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6. Research procedures

The section of your Action Enquiry dealing with research procedures.

Research Procedures

 

The section on research procedures must show:

  • the step by step process that you went through to collect and analyse the data.
  • your skills as a researcher and scholar (see MA criteria)

 

We need to be able to judge the appropriateness of the procedures and whether they will be reliable in portraying what happens.

 

We need you to show that you know what you are doing by reference to the literature on your procedures.

 

You need to show your research tool in the text. Your tool will probably be

a. questionnaire

b. a semi structured interview.

c. an observation schedule/ recording sheet

d. a research journal/critical incident collection.

Examples of tools can be found here

 

Let's start by discussing what makes a good question or a bad question?

Is it better to have a pre determined checklist of things to observe or just leave it open?

How are opinions best collected?

What biases might creep in through the procedures?

 

Document Actions

Research procedure

Posted by Lorna Tuck at Feb 18, 2010 01:45 PM
I am using a combination of all the above, observation being the main one as that fits best within my setting.
I have used a semi structured interview for the children, and the questions I have formulated are open questions mainly allowing for their own individual answers.
It depends on the information you want to gather, what questions you pose.
Does an open question reduce bias?

 

Research procedure

Posted by Ian at Feb 26, 2010 02:25 PM
Opne questions reduces one type of bias but increases another.

Opne questions allow the rrespondent to give the answeer uncontrained by the closing off of the questioner. Howeevr, the "randomness" of the answer makes analayis more difficult and opne to bias as opne questions are grouped and categorised.

Research tools

Posted by Morag Scally at Feb 20, 2010 04:38 PM
A good question enables answers to be unbiased, unled and clear

We need to be aware of closed or open questions in regard to how we process the answers.

If questions are all closed then we may limit the data we interpret, if they are all open it may be difficult to draw comparisons or conclusions.

I am trying to decide the best method to collect data for my evaluation. I have collected lots of documentary evidence and scheduled a focus group for analysis and to ensure objectivity, I am now stuck as to whether we produce a further questionaire - along the lines of the 6 OU questions - to go out to a wider staff group to gauge a wider perspective on the effectiveness of the programme. I could limit it to observation of current practice or I could interview staff that were there before curriculum changes were made to analyse the change.

Any thoughts?

Morag

Research tools

Posted by Lesley Rose-Brennan at Feb 21, 2010 10:50 AM
I am using questionnaires and have tried to use statements which are interpreted in the same way by different stakeholders within school, children, parents, teachers and governers. Using statements where stakeholders that have different opinions or traits will give different answers, which are easily understandable for all educational levels

Research tools

Posted by Ian at Feb 26, 2010 02:27 PM
Yes the agree disagree continuum agaist a list of statements is a good one.

Research tools

Posted by marion craven at Feb 22, 2010 01:32 PM
I suppose it depends on what you are trying to find out in your research. Is it about where you are now or about the change that has occurred.

Research tools

Posted by marion craven at Feb 22, 2010 01:33 PM
my previous answer was for Morag

Research tools

Posted by Ian at Feb 26, 2010 02:30 PM
Multiple methods are best. I would observe, survey and interview. Differnt groups and different data can answer different questions that you are focusing upon.

For example, you can ask people their aim, the processes they use to acheive it and what their outcomes are. But observation might supply a different picture to what they say.

research procedures

Posted by Jacqueline Schembri at Feb 21, 2010 03:15 PM
For my research I am using questionnaires to gather parents' perceptions. The questionnaires have mixed questions, that is some questions where you have to tick from a list of things and other open ended questions. I believe open ended questions are more difficult to analyse but they can provide further information.

Then I am using a measure of self esteem with young children, where the children can answer the questions about how they feel by choosing one of four pictures. As I perform this activity with the children I also have the opportunity to ask them some other questions face to face thus gathering more information.

research procedures

Posted by marion craven at Feb 22, 2010 01:23 PM
Jaqueline Your focus sounds similar to mine.

I am doing an interpretative approach. However I am using semi/unstructured conversations to gather parent's and children thoughts about children's learning/writing. Then I have used 'Blobs' as an informal measure of the children's thoughts. I/teacher are now doing regular focused observations on one child when writing.

Soon I will empower the learner and will watch for a change in learning behaviour (hopefully!).

I am taking an approach where I have to consider what I see/hear means and thus I have been quite careful to keep it focused what I am looking at by having set questions that I am looking for answers to. My questions are based on my biased thoughts and thus the whole approach is very subjective. Marion

research procedures

Posted by Ian at Feb 26, 2010 02:33 PM
As with all of you:- make sure your questions are not only supplying information about practice, satisfaction etc but also deeper understandings to you about the concepts, processes and issues in your field.

A report that just says "parents i a case study school were satisfied" will not necessarilly lead to insights into the nature of partnership and what creates/sustains it etc.

research procedures

Posted by peta griffiths at Mar 02, 2010 11:16 AM
I have recently completeda questionnaire with the students and support staff who work with the class my project is based around.
My concerns are about when you are interviewing /asking the questions of students how true are their responses?
I am not saying that students set out to give untrue answers but they may not always be the bext judges of how they best learn. I think stduents still believe that a quiet classroom where they work from text books is a hrd working learning environment. They do not always realise they are learning if they work in groupos / play learning games. They may see this as more fun but not necessarily a good way to learn.
How can this be built into our data analysis?
Also data retrieval may be different on different days relating to the moods of the stduents / what has happened before the lesson (these are Yr 9 students)
Peta Griffiths

research procedures

Posted by Ian at Mar 02, 2010 08:09 PM
You can only report on what is said or observed. Conjecture about why it was said should be separated from description of what is said.


Your write up should contain
a. description of data ie what is said/observed
b. analysis/explanation of data: what it means/how it came to be like that

validity may be decriptive and / or explanatory.

All good stuff for being self critical (as bassey asked you to be) and more weight for how unsatisfactory the research process is. But it beats "faith" or researchers at least.

research procedures

Posted by Ian at Apr 26, 2010 08:47 AM
Sounds good

Procedures for Analysis

Posted by Ian at Mar 18, 2010 01:17 PM


You should now be adding your description of the procedures for analysis of the data.

Please see the research methods folder and especially
http://midwhebonline.org.uk/[…]/analysing-data


There should be good use of terms like "immersion", progressive focusing' etc.

The materials cover
coding, weighing and verifying
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