Research Methods Week 5 – 27 May 2014
This session was very informative as we looked at data collection and the merits of the various tools available to us. We looked at:
- questionnaires
- surveys
- interview
On questionnaires we looked at different examples from Clive Opie’s (2004) book on doing Educational Research looking at how questions were constructed with examples of good and bad. There was one discussion about abbreviations where the question used WP, I read this to mean WordPress however it turns out it meant Word Processing.
We also looked at Cohen et al., (2011) chapter on surveys and discussed the difference between surveys and questionnaires. What I got from this discussion was a questionnaire is a survey tool; where as a survey is the process of using questionnaires to gather information. It was very interesting to learn the distinction.
We then discussed interviews as collection tool and the types of questions, i.e. open / closed / probing, and when to use each type. The main thing I got from this session was to look at the power relationship between the interviewee and the interviewer and try to reduce any bias. I will need to ensure the interviewee is comfortable enough to give genuine responses and not the responses they perceive the interviewer is looking for.
This session was very informative for me as I may be using these specific tools in my research.
References
Cohen L. Manion L. Morrison (2011), Research Methods in Education 7th Edition, Abington, Routledge
Opie C., (2004), Doing Educational Research, SAGE Publications Ltd, Bradford