Category: Qualitative Research

Analyzing Life

7/22/2019

For my research friends, I'd like to introduce a book that clearly describes the processes involved in analyzing qualitative data. My dissertation chairperson suggested the book: Qualitative research: Analyzing life, Saldaña, J., & Omasta, M. (2017).

As I analyze my research interviews exploring experiential learning at an Asian campus of a large American university, I am finding this new book to be a rich source of guidance. In the past, I have pulled my research method references from several authors, including Saldaña's The coding manual for qualitative researchers, and also including Becoming Qualitative Researchers by Glesne (2011), and Interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences, by Seidman (2013).

The new Saldaña, J., & Omasta, M. (2017) book is designed as a college qualitative research textbook. It is easy to follow and combines the methods that I have studied elsewhere into one book. For my dissertation, I will mostly refer to this text when I describe my analytic methods, if only to simplify the references. This is worth purchasing (or borrowing from the library) if you are doing any sort of qualitative study.

#qualitativeresearch #qualitativedataanalysis #dataanalysis #Saldaña #Omasta #experientiallearning

References
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (5th ed.): Pearson.
Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (Third ed.): Sage.
Saldaña, J., & Omasta, M. (2017). Qualitative research: Analyzing life: Sage Publications.
Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (4th ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

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Student Linquistic abilities

6/30/2019

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I am analyzing the interview data I collected from students for my PhD dissertation. Many of these students are amazing, especially in their linguistic abilities.

I'll let this excerpt from the transcript of one interview with a female student speak for itself. The student's name below is a pseudonym.

Paul: Okay. Uhm how many languages do you speak?
Mary: Four.
Paul: What are they?
Mary: Portuguese, Japanese, English and Spanish.
Paul: Wow!
Mary: Hmm.
Paul: That’s pretty impressive.
Mary: No, I wish I could be fluent in all of them. English and Spanish are the most challenging.

I should add that the student's English during two long interviews was flawless.

#smartstudents

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Excel & Word for qualitative data analysis

6/16/2019

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I have continued to experiment with the use of MS Excel and Word to analyze qualitative date -- in this case, interview data for my PhD dissertation. The method described by Ose (2016) is amazing, although it has a few disadvantages.

Disadvantages include having online one major code for each interviewee quote. In my spreadsheet, I have an additional column for a secondary code, but I do not include that column when going through Ose's (2016) steps to convert the Excel file for Word. I use the added column as a reference as I work with the Word file during my secondary coding, categorizing, and creation of themes.

If you use her method as described in her paper, you will need to enlarge the Figure 10 and 11 screen shots. The concatenation instructions are complex, but trust what she writes, and pay special attention to the following on page 9:
F1 cell: =CONCATENATE(D1;"(";A1;"_";B1;"_";C1;")")
The "_" underscore symbols represent spaces, not use of the symbol, and in my instance of Excel, the semicolons were commas when I used the Function feature to create this string.

This is what the formula looks like in my file:
=CONCATENATE(D1,"(",A1," ",B1," ",C1,")")

The screen shot below is Ose's (2016) Figure 6 image on page 9. Keep in mind that there are additional "Text" boxes that aren't visible in this image.

Reference
Ose, S. O. (2016). Using Excel and Word to Structure Qualitative Data. Journal of Applied Social Science, 10(2), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1936724416664948

#dataanalysis #qualitativedata #interviewdata

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Interview Highlights

5/23/2019

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Following are highlight quotes from my experiential learning research interviews.

Instructor
Talking about the comments in student evaluations of the course at the end of a semester:

"I always have a student or two who are like, 'She didn't teach anything. We just discussed things in small groups. Why do I pay to have discussion?'"

I'll add to this list as work through my analysis.

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Writing my Experiential Learning Dissertation

4/22/2019

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The research for my PhD dissertation is almost complete. The analysis starts in one week, along with starting to write. The research subject and questions are:

Exploring definitions and perceived value of experiential learning at an American university in Asia.

1) What definitions of experiential learning are expressed by students, faculty, and administrators?

2) Within a classroom learning context, how do participants describe teaching and learning related to experiential learning? Specifically, how do:

a. students describe their own classroom experiences with experiential learning?

b. instructors describe their experiences with experiential learning?

c. administrators describe their understandings of the ways in which instructors and students experience and engage in experiential learning?

3) What value, if any, do students, faculty, and administrators ascribe to experiential learning?

During this research, which involved interviews of students, instructors, and academic administrators, I was impressed by the insights and thoughtfulness of many of the students. Interview questions included asking about the value of experiential learning, its challenges, and definitions from the students' perspectives. Here is one student's statement of value:

"I think it enables me to ... be more adaptable. Yeah, because it puts me in a situation likes there's no predictability. I have no idea what I'm going to face next. So it keeps me on my toes ... enables me to think fast and be more ... malleable, yeah."

Here is another quote from a student who is defining experiential learning:

"I think experiential learning is ... a more active form of learning ... it doesn’t involve just like the lectures and the spoon-feeding that most Asian education systems are like ... Asian education system is ... it’s very common to have the lecture style of teaching in Asian schools, but I feel that the program [I am in now] is more of interactive ... We did class group projects and discussions in class. So it’s more about like an active engagement in the content that we’re learning. It’s not simply just memorizing from the textbooks. So I feel that yeah, it’s like we get to interact first hand with practicalities of the content that we’re learning."

Several students identified social loafers among the challenges of experiential learning. For example:

"I guess one of those would be social loafer where people do not put in as much effort as you do, and perhaps also the level of motivation, because maybe some people are not as motivated to accomplish this task."

There is so much more. For the next two months, I will be analyzing the interview data to code and categorize the interviews, and then to identify themes. Listening to the students during the interviews was a treat. I look forward to revisiting the interview transcripts and the recordings to conduct the analysis. More updates will follow.

Image reference
Bergsteiner, H., et al. (2010). "Kolb's experiential learning model: critique from a modelling perspective." Studies in Continuing Education 32(1): 29-46.

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Early Research INterview Reflections

11/29/2018

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This week, I started interviewing instructors and students for my Ph.D. dissertation research. I am amazed at the depth of thought that the instructors and students invest in their work. The reflections from students show real consideration for what they are learning, how they are learning it, and how they can apply their new knowledge to their lives and careers. The instructors demonstrate a sincere consideration for the quality of education they deliver, and for how they educate. I've also interviewed one administrator and I was impressed by his concern for the quality of education in the institution.

As the research progresses, I will share my insights and fresh points of learning that I gain from talking to these interviewees. For those who are interested, here are my research questions.

Research Subject: Exploring definitions and perceived value of experiential learning.

1) What definitions of experiential learning are expressed by students, faculty, and administrators?

2) Within a classroom learning context, how do participants describe teaching and learning related to experiential learning? Specifically, how do:
a. students describe their own classroom experiences with experiential learning?
b. instructors describe their experiences with experiential learning?
c. administrators describe their understandings of the ways in which instructors and students experience and engage in experiential learning?

3) What value, if any, do students, faculty, and administrators ascribe to experiential learning?

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"Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Running Out of Excuses" (Yong, 2018)

11/23/2018

The glass is half full.

While half of the replication attempts in this study failed, half succeeded. That is wonderful news for the researchers whose studies succeeded.
The methods of the replication attempts appear to be valid and thorough, according to the article. The replication attempts also checked for possible cultural differences.

That half of the original study results were replicable across cultures is a positive outcome, at least for the half of the studies that were confirmed.

The researchers from the unconfirmed studies can return to their methodologies to evaluate how they might improve their studies, and maybe can confirm their outcomes, or otherwise, modify their conclusions.

The article is not clear about the actual research methodologies that were evaluated. I assume the study designs were quantitative as opposed to qualitative, because qualitative studies generally may not be expected to be replicable.

The first thought that I had after "The glass is half full," was of the work by Hatch (2002) on research paradigms. Not all research can be replicated. See the illustration below.

References
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Suny Press.
Yong, E. (2018). Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Running Out of Excuses. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/psychologys-replication-crisis-real/576223/

Research Paradigms (Hatch, 2002, p. 13).

Experiential Learning in Vietnam

8/3/2018

I recently led a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on my research at a Vietnamese STEM university. I co-led a workshop on Project-Based Learning methodology. The two workshops were:

22 August
Experiential Learning Methodology Workshop with Mr. Paul McAfee

23 August
Training on "Project-Based Learning" with Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen and Mr. Paul McAfee

August 22 Experiential Learning Research

Project-Based Learning Workshop

First Experiential Learning Research Paper Completed

8/7/2017

My first paper, titled "Experiential learning pedagogy interviews in a STEM program at a Vietnamese university in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)," is complete. I consider this a draft and will receive feedback from one of my professors in the near future. The next paper will be my research proposal for my dissertation.

Following is the abstract from the paper I completed. I would be happy to discuss the research if any of my friends or associates are interested.

"This study reports on two pilot studies that I conducted at a STEM university in Vietnam. The first was a 2016 survey of students’ exposure to and attitudes toward experiential learning. The mixed methods survey comprised closed-ended Likert-type scale and open-ended questions. The second study was a set of interviews in 2017 of instructors at the university with the same research topic. The interview questions sought more detail about students’ feelings toward experiential learning, plus instructors’ use of, and feelings toward, those methods. Both studies found wide use of experiential learning methods as well as broad appreciation for those methods among the instructors and students. These studies were pilots intended to provide background for the design of my dissertation research. The primary audience for this report is the administration of the university in which I conducted the studies."

The research included a survey of students at the university, asking them about the types of experiential learning the had encountered, and their attitudes toward the methods. The image at the top is a graph from the responses to one question.

Here is one of the illustrations in the paper showingfoundational experiential learning theorists, from Kolb (1984/2015).

D. A. Kolb’s (1984/2015) figure connecting the three foundational experiential learning theorists with contemporary applications of these theories (p. 18).

Reference
Kolb, D. A. (1984/2015). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development (Second ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Qualitative Research Tech Tools

7/15/2017

As I write my analysis of active and experiential learning in my 2016 student surveys and 2017 instructor and student interviews at a STEM university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I am trying to use technology tools. What I have discovered is that the learning curve is steep. There are three tools I am using:

NVivo from QSR International - www.qsrinternational.com/
1. This is a powerful analytic system that I am finding difficult to use. The issue I am facing is formatting and importing interview transcripts. I have decided to bypass this software until after my paper is done, and then return to it when I do not have time pressure to finish.
Voyant Tools - voyant-tools.org/
1. This is a free online tool for frequency and associated analysis. It works, and it is easy to use. There are some issues with the way I collected my data that limit the utility of the results from this tool, but I will use it and explain the limitations.
EndNote - endnote.com/
1. Anyone who has written research papers has at least tried to use EndNote. This is for citations and references and works within MS Word. Because I want to ensure that I have properly cited everything, I'm going to tough it out and figure out how to use this properly

I share this for my academic friends. If you have suggestions, please post them in response to this blog update. If you are going through similar learning processes for these tools, get in touch. Maybe we can help each other.
Back to the writing grind ...
Paul

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Analyzing Life

Student Linquistic abilities

Excel & Word for qualitative data analysis

Interview Highlights

Writing my Experiential Learning Dissertation

Early Research INterview Reflections

"Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Running Out of Excuses" (Yong, 2018)

Experiential Learning in Vietnam

First Experiential Learning Research Paper Completed

Qualitative Research Tech Tools

Paul mcafee

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