Data Analysis

Data Analysis Florida International University Research in Music Education Stephanie Jones Data Collection In Data Collection it is important to choose all elements of the research intentionally. Identify the purposefully selected sites or individuals for the proposed study. The idea behind qualitative research is it purposefully selects participants or sites (or documents or visual material) that will best help the researcher understand the problem and the research question. Creswell (p. 178) Aspects for consideration when planning research Setting (Where you will be researching) Actors (Who you will be observing) Events (What the actors will be observed doing)Process ( The story of what the researcher is observing)

Unit of Analysis

Unit of Analysis The major entity that is beinganalyzed in the study. All the planning should relate to the intended unit of analysis. Without purposeful planning the unit of analysis could be anything. As planning and data collection happen the research goes from being a broad question to concentrated findings Planning Before entering the field, qualitative researchers plan their approach to data recording. The proposal should identify what data the researcher will record and the procedures for recording data. - Creswell (p. 181) Having a plan is important. How the researcher will collect information and what information should be collected must be decided beforehand. Observational Protocol Recording things like descriptive notes separate from reflective notes Interview Protocol Deciding on what questions to ask beforehand and what icebreakers will be used. Choosing the questions beforehand eliminates the variables in the responses. Analysis It is an ongoing process involving continual reflection about the data, asking analytic questions, and writing memos throughout the study. Data analysis involves collecting open-ended data, based on asking general questions and developing an analysis from the information supplied by participants. Quantitative data deals with measuring tools and collecting numbers and readings. Qualitative data on the other hand has the researcher dealing with people. A clear cut analysis is not available. This requires the researcher to go back to the interviews and look for common themes that appear.

Coding https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRL4PF2u9XAVideo that details the process of coding. 0:00 2:30 Describing and developing themes from the data consists of answering the major research questions and forming an in-depth understanding of the central phenomenon (unit of analysis) through description and thematic development. Codes are grouped together by themes.Through initial data analyses, you may find 30 to 50 codes. In subsequent analyses, you reduce these codes to five to seven major themes through the process of eliminating redundancies. Examples of coding

Coding is an important part of the process for understanding the data collected. Until initial coding is done the researcher cannot see the common themes that are appearing.

Examples of Coding

It does not matter how coding is done, as long as it makes sense to the researcher. Coding is a vital step in the process of funneling the broad research topic into concentrated analysis.