Research Methods in Education System - Essay Example

Chpter 2: Methodology 2 Introduction mixed methodologicl pproch ws employed in this study. The primry method ws qulittive nlysis (content nlysis) of dt collected through personl interviews. mesuring instrument ws developed for this purpose. It ws bsed on the literture review, three interviews with techers nd the results from quntities nlysis of surveys. Figure 1 is grphic representtion of the methodologicl pproch. This chpter provides n insight into both the qulittive nd quntittive studies involved. This includes the high-level development of the questionnire nd the piloting thereof, the methods employed in smpling nd dt collection, the sttisticl tests conducted nd the issues round relibility nd vlidity. The chpter concludes with discussion on the techniques employed. The detiled design of the interviews is discussed in detil in the following chpter. Qulittive nd Quntities Reserch There re differences between quntittive nd qulittive reserch, in terms of the kinds of dt tht ech engenders nd the levels of nlysis t which ech opertes. Quntittive reserch is typiclly tken to be exemplified by the socil survey nd by experimentl investigtions. Qulittive reserch tends to be ssocited with prticipnt observtion nd unstructured, in-depth interviewing. Qulittive reserch The methods of dt collection with which qulittive reserch is ssocited hve been employed by socil scientists for mny yers. The best-known of these methods is prticipnt observtion, which entils the sustined immersion of the resercher mong those whom he or she seeks to study with view to generting rounded, in-depth ccount of the group, orgniztion, or whtever. Unstructured interviewing, in which the resercher provides Figure 1 Methodology rodmp miniml guidnce nd llows considerble ltitude for interviewees, is lso fvoured technique. Most prticipnt observers conduct t lest modicum of such interviewing, but some qulittive reserchers use it more or less exclusively. The ims of such interviewing re quite different from the fmilir survey pproch. While some qulittive reserchers mke use of n interview schedule, others operte with loose collection of themes which they wnt to cover. In both instnces (s well s in the mny exmples in between these two types) the subject is given much freer rein thn in the survey interview. qulittive reserch strtegy ws used in this study becuse this method fits better the chosen topic. Prticipnt observtion nd unstructured interviewing re the centrl dt gthering plnks since in this wy it ws possible to get closer to the people tht were investigted nd be less inclined to impose inpproprite conceptul frmeworks on them. Quntittive Reserch Quntittive reserch is ssocited with number of different pproches to dt collection. In sociology in prticulr, the socil survey is one of the min methods of dt collection which embodies the fetures of quntittive reserch to be explored below. The survey's cpcity for generting quntifible dt on lrge numbers of people who re known to be representtive of wider popultion in order to test theories or hypotheses hs been viewed by mny prctitioners s mens of cpturing mny of the ingredients of science. (Hirschi's 1969) In frmes of quntittive reserch tht dt re collected on cross-section of people t single point in time in order to discover the wys nd degrees to which vribles relte to ech other. 2.2. The popultion nd smpling Prticipnts were 3 techers completing their Msters degrees nd plnning to work s secondry school prctitioners. Interviews were conduscted during the week. Every meeting took bout 30 minutes. ll nswers were recorded nd then noted down on the pper. ll prticipnts where told it ws strictly confidentil nd the interviews where rrnged by myself, we communicted by telephone nd emil. 2.3. Piloting Leedy & Ormrod (2001) recommend the use of brief pilot study to test the vlidity nd relibility of mesurement instrument, developed for specific purpose nd never previously tested or used in prctice. The mesurement instrument used in this reserch ws subjected to pilot test. The min reson for this ws tht the instrument hd never been tested or used in reserch. The pilot test ws dministered specificlly to eliminte ny mbiguities tht my hve resulted in confusing sttements or instructions, nd to scertin whether the lnguge employed ws cler, understndble nd concise. The instrument ws tested on person who greed to pilot the interview. s the pilot interview went so well it ws mde possible to use in the study. 2.4. The semi-structured in-depth interview Zikmund (1984) points out tht during the primry stges of the reserch process in res of motivtionl reserch, the resercher my use reltively unstructured, extensive interview schedule. In such interviews, the interviewer sks questions nd probes for further informtion fter the interviewee nswers. The semi-structured interview usully revolves round few centrl questions (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001). These questions were ligned with the objectives of the interview in order to extrct useful informtion regrding these centrl themes. Open ended semi-structured questions were used for the interview questionnire. Open-ended semi structured questions provide frme of reference for the prticipnt's nswers, but do not limit the responses (Teno et l., 1998). Prticipnts re ble to qulify their nswers nd potentilly revel dditionl informtion not nticipted by the resercher. ccording to Hirschi (1969) ethnogrphy, prticiptory ction reserch nd interviews re useful for illuminting dditionl lyers of orgnistionl life in vriety of sport nd leisure settings. Disdvntges of opened-ended questions re the time consuming nture of coding nd the resercher / interviewer my misinterpret (nd therefore misclssify) response. Reserchers cn potentilly compromise relibility through inconsistencies ssigning sme codes to given text. Interview trnscripts hve dvntges s dt source ( Leedy, Ormrod, 2001). They re unffected by mesurement instrumenttion ppliction, the mteril is intentionl, tht is it hs been creted for this specific purpose nd the interviewer hs been ble to estblish feedbck loop with the prticipnt to clrify understnding. There is lso opportunity to probe for follow up nswers, use follow up questions, nd gther informtion by observtion. The interview technique does hve disdvntges though, such s high costs, time-consumption, due to possible wide geogrphic spred which my require trvel, setting up meeting times, rescheduling, longer periods in the field collecting dt, nd the need for well trined interviewers to crete positive interview environment (Leedy, Ormrod, 2001). The interview schedule consisted of four prts: prt one consisted of series of six questions, which were directly relted to the objectives of the interview process; the second prt included n dpttion of the Kelly Rep Test (Tn & Hunter, 2002) which ws used to elicit the fcets of motivtion. In prt four of the interview, the interviewee ws sked to confirm the fcets of secondry school students' motivtion (s per the literture review) nd to compre them with those proposed by them Ech in-depth individul interview ws conducted in the following wy: ll interviews were conducted by the resercher in person; the resercher spent the first few minutes of ech interview explining the theoreticl concept of socil cpitl nd the purpose of the study; ll the interviews were tped with permission from the interviewee; notes were tken throughout the interview; nd the interviews were recorded electroniclly nd subsequently trnscribed. 2.5. Bis s lredy mentioned, the min purpose of the qulittive study ws to provide evidence of whether the theoreticl fcets of motivtion identified through the literture review, dequtely covered those experienced in prctice. This study ws therefore in itself n internl vlidity check for the quntittive study. Leedy & Ormrod (2001) highlight the fct tht in qulittive reserch the resercher's bises nd vlues will lwys influence the interprettion of the dt. It ws for this reson tht the resercher sought vrying perspectives from multiple sources (personl interviews, books, rticle, internet websites) during this phse of the study. Contrdicting evidence nd perspectives were sought in order to chllenge the fcets of motivtion nd propositions developed through the literture review. 2.6. Tping nd Recording The dt for this study ws collected through tped interview nd Demogrphic questionnire. The tped interview ws trnscribed, nlysed, coded nd ctegorised regrding recurring themes. Interview questionnire nd trnscripts were hndled confidentilly nd provided with prticipnts' voluntry consent. The interviewee ws sked to think of two individuls who were motivted towrds the development of secondry school students' motivtion. The interviewees were sked bout primry motivtions tht they think could be used in the prctice of secondry school. This ws recorded under the heding of 'Mjor motivtion'. Then the discussion moved on into the topic of prcticl impliction of the motivtions suggested nd ws then recorded under the heding 'Prcticl impliction'. Finlly the interviewees were sked bout the importnce of motivtion nd if they were going to pply proposed techniques in their future prctice. 2.7. Dt nlysis Content nlysis is systemtic exmintion of body of text with the purpose of identifying themes, trends or bises (Leedy & Ormrod, 2001). There re three mjor methodologicl pproches/strtegies to content nlysis: conceptul nlysis, procedurl nlysis nd reltionl nlysis. The recordings from the in-depth interviews were trnscribed nd cptured electroniclly. The trnscripts were then content nlysed with conceptul nlysis s the strtegy employed. Conceptul nlysis is used to extrct the implicit nd explicit concepts present in text (Crley, 1990). The word 'concept' refers to single ide either represented by single word or phrse (Crley, 1990). n explicit concept refers to the ctul presence of word or phrse in the text, whilst n implicit concept refers to those words or phrses which occur in the text only by impliction. Crley (1990) points out tht it is methodologiclly more difficult to extrct implicit concepts nd tht this process requires subjective judgement. However, using only explicit concept nlysis might result in much of the mening being lost. Crley (1990) highlights the fct tht mjor problem with conceptul nlysis is tht the presence of concept might not be sufficient to provide mening. s mentioned bove, the primry objective of this phse of the study ws to confirm the motivtionl fcets identified through the literture review nd to extrct ny dditionl fcets which might exist. It ws not importnt to identify in which order the concepts ppered in the trnscripts (procedurl nlysis) or the reltionships between the concepts tht existed (reltionl nlysis). ll tht ws required ws mcro-level understnding of the fcets so tht the results of the nlysis could be used to vlidte the theory nd develop n pproprite mesuring instrument for the quntittive study. It is for the bove resons tht the resercher chose to use n implicit conceptul nlysis strtegy when nlysing the trnscripts from the in-depth interviews. Figure 2 represents the methodology employed in coding nd nlysing the trnscripts, developed from methods nd steps suggested by Crley (1991) nd Leedy & Ormrod (2001). The following nine steps describe the process in detil: Step 1: Decide on level of nlysis The nlysis ws conducted by serching for nd coding single words, sets of words nd phrses, relted to the concepts. Step 2: Decide on the concepts for which to code The trnscripts were coded ccording to pre-defined set of concepts. These concepts represented the nine motivtionl fcets identified through the literture review. certin mount of flexibility ws incorported into the coding process so tht new ides nd concepts could be found. Figure 2 Conceptul nlysis methodology Step 3: Decide to code for existence or frequency The trnscripts were coded for the existence of concepts s well s their frequency of occurrence. The frequencies were included so tht the importnce/relevnce of ny new concepts could be judged ginst the pre-defined list of concepts. When single words, phrses or combintion of both were used by the interviewee to convey single ide, this ws recorded s single occurrence. Step 4: Decide on level of generlistion nd impliction certin level of generlistion ws included in the coding process so tht words, sets of words or phrses could be coded s being the sme even when they ppered in different forms. Words or phrses were not coded out of context. The resercher sought the presence of concepts, whether they were explicit or implied through single words or phrses, not just the ppernce of words or phrses. Step 5: Decide on coding rules Since implicit concepts were included in the nlysis, the coding judgments were not entirely objective. Step 6: Decide wht to do with irrelevnt informtion Informtion deemed irrelevnt by the resercher ws ignored nd disregrded only if the informtion ws not directly relted to the study, or would not impct the outcome of the nlysis. The resercher skipped over unwnted mteril whilst trnscribing the interviews. Step 7: Trnscribe nd code The resercher trnscribed ech interview, cpturing relevnt informtion nd ignoring wht ws deemed to be unwnted mteril. The text ws then mnully coded ccording to the pre-defined concepts listed in Step 2. Importnt informtion tht could not be coded ccording to these concepts ws put side for further nlysis. The coded items were then grouped ccording to the pre-defined concept to which they relted. The items relting to ech pre-defined concept were then re-coded in order to identify sub-concepts (themes) within ech group. For ech group, this second level of coding ws performed using n interctive set of sub-concepts insted of pre-defined set, so tht relevnt ctegories could be incorported s they were found in the text. The dt which did not relte to ny of the pre-defined concepts ws then nlysed for ny indiction of pttern or trend, so tht pproprite concepts nd sub-concepts could be extrcted. Step 8: Tbulte results Frequencies for ech pre-defined concept were reported in the form of grph. For ech sub-concept, frequencies nd percentges were reported in tbulr form. Step 9: nlyse results s recognised by Crley (1990), conceptul nlysis provides limited levels of interprettion nd generlisbility. However, it is possible to see trends which imply much lrger ides. Observing the frequency of concept occurrences, it could be determined where the emphsis ly. References: 1. Crley, K. (1990): Content nlysis, in The Encyclopedi R.E. sher (ed.), Edinburgh: Pergmon Press, 725-730. 2. Hirschi, T. (1969), Cuses of Delinquency, Berkeley: University of Cliforni Press. 6-7, 9-10, 11, 19, 34, 35, 96, 97, 98-9, 100-101, 102, 110 3. Leedy, P.D. & Ormrod, J.E. (2001): Prcticl Reserch: Plnning nd Design, seventh edition, Upper Sddle River: Merrill Prentice Hll. 4. Tn, F.B. & Hunter, M.G. (2002): The Repertory Grid Technique: Method For The Study of Cognition in Informtion Systems, MIS Qurterly, 26(1), 39-57. 5. Teno, J. M., Stevens., M., Spernk, S., & Lynn, J. (1998). Role of written dvnced directives in decision mking: Insights from qulittive & quntitive dt. Journl of Generl Internl Medicine, 13, 439-446. 6. Zikmund, W.G. (1984): Business Reserch Methods, fifth edition, Fort Worth: Hrcourt Brce College Publishers. Read More