This week we considered an experiential learning approach to discovering a research focus of real interest. We looked at developing a participant observation pro forma for capturing activities and instant reflections. We also considered who and what is university for... and various approaches to research: visual strategies; writing and collaborative writing as inquiry; and interview preparation.

1. Research Focus:
What are the options?
Drawing on the work of the
Experiential Learning CETL
University of Plymouth

2. Outline: Experiential Learning
Planning your research project?
 Make field trips…
 Decide: who to visit; what, why, where, when &
how
 Learn how to really SEE
 Observation pro forma
 Brief thoughts on Methods

Conclusions

3. Field Trip: experience your research:
Before you decide exactly what or
who you are going to research –
more field trips:
Choose locations
 Visit
 Observe
 Reflect


4. Why visit? See:
 What
is actually happening
 What sort of information it is possible to
gather
 The richness of the research field...
 Classrooms/groups/centres/activities
 What actually interests you…

5. We need to learn to really SEE:
Look and think:
o What is going on?
o Who is it designed for: Policy; Inspectors; SMT;
Parents; Staff; Students; Business; Society?
o How do I know?
o Which aspect interests me?
o How might I gather data?
o What ethical considerations?
o What permissions?
o When will I do this?

6. Things to consider:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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What is the University as a whole attempting to do?
How did they decide on that? Is this obvious?
What is the nature of the interaction between the staff
and the students?
How do the students interact with each other?
How do staff interact with each other?
How is information communicated between students
and staff?
How do staff feel about their
jobs/University/students/SMT?
How do the students feel...?
How does the University ‘articulate’ with the
surrounding community?

7. Prepare
How
will you SEE?

8. Remember:


Take a tape recorder: use a digital recorder to
capture the informal conversations between
people on your visits
Take pictures with your phone; GET
PERMISSION FIRST!!
When writing up:
 Contextualise your research: The University,
student population, borough…
 Your pilot visit and other observations: what,
why, when, where, who (for/by) & how
 SWOT your methods

9. Observation techniques
Structured observation
(FIAC)
(Flanders,1970)
Semi structured observation.
(Mayhew,1861, Brown, 2007)
Date
Time
Unstructured
observation
(Hamersley and
Atkinson,1995;
Mayhew,1861)
Visit
Location
Researcher
Lecturer/Staff
Sheet number
Activity
(What they are
meant to be
doing)
Experience
(what is actually
happening)
Learning (what and
why are they
learning)
Questions asked by
students
Comments

10. What is interesting?
When choosing a topic – Wiifm: what you
will you get:
Improved subject knowledge?
Improved research technique?
Head start on next modules?
Contacts for a job?
Topic for publication?
Topic to get you on to next course?

11. How will you gather data?

12. Visual strategies?
Image
mediated dialogue
Collage production
Cabinet of curiosities
Give cameras – participants produce
narratives…
Why?
Disrupts
the easy answer
Less text – more analysis?

13. Writing? (Collaborative)
Set
short writing task
Less text to analyse
How
to disrupt:
Zig-zag
Topic mediated writing
Image mediated writing
http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal

14. Interviews?
Test
the ‘Questions’ you would have in
mind when undertaking the study proper
Remember they have to be transcribed!
Then interpreted…
Then written up

15. Advantages and Disadvantages…
Methodology
Advantages
Disadvantages
Observation
Direct information
about the behaviour in
natural, unstructured
setting.
Requires well-qualified,
highly trained observers
Observer interference
Informal
Interviews
In depth
Affective and cognitive
aspects of responses.
Time is needed to get
systematic information.
Questionnaires
Allows time to consider
response
Unprompted by
outside source or
researcher
Response rate.
Only tells you the user's
reaction as he/she perceives
the situation.

16. Trial your interviews
Think of the different people you might interview.
Make a quick note of four different people…
What issues of ethics, anonymity, language, power … might
you have to consider?
Now - write out just two or three questions that you might
like to ask.
Remember to keep them as open as possible.
Try not to guide the answer.
Practise on a friend.

17. In pairs – use your questions …
Role
play
One be the interviewer
The other be the interviewee
Then
swap roles…

18. Reflect … SWOT
S: What did you like about your questions?
W: What did you not like?
O: What works …?
T: What could go wrong?
In the light of your practise:
Will you conduct interviews as part of your
research?
Will you use questionnaires?
Will you revise your questions?
Has this been useful?

19. What's next?
Action Research website – with links to BERA
http://www.jeanmcniff.com/index.html
 Cornell University site:
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/
 Quantitative/qualitative research methods - quizzes & resources
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing/sonet/rlos/ebp/qvq/index.html
 See also the wikipedia - follow the links to references re methods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative
 HEA Literature Review site:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/research/litreviews
Free online tutorial to develop data analysis skills & general support
http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/analysethis/
http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/resourcepages/doingresearch/doingre
search.html


20. References

Boyle, A., Maguire, S., Martin, S., Milsom, C., Nash, R., Rawlinson, S.,
Turner, A., Wurthmann, S.,Concie, S. Fieldwork is Good: the Student
Perception and the Affective Domain. Journal of geography in higher
education.1-19.

Brown,N. 2007. Henry Mayhew: London Labour and the London Poor,
1861, http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/25 (Accessed 16/04/2007)
Flanders NA (1970) Analyzing teaching behaviour. Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co. Reading, Mass.


Hammersley & Atkinson (1995) – Ethnography, Principle in practice.
Routledge.

Kirakowski, J. (2000). Questionnaires in Usability Engineering: A list of
frequently asked questions [online]. Available:
http://www.ucc.ie/hfrg/resources/qfaq1.html (accessed April 11 2007)

Mahoney, C(1997) Common qualitative methods in Frechtling et al. (Eds)
User-friendly handbook for mixed method evaluations, Division of
Research, evaluation and communication,.