| A | B |
|---|
| Fieldwork | Data Collection for the qualitative researcher |
| Participant observation | The observer becomes a part of the situation being observed |
| Nonparticipant observation | The researcher observes and records behaviors but does not interact or participate in the life of the setting under study |
| Field notes | Qualitative research materials gathered during the course of a study |
| Interview | A Purposeful interaction in which one person obtains information from another |
| Unstructured interview | A casual conversation |
| Structured interview | The researcher has a specified set of questions that elicits the same information from the respondents |
| Transcription | A written record of the events that were recorded |
| Focus group | A group interview to collect shared understanding from several individuals |
| Questionnaire | A written collection of self-report questions to be answered by a selected group of research participants |
| Archival documents | Student records, standardized test scores, minutes of meetings |
| Journal | Written first-hand account of what is happening |
| Artifacts | Written or visual sources of data that contribute to understanding of what is happening |
| Portfolio | A presentation of work that captures an individual's samples over time |
| Trustworthiness | Credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability |
| Credibility | The researcher's ability to take into account all of the complexities that present themselves in a study and to deal with patterns that are not easily explained |
| Transferability | The researcher's belief that everything is context-bound |
| Dependability | The stability of the data |
| Confirmability | The neutrality or objectivity of the data collected |
| Descriptive validity | Factual accuracy |
| Interpretive validity | Concern for the participants' perspective |
| Theoretical validity | The ability of the research report to explain the phenomenon that has been studied and described |
| Internal Generalizability | Generalizability within the community that has been studied |
| External generalizability | Generalizability to settings that were not studied by the researcher |
| Evaluative validity | Whether the researcher was able to present the data without being evaluative or judgmental |
| Reliability | The degree to which study data consistently measure whatever they measure |
| Generalizability | Refers to the applicability of findings to settings and contexts different from the one in which they were obtained |
