Before a researcher can start going through his data, he needs to take an inventory of all the data he has gathered (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In order to sort through all of the data that is collected a suggested way to simplify your findings is to first code the information, which is making short handed notes about your data (Lichtman, 2013). Once the researcher has started coding his information, he may begin to see similarities in the terms he used (Lichtman, 2014). The researcher can then take these codes and begin to make categories to put related information together (Cote, Salmela, Baria & Russell, 1993). Each of these categories should contain a unit of data, which should show information relevant to the study and should be the smallest piece of information that can stand alone (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As a researcher does this he is able to make sense of the data he has collected through reducing and interpreting what people have said and start to put meaning to what has been discovered (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In qualitative research, the accumulation of data is not as important as the growth of understanding about a specific phenomenon which can be done through the sensemaking of data (Miller, para. 2).
In order to make sense of my data, I plan to put each student’s observations in a table, so I will have a total of seven tables to look at instead of about 25. Each student will have all the data from each day together so that I can look at the individual student and notice gains or losses if any. I will also put my individual comments for the boys on each one of these tables, that way I can look at comments specific to the student and not as a whole class. For my surveys, I will average each week’s scores from the seven boys and then have a final average of all five weeks. This way I can look at the individual weeks and see the gains and losses if any, as well as their final thoughts and compare these to the first week easily without having to look through 35 different surveys. I will also be using the data I gather from my focus groups and be coding it and then putting the similar codes into categories to help me process the data and make it easier to study. I am hoping by having a smaller amount of data sheets to look through, the process of data analyzation won’t be as daunting as the final product is shaped by what I have gathered and I want my information to be useful (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Bibliography
Cote, J., Salmela, J., Baria, A., & Russell, S. (1993). Organizing and interpreting unstructured qualitative data. The Sport Psychologist.
Lichtman, M. (2013). Qualitative research in education (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
Merriam, S., & Tisdell, E. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (Fourth ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Miller, W. (2010). Qualitative research findings as evidence: Utility in nursing practice. Clin Nurse Spec, 24(4).