Section 5: Observing
Developing your method
In Section 3 you decided on the method you would use to collect evidence about the effect of your intervention; this might be classroom observation, a questionnaire, interviews, looking at pupils' work or one of the other methods outlined previously.
The relevant further readings in Section 3 will have given you some guidance on how to go about your data collection. Remember what it is you are trying to find out - what is your research question?
If you are using a questionnaire, interview or observing, you might find these checklists useful:
 
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Activity
You should now complete drawing up your questionnaire or other research instrument. You may like to ask your learning adviser for any comments or to share with other students in My forum. Remember to comment on other students' contributions to the forum - your suggestions will be helpful to them.
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Activity
Now test out your data collection method before using it to check that it fits in with classroom activities and collects the kind of information you want. You might give your questionnaire to just two or three pupils, interview one person, or do an observation for ten minutes.
Think about these questions:
- Did it take too long?
- Did it give me too much data?
- Do I need to make any modifications to how I collect data?
- Most importantly: did it give me the information I need to evaluate the change?
Record your experiences in the relevant section of your saved copy of My Journal or download the blank template.
Remember to be realistic about the time you will have to analyse your data and don't ask too many people or use too many questions. We would advise against using video for the data-gathering in this small scale project; this is extremely time-consuming and complex to analyse.
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