.
Francesc Garcia i Grau, Cristina Valls, Núria Piqué: No potential competing interests were reported by these authors.
Funding: Funding for open access publication (the APC) was provided by the International Science Teaching Foundation and Learning Bits. This funding only covered the open-access publication option and did not cover any aspects of the research.
Authorship: All authors agreed at the start of the study to include HRM as an author for his contribution to the article, and his involvement with the study was limited due to his affiliation with the organizations mentioned above.