week 3 Flashcards
(30 cards)
survey development process
- Deciding on topic to research
- Formulating research question
- Focus group discussions (if applicable)
- Literature review (background for items included in questionnaire)
- Development of scales & subscales to reflect the construct being researched (informed from focus group & literature review)
- Drafting a tentative set of questions (basis for survey items)
- Critical review to detect common flaws
- Putting questions into a survey format
- Pre-testing using an approximation of proposed data collection procedures
- Revising survey as required
Advantages of Pilot Testing
-
Can provide valuable information about how long it takes respondents to complete the survey.
- Respondents can highlight which questions are unclear, were difficult to answer, were ambiguous, or presented confusing response formats.
whats cognitive interviews
- Cognitive interviews provide researchers with a deeper understanding of scale items based on verbal reports of respondents when they describe their thought processes when answering particular questions.
whats four questions are cognitive interviews designed to answer
- Are questions consistently understood?
- Do respondents have the information needed to answer the questions?
- Do the answers accurately describe what respondents have to say?
- Do the answers provide valid measures of what the question is designed to measure?
whats the two most common tasks of cognitive interviews
- To ask respondents to say in their own words what they think the question is asking.
- To ask respondents to explain how they chose a particular answer over others.
conducting mailed surveys
- A maximum of 12 pages is recommended for mail surveys
- Your cover letter should include a brief explanation of the study, an explanation of how you obtained the respondent’s name, why it is important that each “sampled” respondent cooperate, and a short assurance of confidentiality.
- Avoid mailing during holiday periods.
questionnaire design steps summary
- Decide what information is needed.
- Search for existing questions.
- Focus groups.
- Draft new questions/revise existing ones.
- Sequence the questions. 6. Get peer evaluation.
- Revise and test on self/co-workers /peers/family membes.
- Think-aloud interviews.
- Revise/eliminate questions.
- Prepare interviewer instructions for pilot test.
- Pilot test (5-10 cases).
- Revise eliminate questions based on respondent & interviewer comments.
- Pilot test again, if necessary.
- Prepare final interviewer instructions.
- Be prepared to modify questionnaires if interviewer training raises problems.
- After interviewing is complete, debrief interviewers for potential problems.
- Use experience from one study for future planning
different tools for literature review (Talbolt and verrinder)
- Using two visual concepts (visual diagrams, the grid and funnel) to explain the techniques and phases in literature management to inform program planning.
- With the funnel diagram, we described their process of writing, using the funnel shape to illustrate the progressive narrowing of the focus of the review and integration of content from the columns.
- drawing up the grid as we described their process of assembling and reading literature
whats a synthesis
: is the ability to bring together a variety of facts and concepts into a coherent, clearly written discussion, in order to further our understanding and add to the wider academic discourse.
whats a synthesis matrix
: a table in which you can collate the views, ideas, or data according to the themes relevant to answering your research question. Where relevant it is also important to note limitations of the studies, and details regarding their sample size and methodologies, etc.
whats description
\: identifies the process, methodology and/or stages. Describes aims and purpose. Reports facts and information Questions: - what? - Who? - When? - Where? - How? - Why? Point of view: - Neutral position - Balanced and unbiased - Presents a narrative overview of a situation
whats analysis
: Identifies significance and implications to the current study, wider academic discourse, and professional practice. Compares and contrasts information in order to examine connections.
Questions:
- What concepts are important?
- How are they related?
- What tole do different variables play?
- What contributions, strengths or weaknesses are apparents?
- Why should we care?
Point of view:
- Critical
- Expresses evidence based evaluation of the material
- Considers merits and demerits
whats IMRad writing structure stand for
Introduction Method results and Discussion/Conclsion
whats summarising
Briefly outlines the main points of a source without adding your ideas or changing the author’s meaning. You should summarise material when providing an overview of the framework, process, or methods, that are relevant to supporting your point.
whats paraphrasing
: Expresses information or ideas from other sources in a similar number of words as the source text. You should paraphrase material when you want to cite a concept, but the specific words they have use are not crucial to making your point.
whats quoting
Repeats the author’s exact words (but make sure you also discuss the significance and implications of what they have said to fully apply it to your argument!) You should only quote material when the exact wording they have used is essential.
how to paraphrase
- Read the original text several times to fully understand it.
- Note key concepts, and think about the overall meaning of each part, and begin to put the content in your own words by summarising the main point of each section in a sentence or two.
- Put the reading aside and state it in your own words without looking at it.
- Cite your source.
- Compare your text to the original and check that:
- The text is in your words
- You have included the key concepts
- The meaning has not changed
- Finally, proofread, revise and edit your paraphrase as necessary.
whats narrative/traditional literature review
- critique and summarise a body of literature about a specific topic.
- published materials that provide examination of recent or current literature. Can cover wide range of subjects at various levels of completeness and comprehensiveness. May include research findings.
- The literature is researched from the relevant databases and is generally very selective in the material used.
- The criteria for literature selection for a narrative review is not always made open to the reader. These reviews are very useful in gathering and synthesising the literature located.
- The principle purpose of a narrative review is the give the author and reader a comprehensive overview of the topic and to highlight significant areas of research, narrative reviews can help to identify gaps in the research and help to refine and define research questions
whats the weaknesses of narrative/traditional literature review
- A large number of studies may make it difficult to draw conclusions
- The process is subject to bias that supports the researcher’s own work.
whats critical review
- Aims to demonstrate writer has extensively researched literature and critically evaluated its quality.
- Goes beyond mere description to include degree of analysis and conceptual innovation.
- Typically results in hypothesis or model.
- Seeks to identify significant items in the field.
whats the synthesis approach of critical review
: typically narrative, perhaps conceptual or chronological.
whats analysis approach of critical review
significant component: seeks to identify conceptual contribution to embody existing or derive new theory
whats a scoping review
- A scoping review is quite similar to a Systematic literature review. The key difference being that there are no restrictions on the materials resourced.
- When undertaking a scoping review it is important to systematise your search strategies to ensure you can replicate your searches and to attend to any gaps that appear in results.
- When reading and sorting the results, again apply some of the measures used in a systematic review so that your search results are sorted by key themes and well organised
- Preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available research literature.
- Aims to identify nature and extent of research evidence (usually including ongoing research).
different approaches for scoping review
- Search approach: Completeness of searching determined by time/scope constraints. May include research in progress.
- Appraisal of articles: No formal quality assessment.
- Synthesis approach used: Typically tabular with some narrative commentary.
- Analysis approach used: Characterises quantity and quality of literature, perhaps by study design and other key features. Attempts to specify a viable review.
