Inquiry tools

Before starting to my inquiry proposal I had to determine the inquiry tools I was going to use in the course of it. It was very helpful reading through reader 6 as it gave me a great insight into all the possibilieties I have and the pros and cons of them. I realised that I had to use multiple tools in order to achieve the best possible way of gathering information for my inquiry.

First of all, I decided to create a survey which I let fellow BAPP bloggers fill out. I found it very helpful and it was an easy way to collect data.

http://de.surveymonkey.com/s/MHLKF8J

The great thing about it is that you can see trends in questions very clearly and gives you an overview over the general view of people. The downside is that it's very impersonal. You can discuss answers beyond the point of what is written down, you only get what you ask for in the survey. Another issue is that people might be unwilling to fill it out and not take it seriously, so it's hard to make people participate in the survey. I will definitely use a survey as a tool of inquiry because it's the best way to collect general data and to see what trends there are.

Next, I conducted a pilot interview with one of my colleagues. I have to say it was far more difficult than I've imagined. It was hard for me to stick to the questions I've prepared because I other questions kept on popping into my head. I realised that I had to be better prepared for an interview and plan it more. Otherwise, I will not get the information I want and need from the interview. WHich I found really helpful was using a dictaphone. I made notes but only a few because I wanted to focus on the interview rather than making notes. Having the interview recorded helped me afterwards when I completed my notes because I didn't have to worry whether I forgot something. Also, it's great to have footage of the interview as evidence.

Conducting a focus group was a bit tricky. I did it with only a few people because eventually I'll do it groups of 4-5 people anyways. I prepared a set of questions but in the end it turned out to be more of a group conversation. I did quite enjoy it because I felt that everyone was more relaxed rather than at the beginning when I was asking questions. I think it will work better when I let the group members talk amongst themselves with me only inoutting questions and encouraging them to talk about it.

Finally, I also observed a class. I didn't participate in it but looked at it from the outside. It was difficult to the it because people in the class were distracted by my presence at first even though I've explained it to. I think the problem with observation is that everybody behaves differently ones somebody from the outside joins in. I will have to do another observation as a part of the class rather than just an outsider in order to see which one does actually work best.

Trying out all these different tools was a great experience and it helped me a lot when in terms of my inquiry. I decided, I will definitely use survey, interview and focus group as inquiry tools. I will probably also do an observation, I'm just not sure yet, how I will go about that.

Helpful research guide =)

Hi everyone,

For everybody who's interested in research and maybe needs a guide, I found this workbook really interesting and helpful. It basically explains research, different forms of inquiry and ethics.

Have a look ... it's definitely worth it ;)!

http://www.brad.ac.uk/management/media/management/els/Introduction-to-Research-and-Research-Methods.pdf

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