Data Collection Tools

Sources of Qualitative and

Quantitative Data

The data collection techniques are

1. Observation
2. Interviews (including the use of focus
group and email)
3. Administering questionnaires
4. Examining Records/Documents
 Some other techniques
Phone calls
Personal and Official Documents
Photographs
Recordings
Drawings
Journals
Email Messages and Responses
Informal Conversations
Many sources of data are acceptable, as long as
the collection approach is ethical, feasible, and
contributes to an understanding of the
phenomenon under study.
 1. Observation

When qualitative researchers obtain data by

watching the participants, they are
observing. The emphasis during observation is
on understanding the natural environment as
lived by participants, without altering or
manipulating it.
For certain research questions, observation is the
most appropriate and effective data collection
approach.
Example
If you ask teachers how they handle discipline in
their classrooms. you run the risk of collecting
biased information—they may not remember
everything, or they may tell you only about
their most successful strategies. By observing
the classes, you will obtain much more objective
information that can be compared to the self-
reports of the research participants.
 Types of Observation
Participant and Nonparticipant

Participant observation means the presence of

the researcher in the field interacting with
people and local events.
Non participant observation means the
investigator posture present, but totally external
in the observed context and without Interact in
it.

Nonparticipant observation gives an unbiased

view of the group but participant observation
fails to give an unbiased view of the group.
The researcher may lose objectivity and become
emotionally involved with participants, for
instance, or may have difficulty participating and
collecting data at the same time.
 2. Interview

An interview is a purposeful interaction in which

one person obtains information from another.
Interviews permit researchers to obtain
important data they cannot acquire from
observation alone, although pairing
observations and interviews provides a valuable
way to gather complementary data.
Interviews can provide information that is
inaccessible through observation—observation
cannot provide information about past events,
or the way things used to be before Mr. Thomas
became principal, or why Ms. Haddit has had it
and is considering transferring to another
school.
• Interview questions can derive from
observational data you may see something and
want to ask follow-up questions to understand
the reasons behind particular events.

• Interviewers can explore and probe

participants’ responses to gather in-depth data
about their experiences and feelings.
• They can examine attitudes, interests, feelings,
concerns, and values more easily than they can
through observation.

• Interviews may range in length from a few minutes

to a few hours. They may consist of a one-time
session or multiple sessions with the
same participant. In addition, participants may be
interviewed individually or in groups.
• Interviews are distinguished by their degree
of formality and structure. Interviews may be
formal and planned (e.g., “We’ll meet Tuesday
at 1:00 to discuss your perceptions”) or
informal and unplanned (e.g., “I’m glad I
caught you in the corridor; I’ve been meaning
to ask you . . .”)
 Types of Interview
1. Structured
2. Un-structured
3. Semi-Structured

Structured Interview with a specified set of questions to be

asked, whereas others are unstructured, with questions
prompted by the flow of the interview. Semi-structured
interviews combine both structured and unstructured
approaches.
• The unstructured interview is little more than
a casual conversation that allows the
qualitative researcher to inquire into
something that has presented itself as an
opportunity to learn about something at the
research setting.
• The goal of informal interviews is not to get
answers to predetermined questions but
rather to find out where the participants are
coming from and what they have experienced.
Often informal interviews are used further in
the study to obtain more complex or personal
information.
• Structured Interviews
Qualitative researchers may also interview
research participants formally as part of the data
collection efforts. In a formal, structured interview,
the researcher has a specified set of questions that
elicits the same information from the respondents.
A major challenge in constructing any interview,
however, is to phrase questions in such a way that
they elicit the desired information.
 Guidelines for Interviewing

• Listen more; talk less. Listening is the most

important part of interviewing.
■ Don’t interrupt. Learn how to wait.
■ Tolerate silence. It means the participant is
thinking.
■ Avoid leading questions; ask open-ended
questions.
■ Keep participants focused and ask for concrete
details.
• Follow up on what participants say, and ask
questions when you don’t understand.
■ Don’t be judgmental about participants’
views or beliefs; keep a neutral behavior. Your
purpose is to learn about others’ perspectives,
whether you agree with them or not.
■ Don’t debate with participants over their
responses. You are a recorder, not a debater.
3. Administering the questionnaire
A questionnaire is a written collection of survey
questions to be answered by a selected group
of research participants.

Development of a valid questionnaire requires

both skill and time. As a general guideline, a
questionnaire should be attractive, brief, and
easy to respond .
Respondents are turned off by sloppy,
crowded, misspelled, and lengthy
questionnaires, especially ones that require
long written responses to each question.

Turning people off is certainly not the way to get

them to respond. To meet this guideline, you
must carefully plan both the content and the
format of the questionnaire.
Questionnaires are usually mailed or emailed
to potential participants. A questionnaire
administered in this way is relatively inexpensive
and usually permits collection of data from a
much larger sample than an interview or a
personally administered questionnaire.
 Guidelines for constructing a questionnaire:

■ Include only items that relate to the

objectives of the study.
■ Collect demographic information about the
sample if you plan to make comparisons
between different subgroups.
■ Focus each question on a single concept.
■ Define or explain ambiguous terms.
■ Include a point of reference to guide
respondents in answering questions
■ Avoid sensitive questions to which the
respondent may avoid or not answer honestly.
It is important to make your questions clear and
unambiguous. Remember that the
questionnaire must stand on its own; in most
cases, you will not be present to explain what
you meant by a particular word or item.
 4. Examining Documents

A valuable source of information in qualitative

research can be documents. Documents
consist of public and private records that
qualitative researchers obtain about a site or
participants in a study, and they can include
newspapers, minutes of meetings, personal
journals, and letters.
• Documents represent a good source for text
(word) data for a qualitative study. They
provide the advantage of being in the
language and words of the participants, who
have usually given thoughtful attention to
them. They are also ready for analysis without
the necessary transcription that is required
with observational or interview data.
Public and private documents.
Examples
Minutes from meetings, official memos,
records in the public domain, and archival
material in libraries.
Private documents consist of personal journals
and diaries, letters, personal notes.
Materials such as e-mail comments and Web
site data illustrate both public and
private documents, and they represent a
growing data source for qualitative researchers.
 Procedures for collecting documents
1. Identify the types of documents that can
provide useful information to answer your
qualitative research questions.
2. Consider both public (e.g., school board
minutes) and private documents (e.g.,
personal diaries) as sources of information for
your research.
3. Once the documents are located, seek
permission to use them from the appropriate
individuals in charge of the materials
4. If you ask participants to keep a journal, provide
specific instructions about the procedure. These
guidelines might include what topics and format
to use, the length of journal entries, and the
importance of writing their thoughts legibly.
5. Once you have permission to use documents,
examine them for accuracy, completeness, and
usefulness in answering the research questions in
your study.
6. Record information from the documents. This
process can take several forms, including
taking notes about the documents or, if
possible, optically scanning them so a
text (or word) file is created for each
document. You can easily scan newspaper
stories (e.g., on speeches by presidential
candidates) to form a qualitative text database.