The document provides guidance on analyzing data for a dissertation or practice as research project. It discusses preparing both quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. For quantitative data, it recommends calculating averages, percentages, and interpreting results. For qualitative data, it suggests coding themes that emerge from sources like interviews and observing patterns across data. Both types of analysis require carefully interpreting results while being aware of biases, and reporting findings through tables, graphs, quotes or descriptions. The document stresses that research aims to discover theories from data, rather than confirm existing ideas.

1. Conducting your
research: data analysis
DISSERTATION AND PRACTICE AS RESEARCH
Week
10
Dissertation
and
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Research

2. Collecting data recap
 Remember your research question
 Keep careful notes of when, where and for what reason you collected
what data and how you collected it
 Keep notes of your responses, the problems and surprises of all research
activities
 Label/code/number up questionnaires
 Label all videos/observation notes
 Note and file all reading references
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

3. Preparing and entering your data
 Questionnaires
 Pre-code or categorise closed questionnaire questions
 Code any names for data protection
 Read carefully and code up less structured, more open-ended questions
 Analyse questionnaires in batches
 Are you looking at simple responses or comparing across responses for patterns
of relationships?
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

4. Preparing and entering your data
 Interviews/Observations/Journals
 Type up or transcribe tapes as you go
 Read it all through , yourself – where you can start to spot themes, trends,
categories and new ideas
 Keep copies/back up on disk/ memory stick and label
 Be open to any surprises
 Consider all your data – what themes and issues emerge? What is unexpected?
What is as expected? What else?
 Select what relates to your questions – there will be some data which is
fascinating but irrelevant to this piece of research.
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

5. Quantitative Data
 Calculations
 Averages, percentages
 E.g. 80% of the actors surveyed reported
that…
 E.g. Dancers participated in extra curricular
dance classes for an average of 3.4 hours
per week
 Interpretation
 You have never ‘proved’ anything!
 Be aware of self-selection bias
 Be careful of assuming causality
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

6. Quantitative Research: Reporting
Results
 Results
 Tables
 Graphs
 Percentages
 Words
 Don’t report results in more than one format!
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

7. Qualitative Data
 Gather together the data from the different sources
 Read through, annotate and see if and where patterns start to emerge
 Colour or number code the patterns and gather the data into groups in
terms of the colour of number codes
 Codes might include:
 Key concepts
 Theoretical ideas
 Key variables identified in the literature
 Emergent themes from the data
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

8. Qualitative Data
 Theme analysis
 E.g. Q: can you describe your performance anxiety symptoms?
 A: “Yeah sure. Let me think. I get butterflies in my stomach, I
yawn a lot actually when I’m going to the stage, and I get
sweaty palms. And then you get obviously the anxiety of, you
know, in your head, sometimes, it has happened to me and I
have to control it, sometimes I get ahead of myself when I’m on
stage, my brain doesn’t stop thinking. I think that’s everything.
I’m not sure. Sometimes it all happens at once.”
Week 10
Dissertation and Practice as Research

9. Qualitative Data
 Theme Analysis
 E.g. Q: can you describe your performance anxiety symptoms?
 A: “Yeah sure. Let me think. I get butterflies in my stomach, I
yawn a lot actually when I’m going to the stage, and I get
sweaty palms. And then you get obviously the anxiety of, you
know, in your head, sometimes, it has happened to me and I
have to control it, sometimes I get ahead of myself when I’m on
stage, my brain doesn’t stop thinking. I think that’s everything.
I’m not sure. Sometimes it all happens at once.”
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

10. Qualitative Research
 Interpretation
 You have never ‘proved’ anything!
 Be aware of your own biases when interpreting others’ words
 Be careful of over-interpreting finding
 Reporting results
 Use detailed description
 Illustrate key points, themes or ideas with quotes
 Some qualitative researchers create diagrams of their categories and themes
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

11. Critical Analysis
 Constructivism
 The constructivist world-view suggests that there isn't
a single truth/theory, rather all truths/theories are
relative and are constructed by individuals or by
society. Constructivism is a process of discovery
rather than confirmation; that is, you have data and
you attempt to extract theory from it
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

12. Critical Analysis
 Assessing quality
 Validity – bias is an issue in critical analysis research around the
role of the researcher – you should use theoretical approaches
to support your interpretations
 Reliability – How reliable are your sources? Are they
academically rigorous?
 Generalisability – can the finding be applied more broadly or in
different contexts, or are they specific to the work/practitioner
studied?
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

13. Critical Analysis
 Reporting results
 Descriptive: a descriptive account of the data i.e. this is what
was said, but no comments or theories as to why or how.
 Interpretative: a more interpretive analysis that is concerned
with the response as well as what may have been inferred or
implied.
 Critical: a very high level of critical interrogation characterised
by sustained critique of content/subject that goes beyond
what is inferred or implied in theory and practice, to offering a
thoughtfully imaginative criticism and/or (re-) reading.
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Dissertation and Practice as Research

14. Practice as research
 What are your criteria for assessing your
success?
 What outcome do you want to achieve –
goals?
 Demonstrating key stylistic features?
 Apply theoretical framework?
 Outcomes
 Embodied knowledge
 Demonstration
 Performance
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Dissertation and Practice as Research