A research methodology is an approach that you use to acquire the knowledge you have identified in your research question(s). In this section, you will find a number of commonly used methodologies.
Action Research is a methodology that allows you to investigate educational practices as you engage in them (praxis).
There are several ways to help you get acquainted with this methodology in the context of educational scholarship. As a first step, you can self-enrol in our QMplus course Starting your scholarship journey with Action Research.
Action Research plays a large part in the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) offered through the Taught Programmes team. You can learn more about that from the PGCAP web page.
You can contact the Queen Mary Academy to arrange for a workshop on Action Research for your team or explore some of the resources below.
Using focus groups is a social research method that gathers a small group of people to under their views or experiences of a particular topic.
There are several definitions of focus groups, for example organised discussion (Kitzinger, 1994) or collective activity (Powell et al., 1996). Whatever the definition, a focus group is essentially a group interview. It is a quick and effective way to gather qualitative data from a group of people who might share a common topic of interest.
A qualitative research methodology, focus groups are concerned with subjective data as expressed by participants. An individual focus group is not comprehensive, but gives detailed data about the experiences and views of a small sample group. Focus group data must be analysed in context. For example, participants might change their views on a topic after the focus group has finished, this does not invalidate the responses given in the focus group itself. Similarly, the discussion will be impacted by the personalities in the room, this provides authentic data and is a strength rather than a limitation of the focus group methodology.
Practicalities
It is recommended you should have between four to ten participants for up to two hours.
You should also give full consideration to ethics, such as how formal consent and confidentiality can be achieved. Because a focus group is a discussion between a number of participants you need to consider how data can and should be handled if a participant wishes to withdraw from the study after the focus group has begun.
There are pros and cons to conducting focus groups and you as the researcher play a crucial role in an effective focus group.
Your role :
You need to play an active role in a focus group, to encourage active discussions, to ask probing question, to tease out difference of opinions and to critically challenge what is being discussed. Most importantly, you need to control the group and ensure the discussion is on topic, whilst allowing enough freedom so you get the most out of your participants.
As the data you wish to collect is the participants’ views, opinions and experiences, the focus group facilitator should avoid suggesting ‘correct’ answers, for example, by expressing their own opinion(s) about the topic discussed.
Pros :
Cons :
References:
Gibbs, A. (n.d.). Social Research Update 19: Focus Groups. Sociology at Surrey. Retrieved 21 May 2024, from https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU19.html
Health Liaison Librarians. (n.d.). LibGuides: Qualitative study design: Focus groups. Retrieved 21 May 2024, from https://deakin.libguides.com/qualitative-study-designs/focus-groups
Kitxinger, J. (1994). The methodology of Focus Groups: The importance of interaction between research participants. Sociology of Health and Illness, 16(1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347023
Powell, R. A., & Single, H. M. (1996). Focus Groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8(5), 499–504. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.499
Surveys can be useful for harvesting general overall opinions from a large group of participants over a short period of time.
When designing a survey, the first thing you should consider is a well-defined purpose of the survey, how the questions will help answer your research question(s) and ideally, identify your target population and sample size to ensure representative result.
You should develop questions that are clear, concise and relevant. To achieve a balanced result, you could consider using a mix of open-ended and close-ended questions. This approach can achieve depth and quantifiability of your data.
If time allows, you should pilot test your survey with a small group of people to identify issues and refine your questions.
You should also give full consideration to ethics, such as how formal consent can be sought and whether you will have a workflow in place for participants to withdraw from your study if they wish to.
Open-ended questions:
These questions are designed to be answered with free text, either of few words or longer answer, depending on your aims. They are used to collect qualitative data, such as opinions, experiences, accounts and narratives.
Close-ended questions:
These questions provide a specific set of predefined responses for your participants to choose from. They can be multiple-choice options, yes/no answers, rating scales or Likert scales. They are used to gather quantitative data, allowing efficient data analysis and comparison.
Key challenge:
A key challenge of surveys is participant recruitment. Plan your publicity carefully before embarking on a large-scale survey. For context, look at your module/programme/school/institute response rates for existing surveys such as module evaluation and NSS. Think about the resource that goes into publicising these. Then consider if you are likely to attract respondents to completing your (additional) survey and how to ensure you reach your target audience.
Deakin University. (n.d.). LibGuides: Qualitative study design: Survey. Retrieved 29 June 2024, from https://deakin.libguides.com/qualitative-study-designs/focus-groups