Task 6B: Positives & Negatives of Reflective Tools

Over the course of our third campus session a few of us as a group looked at a few data gathering tools introduced within the course reader for part 6. The key to these four tools that we looked at whose voice would be the most prominent in terms of the data is actually gathered throughout each process. 

Survey

Strengths:
-       As a participant you are able to conduct a survey when you feel you are most able to 
-       Because a survey can be anonymous you may be more likely to get honest answers as the participant feels their identity is protected
-       A good tool for general questions
-       You can get a broad response to your questions/ideas
Weaknesses:
- Authenticity. A major issue with surveys are the fact that people may feel pressured to complete them and as a result rush through them allowing for findings to be less authentic
- People may choose not to participate within the survey
- Without being able to clarify what questions are asking people may misread a question and give you an answer that is irrelevant
- The intentions of the participant may not be fully conveyed within a written format
- A survey may be structured in a way in which it is superficial and written to draw answers that the researcher would like to gather. 
Voice: The participant

Interview


Strengths:-       One on one element can allow for a conversational aspect that organically brings out further questioning. Adds more depth to answers
-       More authenticity as you are listening to in depth opinions
-       Less chance of misunderstanding
-       Questions are very specific
-       Answers are normally coming from a well informed source (practitioner/specialist)


Weaknesses
-       Interviews can be hard to arrange 
-       Time consuming process
-       Potential to encourage bias depending on the questioning
-       Participant may tell you what you want to hear
-       Intimidating environment
Voice: Participant initially then the researcher during the analysis of interview

Focus Group:
Strengths:
-       Potential for like-minded insight which can lead to substantial insight
-       Participants are people affected by your topic of discussion
-       Stakeholder opinions may prove for useful, reliable analysis
-       Discussion based so can gain various experiences from the same subjects
-       Less preparation needed
-       Free flow of ideas
Weaknesses:
-       Potential to go off track very easily
-       People within may group may find the atmosphere intimidating and lead to results skewed by peer pressure
-       Discussion may end up dominated by the same participant leading to an unbalance in results
-       Difficult to organise
-       Possibly very time consuming
Voice: Participants

Observation:
2 types of observation: 
Non Participant Observation: An outsider looking in. For example A researcher observing a teacher with their class
Participant Observation: Observation of your own practice. For example a teacher observing their own class

Strengths:
-       Observers get to look at a live organic situation
Weaknesses:
-       Observer has no input
-       Behaviour of the observed may change leading to non-reliable results
Voice: The researcher’s interpretation of what they have observed.