UNIVERSITY OF LA SALLE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION SCIENCES BASICS OF DATA ANALYSIS

Freeman (1998) Steps: Naming Grouping Finding relationships Displaying (Mapping /matrixes) Take certain categories as basis Look for instances: codes Determine relationships Provide weight/emphasis/details Look for themes: codes Group codes into categories Find relationships Assemble an integrated interpretation

A priori analysis

Grounded analysis

OLeary (2004) Reflexive analysis It involves staying as close to the data as possible. Steps: manage and organize your raw data; systematically code and enter your data; engage in reflective analysis appropriate for the data type; interpret meaning, uncover and discover findings; and, finally, draw relevant conclusions. In order to be able to undertake statistical analysis, you need (1) understanding the nature of variables; (2) understanding the role and function of both descriptive and inferential statistics; and (3) knowing what statistical tests are suitable for particular questions and data types. Cause and effect Dependent variables: The things you are trying to study or what you are trying to measure. For example, you might be interested in knowing what factors are related to good grades, high income, or chronic headaches grades, income, and headaches would all be dependent variables. Independent variables: What might be causing an effect on the things you are trying to understand. For example, IQ might affect grades, gender might affect income, while reading might cause headaches. The independent variables here are IQ, gender, and reading. Measurement scales Nominal: Numbers are arbitrarily assigned to represent categories. The numbers are simply a coding scheme and have no numerical significance. For example, in the case of gender you would use one number for female, say 1, and another for male, 2. Each code should not overlap (be mutually exclusive) and together should cover all possibilities (be collectively exhaustive). The main function of nominal data is to allow researchers to tally respondents in order to understand population distributions. Ordinal: This scale rank orders the categories in some meaningful way there is an order to the coding. One example is socio-economic status (lower, middle, or upper class). Lower class may denote less status than the other two classes but the amount of the difference is not defined. Choices are ordered, but there is no indication of any magnitude of difference. Likert-type scales, in which respondents are asked to select a response on a point scale, i.e. I like to work independently 1 =strongly disagree, 2 =disagree, 3 =neutral, 4 =agree, 5 =strongly agree, are ordinal since the precise difference in magnitude cannot be determined. Interval: In addition to ordering the data, this scale uses equidistant units to measure the difference between scores. This scale does not, however, have an absolute zero. Ratio: Not only is each point on a ratio scale equidistant, there is also an absolute zero. Examples of ratio data include age, height, distance, and income. Because ratio data are real numbers, all basic mathematical operations can be performed. Descriptive statistics: Descriptive statistics are used to describe and summarize the basic features of the data in a study, and are used to present quantitative descriptions in a manageable and intelligible form. Measuring central tendency: One of the most basic questions you can ask of your data centers on the average or central tendency. Mode: The most common value or values noted for a variable. Since nominal data is categorical and cannot be manipulated mathematically, it relies on mode as its measure of central tendency.

Crunching the numbers

BA in Spanish, English and French

Yamith Jos Fandio

Practicum and Research

Median: The mid-point of a range. To find the median you simply arrange the values in ascending (or descending) order and find the middle value. This measure is generally used in ordinal data, and has the advantage of negating the impact of extreme values. Mean: The mathematical average. To calculate the mean, you add the values for each case, then divide by the number of cases. Because the mean is a mathematical calculation, it is used to measure central tendency for interval data. Measuring dispersion: While measures of central tendency are a standard and highly useful form of data description and simplification, they need to be complimented with information on response variability. Range: This is the simplest way to calculate dispersion, and is simply the highest minus the lowest value. For example, if your respondent ranged in age from 16 to 47, the range would be 31 years. While this measure is easy to calculate, it is dependent on extreme values alone, and ignores intermediate values. Standard deviation: This is the square root of the variance, and is the basis of many commonly used statistical tests for interval and ratio data. Its power comes into the fore with data that sits under a normal curve. Working with words It helps move from raw data to meaningful understanding. In qualitative analysis, understandings are built by a process of uncovering and discovering themes that run through the raw data, and by interpreting the implication of those themes for the research questions. Thematic analysis: to move from raw data to meaningful understanding is a process reliant on the generation/exploration of relevant themes. While many of these themes are likely to be discovered though inductive analysis, themes can also be identified through engagement with the literature, prior experiences of the researcher, and the nature of the research question (deductive analysis). Researchers can begin by exploring words (words can lead to themes through exploration of their repetition, or through exploration of their context and usage); exploring concepts (concepts can be deductively uncovered by searching for themes generated from: the literature; the hypothesis/research question; intuitions; or prior experiences. Concepts/themes may also be derived from standard social science categories of exploration, i.e. power, race, class, gender, etc.); exploring linguistic devices (metaphors, analogies, and even proverbs are often explored because of their ability to bring richness, imagery, and empathetic understanding to words) and exploring non-verbal cues (exploration of tone, volume, pitch, and pace of speech; the tendency for hearty nervous laughter; the range of facial expressions and body language; and shifts in any or all of these can be central in a bid for meaningful understanding). Looking for interconnections: Once the texts have been explored for relevant themes, the quest for meaningful understanding generally moves to an exploration of the relationship between and among various themes. For example, you may look to see if the use of certain words and/or concepts is correlated with the use of other words and/or concepts. Or you may explore whether certain words/concepts are associated with a particular range of non-verbal cues or emotive states. Understand strategies Overarching qualitative data analysis strategies: Varied but generally include: generating themes through the process of coding, annotating, and searching for interconnections. Its goal is to interpret non-numerical data (verbal and non-verbal communication, stories, tests, images, symbols, etc.). Content analysis: It interprets meaning in a speech and text. It can involve linguistic quantification where words are units of analysis that are tallied. Discourse analysis: it interprets language as it is situated in a socio-historic context. It explores language as it constitutes and embodies a socio-historic context tied to power and knowledge. Analysis necessarily involves critical data exploration. Narrative analysis: it interprets the stories of individuals. Data collection and interpretation is often iterative with focus on story building. Conversation analysis: it understands the structure and construction of conversation. Conversation transcripts are explored for structural organization of talk including turn-taking and sequential ordering. Semiotics: It interprets meanings behind signs and symbols. It involves identification of cognitive domains and attempts to deconstruct specific meanings in order to reconstruct understanding. Hermeneutics: it interprets text in a dialogic fashion. It involves moving in and out of text using a hermeneutic spiral centered on alternate perspective - global vs. detailed / conventional vs. critical, etc. Yamith Jos Fandio Practicum and Research

BA in Spanish, English and French

Grounded theory: it generates theory directly from data. It is highly inductive. It uses constant comparative method to explore each data source in relation to those previously explored. It involves coding, memoing, and concept mapping. Dawson (2007) The qualitative continuum Highly qualitative (reflective/intuitive): Thematic or comparative analysis Combination (reflectivity and counting): Conversational and discourse analysis Almost quantitative: Content analysis Frequency counts: it calculates the frequency distribution of the data. Measuring Nominal scale (exclusive answers) Ordinal scale (some options better than others) Interval scale (options with precise defined intervals) Average Mean: total sum of values divided by the number of items (Interval scales) Median: The middle value of a range (Ordinal or interval scales) Mode: The most frequently occurring value (Nominal scales)

The quantitative analysis

Norton (2009) Qualitative analysis (Interviews, focus groups, open-ended questions, journals, student assignments, videos, reports, etc.) Grounded theory: It discovers theory in the data. Discourse analysis: It analyzes underlying meanings in speech/text. Semiotics: It studies signs (words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. Interpretative phenomenological inquiry: It seeks to understand individuals perspectives and experiences. Thematic analysis (It searches for patterns in the data) Immersion (read and note general themes) Generating categories (generate and label several categories) Deleting categories (eliminate categories with 1 or 2 examples or categories that overlap considerably with others) Merging categories (collapse and relabel categories) Checking themes (reread and revise categories) Linking themes (look for patterns and relationships that tell a coherent and convincing picture of the data) Content analysis (It searches for patterns and carries out some basic statistical analysis) Deciding on the unit of analysis (single word, phrase, sentence) Dividing transcript into units of analysis Construct categories (immersion, generation, deletion, merge and check) Assign units of analysis to categories (coding) Calculate the percentage of information units that fall into each category Quantitative analysis (attitude scales, observation involving counting, surveys, etc.) Descriptive statistics (It presents succinctly what your data shows.) Central tendency or averages Mean (average): it summarizes large numbers of scores into a single number. It is useful when numbers cluster together, but is misleading when they are dispersed (there are extremes). Median (midpoint): it is easy if you have a small number of scores. Extremes do not affect the measure. Mode (frequently occurring score): it is not useful if there is more than one group of frequently occurring scores. Variability or dispersion Range: subtract the smallest score from the largest. It may give a distorted picture. Standard deviation: it tells you how each score diverges from the mean // if you get more scores below the central value, this is called a positively distorted distribution. If you get more scores above the central value, this is called a negatively distorted

BA in Spanish, English and French

Yamith Jos Fandio

Practicum and Research

distribution. It you get a large standard deviation, one that is larger than the mean, you have to be cautious about the statistical tests you use. Frequency counts: it states the number of occurrences or observances for an option or alternative // It is useful for displaying results in a summarized form in a percentage tables, a bar chart or a pie chart. Burns (2010) Qualitative analysis Overall framework for analysis Assembling your data Coding the data Comparing the data Building meanings and interpretations Reporting the outcomes

Categorizing

Develop broad categories/themes Find related concepts Inductive coding: scan the data carefully to see what categories emerge. Deductive coding: look for instances in the data to match pre-arranged categories based on the literature. Providing a general characterization Identifying grossly apparent features Focusing in on structural elements Developing an objective description of the interaction

Analyzing talk

Quantitative analysis Numerical scales Nominal scale: it classifies numbers into categories: age, sex, nationality, etc. Ordinal scale: it ranks numbers across a continuum. Interval scale: it scores number by describing their numeric distance. (It summarizes quantitative data obtained in a particular context) Central tendency (it shows where the data collects around a central point) Mean: it is an average / Use it when the numbers cluster together and are evenly distributed / Make sure there are not extremes. Median: It is the middle point in a set a number arrange from the smallest to the largest / It gives a typical value for a set of scores. Mode: it is the most frequent number in a set of scores / You can have a bimodal distribution if there are two frequent numbers. Dispersion or variability (it shows how numbers are spread or dispersed) Range: it gives the spread across all the numbers / Identify the largest and the smallest numbers and then subtract / Use it when the numbers are closely bunched together. Standard deviation: it tells you how each score deviates on average from the mean / It is more accurate than the range and if there are extremes, their effects are minimized.

Descriptive statistics

REFERENCES Burns, A. (2010). Doing action research in English language teaching: A guide for practitioners. New York: Routledge. Dawson, C. (2007). A practical guide to research methods: a user-friendly manual for mastering research techniques and projects (3rd edition). UK: How to books Ltd. Freeman, D. (1998). Doing teacher research: From inquiry to understanding. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Norton, L. (2009). Action research in teaching and learning: a teaching guide to conducting pedagogical research in universities. USA: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. OLeary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd.

BA in Spanish, English and French

Yamith Jos Fandio

Practicum and Research