Learning to Research and Researching to Learn An Educator's Guide

This chapter builds on Chapter 5 by considering data collection methods in more detail as it focuses on the design of data collection instruments. There are many useful and detailed texts available that describe the intricacies of data collection instrument design, and this chapter presents important considerations when designing instruments that are commonly used in practitioner research. As with all chapters in this book, this chapter includes examples from real-life case studies to illustrate the ideas presented and to allow discussion of their application. The chapter begins with a discussion about the selection of participants before moving on to consider selection of data and data collection methods. We will consider ways to ensure that research is robust and defendable, especially in the case of qualitative methods, which we believe have great value for practitioners.