Qualitative Research Techniques

1. Qualitative Research Techniques

2. You can do research.  Believe it or not.  • The only real requirement is being able to find a question you want answered.  This is by far the hardest part in research and most people don�t progress beyond this point.  Once you have a question, these qualities are important in determining whether research happens and, if it does, the quality of the research: • motivation • ability to put ideas forward • willingness to receive feedback on one�s ideas and make appropriate changes • ability to think analytically and creatively • political savvy • project management skills • self-direction and self-discipline • having an applied context in which to conduct research • willingness and readiness to make use of technology

3. Support & Mentoring Especially when starting out, having the support or mentorship of a knowledgeable person makes for greater learning and better quality research.  Hook up if you can with someone who has had previous research experience, possibly through a university or other organization.  Share ideas regularly, and get the person's critical feedback on your ideas and research as it progresses.  Research is not really research unless its subject to peer review and public scrutiny, and so its important that your work is supported from an early stage by someone who can help to guide your efforts.

4. Hierarchy of Research & Evaluation Motivations -1. Active disinterest or intentional non-engagement with research and evaluation due to fear or misunderstanding. 0. Denial or non-awareness that research and evaluation could be a potentially valuable option. 1. The lowest level of motivation for actually conducting research and evaluation takes place when a person or organization is forced, such as being required by a funding agency. 2. An organization may seek out research and evaluation, but do so primarily for marketing and funding purposes. 3. An organization may seek to find out more about their program through research and evaluation because they genuinely want to learn about and improve the quality of the program. 4. An organization may conduct research and evaluation not only for program improvement but also to contribute to the development of a profession or industry. 5. An organization may conduct research and evaluation primarily for the sake of humanity and the cosmos.

5. How do I get Research & Evaluation Going in My Outdoor Education Organization? Introduction Know what the organization wants and values Internal Promotion External Appointment Academic Partnership Organizational Partnership Grants Students

6. Know What The Organization Wants and Values • The hardest part of conducting research is working out what is to be studied.  Literally any facet of an organization, program, experience can be researched, so its a question of narrowing in and selecting some areas of focus.  The two most common research questions that interest outdoor education organizations are: • Are our outdoor education programs effect in enhancing personal, social, and/or academic or bottom-line outcomes? • What are the most important elements of an outdoor education program in determine the effects of an outdoor education program?

7. Qualitative Research... • Is any research conducted using an observational technique or unstructured questioning. • Often viewed as a “Soft-approach.” Conducted: • when structured research is not possible, • when true response may not be available [embarrassing “touchy questions”] • to explain quantitative research results. • Should not be viewed as conclusive research. • Qualitative and quantitative research are complementary to each other.

9.  (the two quotes are from Miles & Huberman (1994, p. 40). Qualitative Data Analysis)

11. Direct vs indirect: Direct>> observing behavior as it occurs Indirect >> observing the effects of behavior Disguised vs nondisguised Nondisguised>>Direct Disguised >> Indirect Structured vs unstructured Structured>>predetermine what to observe Unstructured>>monitor all behavior Human vs Mechanical Human>>observation done by human beings Mechanical>>observation by machine Qualitative research = Observation technique Classification of Observation

12. Observation I • Appropriate Conditions • The event must occur in a short time interval, • avoid lag affect • Must occur in a setting where the researcher can observe the behavior • Praying, cooking are not suitable things to observe • Necessary under situations of faulty recall • Faulty recall>>remembering things such as how many times one looked at his wristwatch.

13. Observation:Advantages and Limitations • Advantages • Greater data accuracy than direct questioning, in natural settings people behave naturally, • Problems of refusal, not at home, false response, non-cooperation etc. are absent, • No recall error, • In some situations, only way • Number of customers visiting a store • Studying children’s behavior • Limitations • Time consuming, -- too many things to observe, • may not be representative, • difficulty in determining root cause of the behavior.

14. Focus Group I • An interview conducted by a trained moderator in a non-structured and natural manner with a small group of respondents. Group size 6-12 Group composition Homogenous, respondents prescreened Physical setting Relaxed, informal setting Time duration 1 - 4 hours Recording Use of audio and video cassettes Moderator Observational, interpersonal, good communication skills needed.

15. Focus Groups

16. Focus Groups II • Objectives: • Generate new product or service ideas • Understand consumer vocabulary • Useful for ad campaigns • Reveal consumer needs, motives, perceptions and attitudes, • Generating future research objectives • Facilitate understanding of the quantitative studies

17. Focus Group Procedure Determine the objectives of the Marketing Research Project and define the problem Specify the objective of qualitative research State the objectives/questions to be answered by the focus group Write a screening questionnaire Develop a moderator’s outline Conduct the focus group interview Review tapes and analyze data Summarize the findings and plan follow-up research

18. The Focus Group Moderator • The person who conducts the focus group session. • Success of focus groups depend on him/her, • He/she must strive for generating a stimulating natural discussion without losing sight of the focus, • Must take initiative, but should not dominate the discussion unduly, • Should have feeling of urgency, • Should participate in the research from the beginning, • Must add value beyond just conducting the session.

19. Traits of a Good Focus Group Moderator

20. Focus Group: Advantages and Disadvantages • Major Advantages: • Synergism, Snowballing, Stimulation, Security, Spontaneity, Speed and Cost savings. • Major Disadvantages: • Lack of representativeness, Misuse, Misjudge, Moderation problem, and Difficulty of analysis • A very promising technique.

21. Seven advantages of Focus Group I

22. Seven advantages of Focus Group II

23. Five Disadvantages of Focus Group

24. Other Qualitative Techniques Depth Interview:An unstructured interview that seeks opinions of respondents on a one-to-one basis. Useful for sensitive issues, politics etc. Protocol Analysis:Involves placing a person in a decision making situation and asking him/her to state everything he/she considers in making a decision. Useful in 1. Purchasing involving a long time frame (car, house) and 2. Where the decision process is too short (greeting card). Projective technique:Involve situations in which participants are placed in simulated activities hoping that they will divulge information about themselves that are unlikely to be revealed under direct questing.

25. Projective Techniques • These are indirect interviewing methods which enable sampled respondents to project their views, beliefs and feelings onto a third-party or into some task situation. • The researcher sets up a situation for the respondents asking them to express their own views, or to complete/ interpret some ambiguous stimulus presented to them. • Various types. More common ones are: • Free Word Association • Sentence Completion • Unfinished scenario/story completion • Cartoon completion test

26. FREE WORD ASSOCIATION In this technique, a list of carefully selected stimulus words or phrases related to the topic of research are read out, one at a time, to a respondent. The respondent is asked to respond with the first word or phrase that comes to his/her mind.The list of words should contain a mixture of test words and neutral words. In the example shown here, the researchers seems to be interested in studying high-tech banking (words with *). However, analyzing and interpreting test results are rather difficult.

27. SENTENCE COMPLETION This technique is an extension of the free-word association test. In this technique, the respondent is presented with some sentences containing incomplete stimuli and is asked to complete them. Like the free-word association method, interpreting and analysing data obtained from this technique is also difficult.

28. UNFINISHED SCENARIO COMPLETION This technique is similar to the sentence completion test. However, in this technique, the respondent is presented with a specific scenario containing incomplete stimuli [see example below] and is asked to complete the scenario. Interpreting and analysing data obtained from this technique is also difficult.