SAQ 1116 Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

SAQ 1116 - Scholarship Essay Example Review and evaluate each method in the context of your own dissertation proposal and justify why you have or have not chosen either method as a means of data collection. While designing a research method, a key question is what should be the number of respondents. In research design, we must consider the tradeoff between efficiency (by increasing no. of respondents) and richness (by increasing depth of our questions) of data. Interviews can be unstructured, focused with more structure or highly structured resembling a questionnaire. Questions asked in an interview can be a 'Pure Inquiry' (What happened), 'Exploratory Diagnostic Inquiry' (What did you do) or even 'Confrontive Inquiry' (Have you thought about doing this). Since answers are in more detail, they provide in-depth or 'qualitative' data. Questionnaires are used generally to ask only 'Highly Structured' questions. Though it is obvious that you do not get much depth or quality answers, the efficiency of data is improved. Since a vast number of cases can be studied, the risk of interviewee bias and other problems can be reduced. Both quantitative and qualitative data offer alternative advantages and benefits that eventually serve the validity and the credibility of the entire research project. However, due to the nature of the dissertation, which requires much exploration, getting more quality and in-depth answers would be more desirable. Therefore, significant weight will be attributed to the qualitative approach, which is 'Interview Technique'. SAQ 13: Briefly review the Action Research and Case Research papers and compare each method as appropriate means of data collection or methodology for your dissertation research project. (500 words approx) Answer: Action Research Action Research (AR) is an approach to research that aims both at taking action and creating knowledge or theory about that action. Action Researcher takes action and is not merely a spectator. However, since AR projects are situation specific, they do not 'aim' to create universal knowledge. At the same time, it may extrapolate to other similar situation. Action Research is highly interactive requiring cooperation between the researchers and the client. AR is used to understand, plan and implement change in the style of working and should be conducted in real time. AR is appropriate when the research question describes an unfolding series of action and an analysis as to how and why these actions could change to improve the working. The Action Researcher needs to act in a facilitative manner to help clients inquire into their own issues and create and implement solutions. An AR cycle comprises three types of steps: 1. A pre-step: to understand the context and its purpose. 2. Six main steps: to gather data, feedback and analyse data, and to plan, implement and evaluate the action. 3. A meta-step to monitor. Case Research Case Research (CR) is based on analysis of a limited