Data Collection

3 Key excerpts on "Data Collection"

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  eBook - PDF

  Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology

  • Aparna Raghvan(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  The collection of information is a very essential step in conducting research and can affect results significantly. Once the research query and sources of information are identified, proper methods of gathering the data are determined. Data Collection consists of a broad range of extra specific techniques. Historically, tons of the gathering of data carried out in educational research depended on techniques developed for research in the discipline of psychology, a discipline which took what is known as quantitative approach. This involves the use of instruments, scales, tests, and structured observation and interview. By the mid to late twentieth century, other forms of disciplines such as anthropology and sociology began to have an impact on academic researchers. Forms of information collection broadened to encompass what is now known as qualitative methods, with a focus on narratives, participant perspectives, and much less structured monitoring and interviewing. As modern instructional researchers also come from fields such as business, political science, and medicine, collection of data in education has turned out to be a multidisciplinary phenomenon. Data evaluation is the procedure of evaluating data by utilizing the analytical and statistical tools to discover beneficial data and support in business decision making. There are numerous data analysis methods that may refer to data mining, text analytics, business intelligence, and data visualization. Data Collection, Analysis, Interpretation, and Utilization 215 Data Analysis is the procedure of systematically implementing statistical or logical methods to describe and illustrate, condense, and summarize, and evaluate data. The different analytic tactics offer a path of drawing inductive inferences from data and distinguishing the sign (the phenomenon of interest) from the noise (statistical fluctuations) present in the data, as stated by Shamoo and Resnik in 2003.

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  eBook - PDF

  Research in Parental Involvement

  Methods and Strategies for Education and Psychology

  • Yvette C. Latunde(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  145 © The Author(s) 2017 Y.C. Latunde, Research in Parental Involvement, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59146-3_9 Chapter 9: Data Collection Research has been defined as a systematic investigation or experimenta- tion aimed at learning more about a theory, practice, phenomenon, or the revision of any of those things in light of new facts and better practices (Webster, n.d.). An integral part of the research process is the process of Data Collection. It is the stuff that is needed to confirm or deny a hypoth- esis. Without data being properly collected, analyzed, and clearly commu- nicated findings may be scrutinized. Data Collection is driven by the research questions and purpose of the study or project. What you collect depends on what you want to know. Typically Data Collection can be categorized as qualitative or quantitative. Both types are collected for mixed methods studies as discussed in the chapter on mixed-methods. Decisions about what data is collected must be related to answering the research questions and in alignment with the pur- pose of the study or project. A study that has a purpose of examining male involvement in shared reading, may have the following research questions: To what extent do males participate in shared reading with their children? What is the relation between reading frequency and modeling of males in the home? What are the barriers to shared reading for males in the homes of K-12 students? These questions may be answered qualitatively and quanti- tatively. Observations, surveys, and questionnaires are a few options for col- lecting data that would inform our investigation of these specific questions. This chapter examines why and how data is collected, where it comes from, and if it is representative of the population. Qualitative and quantitative Data Collection approaches vary, and there is a direct relation- ship between data types and strategies for analysis. Some methods require specific procedures for Data Collection.

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  eBook - ePub

  A Guide to Research Methodology

  An Overview of Research Problems, Tasks and Methods

  • Shyama Prasad Mukherjee(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  4                     

  Collection of Data

                      

                      

  4.1 Introduction

  In this chapter, we would like to focus on the need for data in any research, be it theoretical or empirical, primarily involving qualitative analysis using nominal or categorical data and applying simple tools of logical reasoning or quantitative analysis with its usual emphasis on statistical concepts, methods, techniques and software. This is followed by a brief discussion of the two primary Data Collection mechanisms, viz. sample surveys and designed experiments. Instruments to be used in these two mechanisms to collect/generate primary data have been also indicated.

  Data have to be collected in any empirical research as the basic inputs. Both primary and secondary may be needed in some research, while only the former may be required in some other, while some research activity may deal only with analysis and interpretation of secondary data only. Secondary data have to be collected from their respective sources, due care being taken about their relevance, adequacy for the research objective(s), accuracy, reference to the time period of interest, operational definitions of terms and phrases used and the method of Data Collection and validation, etc. Sometimes similar data from different sources may have to be pooled with necessary care.

  Data Collection mechanisms following decisions on type, volume and quality of data as indicated in the research design play a very important role in all empirical researches. We generate numerical data when we measure or count some characteristic or feature possessed by the units or individuals selected for the study. (It should be remembered that most often – if not necessarily always – these selected units or individuals constitute a representative sample from the population or aggregate of units or individuals in which we are interested.) On the other hand, data by way of opinions or aptitude or attitude and also those related to purely observable attributes like language, complexion, religion, social group, occupation, etc. are ‘categorical’, in the sense that the responses derived from the respondents by direct observation or in terms of the responses to questions or other stimuli can be put into several categories. The number of categories should be neither too small to put all respondents in one category or a very few categories, nor too large to find very few responses in quite a few categories. In some cases, there may exist a natural number while in some others no such numbers pre-exist. Even in the case of a number pre-existing, we may group them into a smaller number. All this depends on the context.

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