Ethics Committee

The Office of the Chief Scientist recently published a new procedure regarding  a teacher’s conduct of research in his or her classroom and the use of research dataFor a link to the document, click here  

Current guidelines: 

3.2 Academic use of data collected by a teaching employee at the educational institution in which he is employed   

3.2.1 In the event that a teaching employee, who is also a student at an institution of higher education, has conducted an internal research activity, the employee may submit a request to the Office of the Chief Scientist to use the data he collected as part of that activity for his academic needs.

3.2.2 The data that will be used for the purposes of academic work will not allow the identification of a parent, student, or any other person, except the teaching employee himself.

3.2.3 The academic use of data collected by a teaching employee about students or parents as part of the internal research activity is subject to the non-objection of all parents in the group of students/parents to which the data relates to the requested academic use, within one week from the date of contacting the parents on the subject.

3.2.4 To the extent that an objection to the requested academic use of the data is made, the teaching staff member will not be revealed to the identity of the objecting parent(s). For this purpose, the objecting parent will be instructed to forward the objection letter to the school principal (if the data collection was conducted at a school) or to the kindergarten supervisor (if the data collection was conducted at a kindergarten). The kindergarten principal/supervisor will notify the teaching staff member conducting the research of the receipt of an objection to the academic use of the data he/she collected, without specifying the identity of the objecting parent or his/her child (an example of the wording of an appeal to parents for the purpose of requesting academic use of data collected as part of an internal research operation is presented in Appendix 9).     

3.2.5 The data collected by the teaching staff, in their raw form, will not be transferred to any party and academic use will be made solely through the anonymous processing of this data.

*The definition of ‘internal research activity’: an activity carried out by a person in a position at the educational institution in which he is employed for the purpose of self-evaluation of his ongoing work at that institution and for its needs only.

Appendix 9: Contact form for parents 

Instructions for submitting a permit application from the Office of the Chief Scientist: 

The online system for receiving permit applications was built with the aim of streamlining the application processing procedures, and thereby, among other things, shortening the time required to conduct research.
The system is also intended to allow the applicant to independently update themselves on the progress of the application, to make it easier for them to submit additional applications in the future, and to even allow viewing of previous applications, if such were submitted in the past through the online system. To this end, applications for a permit to conduct research must be submitted only through  the online system .
Before submitting the application, it is important to ensure that the action requested is indeed required by the permit and that it also complies with all other relevant Ministry of Education rules for the case.  For a review of the rules for these purposes  and guidelines regarding documents that must be attached to the application , 
you can also send a question on the above subjects to the email address:  

madan@education.gov.il 

Requests to carry out research activities for the purpose of seminar work

A request to conduct a research activity that involves collecting new information in educational institutions for the purpose of seminar work (for a master’s or undergraduate degree) will only be reviewed if the request meets the criteria that allow it to be directed to the “green” treatment track. However, students may apply to the Office of the Chief Scientist with a request to be permitted (for the purpose of their seminar work) to use data that has already been collected in an educational institution as part of other research that was conducted (for example, by the course instructor). This is as long as the data provided to the requesting student does not include any details that identify the subjects or any other person. Such a request will be classified as a “green” treatment track

Prof. Yehuda Brandes – Head of the College

Prof. Shlomo Romi – Head of the School of Advanced Studies

Dr. Amos Geula – Head of the Research Authority (Committee Chairman)

Attorney Yehoshua Harling – CEO of the College (joint)

Dr. Avichai Kellerman – Vice Rector and Head of the Department of Education

Dr. Shira Rosenberg – Head of Teaching and Learning Division

Dr. Barachi Elitzur – Senior Lecturer, Head of the Girls’ Regav Program

Dr. Itamar Brenner – Master’s Degree Center

Prof. Uziel Fox – Head of the Department of Urban Studies and in charge of lecturer promotion

Dr. Moti Safrai – Head of the Measurement and Evaluation Unit

Dr. Yehudit Hasida – Academic Coordinator for Haredi Sector Programs

Rachel Levy – Committee Coordinator    research@herzog.ac.il