Using Qualitative Research Methods For Teaching And Learning Research

The focus group (a less formal forum) included a medical doctor, two residents, two community members, two family members of the residents, nurses, director of nursing, the administrator, a member of the board of the directors, an IT specialist and human resource personnel. A focus group is a specialized group interview in which group members are not told exactly what the interviewer wants to

This method is applicable to my study because it allows the group of students the freedom to share their experiences, understanding and beliefs of the topic being presented. Focus groups are an asset to my research design because these groups work best for topics people could talk about with one another in their daily lives but do not. Focus groups are not always appropriate for highly sensitive and personal topics to be shared with strangers. However, for the purposes of my research the racially sensitive issues will be open to discussion because the focus group will only have African American students (Merriam,

Facilitating focus groups, interviews, allowed us to strengthen our qualitative research skills. As an outsider, the qualitative process was the most enjoyable to me. I was able to learn their way of living, strengths and challenges of their community. The process of creating the pretest and posttest surveys collectively was a challenge, yet another beneficially learning experience. I realized effective surveys take time to develop and need to be reviewed by multiple people. Developing poorly constructed questionaries’ is highly possible if no one takes the time to actually

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

This article represents a focus group type of qualitative research. According to Qualitative Research Consultants Association (2015), in focus group qualitative research, a group of individuals who share a need, life circumstance, or habit relevant to the research issue(s) at hand are led in a discussion by a modulator. The focus group discussions often include between two to ten respondents, and are often held face to face. They can also be conducted remotely through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or

In order to gather a lot of data, a focus group is recommended. According to Howitt D. (2013), an optimal focus group consists of six to ten participants (Howitt, 2013; Morgan, 1997). The fact that an experienced interviewer conducted the interview led to good control and desired data(Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, a thematic analysis provided a systematic overview of the results.

My focus group will be highschool and college students with an emphasis on those who are in the junior class of both institutions. I will take a small sample of each student group and the educators who are responsible for them. I initially

Focus groups are a popular method used to capture views and opinions for qualitative research.

Each interview and focus group audio was transcribed within 24 hours by a research assistant. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical package for social science to analyze the data set collected from the

Qualitative research method is a systematic strategy used for gathering information that are non-numerical, that is, they use visual and narrative words instead of using number. The data collected are from comprehensive case studies, focus groups a qualitative research approach whereby subjects answers an open-ended interview questions, likewise each others ' comments; ethnographies or field observation. (Headlessprofessor, 2012)

A focus group instrument is used when it is well suited to the subject matter in question by listening to the opinions of others in a small and safe group setting before they form thoughts and opinions. An A typical focus group is between 6-12 homogeneous people who share similar characteristics or common interests. Focus groups generally reveal what each person within the group truly feels on the subject which provides credibility to the study. The facilitator is key to promoting an accepting environment where the participants can speak freely without judgment allowing them to answer each question in their own words and acerbate on each answer. Surveys are good for collecting information about people’s attributes and attitudes but if you need to understand things at a deeper level then use a focus group. The facilitator’s goal is to generate as many and diverse opinions from as many different people in the time allotted. Although the discussion is free flowing, the facilitator follows a carefully structured list of predetermined questions that specifically satisfy the purpose of the subject matter (Christiansen, Johnson, & Turner, 2014). Ideally, participant comments will stimulate and influence the thinking and sharing of others. Some people even find themselves changing their thoughts and opinions during the group.

The focus group interviews used a semi-structured design. Each focus group lasted 90 to 120 minutes. Focus group participants were asked to commit to

Focus groups are a prominent method of enquiry, regularly used within the field of social science and in particular, qualitative research. The focus group practice involves a number of participants having an open discussion on a specific topic, set by a researcher. The researcher acts as a moderator to aid discussion by using probes to collect desirable data. This process is recorded and transcripts are used to interpret and analyse given information.

Focus Group can be defined as a group of individuals brought together, led by a moderator or a facilitator, to gather specific information from the interactions of the group about an subject(Marczak & Sewll). The motive behind this process is that, the individuals in the group can express and elucidate their views in a very simple manner(Sim, 1998) on a very

The data were analyzed with the SARA content analysis approach. This approach involves constant comparison, multisource and multipass strategies, and triangulation of data sets for more robust findings (86). Audiotape recordings, researcher observations and intentional debriefings after each focus group were used to document the focus group sessions. The researchers constructed themes and dimensions in an attempt to identify the messages communicated in the focus group sessions. The idea of multipass strategies is to continue data analysis until no new findings or insights emerge. The focus of the study using SARA was on the meaning of the experiences in the words of the participants and not how some researchers use SARA by counting how frequently certain words are used. Validity was based on the collective results of all focus groups and the saturation of common themes and responses.