Games for Good

I have just embarked on a 3-year PhD scholarship program. I am really excited by the opportunity. I thought that before I get too far in, it might be good to do some reading on research methods. This blog entry summarises the important points from the book: A practical guide to Research Methods: a user-friendly manual for mastering research techniques and projects. The author is Catherine Dawson.  The book is available to read and buy from: http://www.howto.co.uk/business/research-methods/ The online version is an abridged version of the printed book.

Chapter 1. Preface

The author describes this book as a practical down-to-earth guide for people who want to conduct research. It assumes no prior knowledge of research methods.

This book defines research as: “the deliberate study of other people for the purpose of increasing understanding and/or adding to knowledge”.

The book offers advice on turning ideas into a workable project and keeping motivation levels of high as well as how to do the research.

It is not an in-depth look at research methods. It provides further reading suggestions in each chapter on related areas.

The author has experience in education, housing and community research.

Chapter 2. How to Define your Project

On maintaining interest in your research, the author suggests that the topic is of interest to you and/or that the research methods interest you.

Spend time thinking about your project before moving into the planning stage. When you start to think about your project, think about the 5 ws:

• What? What is your research? Be specific. TIP: sum up your research in one sentence.
• Why? Why do you want to do this research? What is its purpose?
• Who? Who will be its participants?
• When? When are you going to do your research?
• Where? Where are you going to conduct your research?

Suggested activity: Once you have thought through the 5 Ws, sum it up in one sentence and discuss this with your supervisor.

Chapter 3. How to decide upon a methodology

The author defines methodology as the philosophy or general principal that underpins your research. Research methodology is different to research methods. Research methods are the tools that use to do your research.

research type	focuses on	key methods used	differentiating features
qualitative	exploring atittudes, behaviour and experiences	interviews & focus groups	tries to get in-depth information from participants fewer people tend to take part with longer periods of contact.
quantitative	generates statistics through large-scale surveys	questionnaires or structure interviews	reaches more people small contact period with people.

There are many different methodologies under qualititative research.

Neither approach is better than the other, they are just different. You may use both approaches in your research.

My comments: This chapter doesn’t get into all the methodologies available. It ony discusses qualitative and quantitative research types. However, it does give a comprehensive list of resources to explore for more information on specific methodologies such as action research, ethnography, feminist research and grounded theory.

Suggested activity: Examine the language used in the 5 Ws to work out which methods should be used.

Chapter 4. How to choose your research methods

Four research methods are discussed:

• interviews
• focus groups
• questionnaires
• participant observation.

Each method is divided into a number of types, disadvantages and advantages of each is discussed and hints are given for when to use which method. All methods should be chosen according to needs and means and personality traits of the researcher also need to be considered.

Chapter 5. How to conduct background research

There are two types of research – primary and secondary. Primary research is when you study the subject firsthand through observation and investigation. Secondary research involves the collection of information from studies that other researchers have made on the subject.

You should consider the bias and accurateness of any information you receive. You should also consider your own bias.

This section contains a list of techniques to use when using websites for information.

It also gives you some ideas and practical techniques on how to keep track of your research.

10. How to Construct Questionnaires

Decisions to make about a questionnaire include:

• Is it closed-ended, open-ended or a combination of the two?
• Is it going to be self-administered or interviewer-administered?

There is a table describing the advantages and disadvantages of using this method.

Some tips for constructing questions are listed below

Do:

• keep the questions short and simple
• try ty make sure all possible answers are covered when using closed-ended questions – especially when you are asking questions like “how often do you…” If you do t provide all possible answers, participants may be forced to tick a box that isn’t right for them
• include a ‘don’t know’ category where appropriate. Don’t force people to have an opinion about something they know nothing about and/or don’t care about.
• ask filter questions where necessary. For example, “How often do you wash your car?” is a leading question based on two assumptions – you own a car and you wash it. Firstly, ask them if they own a car, secondly ask them: “if you wash your car, how many times a year?”
• keep the questionnaire as short as possible
• offer a respondent incentive where possible and if appropriate for taking longer surveys. If budget is limited, you could offer a copy of the final report or other information
• be realistic about how long a questionnaire will take to fill in
• include ilter questions with answers so as “If no, go to question 28″. This is good psychologically for the respondent. People become frustrated by irrelevnt questions.
• start with easy questions which respondents will enjoy answering – if you begin with log questions, your respondents will be less likely to complete the questionnaire
• make the questionnaire easy to follow and as interesting as possible
• vary the type and length of questions – variety provides interest
• lay out your questionnaire well, use lots of whitespace
• collect only the type of personal information which is completely relevant to your research
• pilot the questionnaire – test it to see if it is obtaining the results you require
• create a clear and concise questionnaire
• include a covering letter about who the research is for and what will happen with the results
• provide good instructions on how to complete the questionnaire
• include details on how the questionnaire will be returned to you
• make sure you include a date by which time you would like the quesitonnaire returned
• send out followup letters to non-respondents

Don’t:

• use jargon and technical terms where possible
• use words that have a double meaning or can can nbe misinterpreted
• make the question ambiguous
• use questions that will cause anoyance, frustration, offence, embarrassment or sadness
• ask a double-barrelled question – that is, two questions in one. A double-barrelled question should be phrased as two questions
• use negative questions (questions that have ‘not’ in them can be confusing especially when a respondent is asked to agree or disagree)
• write questions that have a prestige bias. That is, don’t use phrases that might embarrass respondents into giving a false answer. They might do it so that they don’t look ‘bad’ in front of the researcher. Questions about income or educational qualifications may illicit this type of response
• ask leading questions
• create a cluttered looking questionnaire
• ask for too much personal information

 Steps for piloting the questionnaire

1. ask people who have not been involved in developing the questionnaire to read it through and see if there are any amibiguities you have not noticed.
2. alter questions accordingly
3. send out a number of questionnaires to the type of people who will take part in the main survey. Make sure they know it is a polot test and ask them to forward any comments they may have about the length, structure and wording of the quesitonnaire.
4. go through each response carefully, noting comments and looking at the answers to the questions. This will help you discover whether there are still ambiguities present.
5. alter questions accordingly
6. if major alterations were made, go back to step 1.

Tips for obtaining a high response rate

• Point out how the questionnaire is relevant to the lives, attitudes and beliefs of the respondents
• Be sure to investigate the following issues:
  • for a self-administered questionnaire, can the respondents read?
  • are there language barriers? do you need to translate the survey into several languages?
  • are your respondents likely to cooperate? eg. illegal immigrants may be less likely to respond than legal immigrants
• Provide straight forward instructions
• Provide realistic estimates of how long the survey will take to complete
• Tell the respondent who the research is for and what will happen to the results
• Reassure the respondent that you will comply with the apropriate ethical standards for data use and storage
• For postal surveys, include return postage
• Send a follow-up letter and duplicate questionnaire for people who do not respond.

Other chapters

Here are the titles of the remaining chapters:

6. How to Choose your Participants
7. How to Prepare a Research Proposal
8. How to Conduct Interviews
9. How to Conduct Focus Groups
10. How to Construct Questionnaires
11. How to Carry out Participant Observation
12. How to Analyse your Data
13. How to Report your Findngs
14. How to be an Ethical Researcher

My comments

This is an introductory book.