Practise planning overt or covert, participant or non-participant observations with operational behavioural categories, recording rules and contextual evaluation.
A researcher is conducting an observation to investigate the study habits of students. The observation uses a fixed list of behavioural categories.
Explain whether this observation is structured or unstructured.
Explain whether this observation is structured or unstructured.
1 mark for explanation of why it is structured
- Structured because there is a fixed list of behavioural categories;
- Structured because only set observations will be recorded;
Suggest two behavioural categories that the researcher could use to observe the study habits of students.
Suggestion must be an observable/measurable category of student study habits = 1 [x2]
- time spent working;
- frequency of using books;
- note taking;
- Use of flashcards
- Studying alone
- Study with others
- Studying whilst listening to music
- Studying whilst doodling.
For one of the behavioural categories you suggested in part (b)(i):
Suggest one methodological problem with using this category to observe the study habits of students.
For one of the behavioural categories, you suggested in part (b)(i):
Suggest one methodological problem with using this category to observe the study habits of students.
Suggestion = 1
Link = 1
One problem with 'number of books used':
- The category may be underestimated/miscategorised; (suggestion)
- As a book could be on their phones/iPad (link)
One problem with 'note taking/doodling':
- Difficult to operationalise; (suggestion)
- When does one 'note' end and the next one start/as it's difficult to state what is meant by a note/doodle/picture; (link)
One problem with studying whilst listening to music
- The category may be underestimated/miscategorised; (suggestion)
- as they may be listening to music on their headphones which the researcher will not hear/the researcher may assume they are listening to music if they are wearing headphones (and they are not) (link)
One problem with studying with others/alone.
- The category may be underestimated/overestimated (suggestion)
- As they may be talking about things with others that are not to do with studying/ they may seem to be studying alone but they are actually studying together using electronics (link).