Methods in evaluation research

If you ask students a question as a group, some will talk and others will stay quiet; some will have to leave before the activity is complete. How will you know that you have a 'true' (valid) picture? If you ask the students one by one, some may wonder about your motivation and they may not say things to you that they would tell their friends or one of your colleagues. How will you find out what they really think? A written set of questions can also be problematic. The questions can be misinterpreted, or people may decide not to answer some of them, or they may fail to return the piece of paper to you. You then have the problem of only having a partial picture. In choosing a method for your study, you need to be aware of its advantages and disadvantages and how you can respectively maximize and minimise each of these. In other words, as in all research, the methods must be valid and reliable. Interviews, questionnaires, observations

The Learning Development Unit in the University of Birmingham has supported a number of evaluation studies. You can see reports of these by searching for 'evaluation studies' on the LDU website
http://www.ldu.bham.ac.uk/

and, to look at some examples of what is currently going on in the UK, see the Higher Education Academy research pages

References

Pawson, R. and Tilley, N. (1997) Realistic Evaluation. London: Sage (or see pp29-42 in Robson)
Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research. London: Routledge. 2nd Edition
Stenhouse, L. (1975) An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London: Heinemann.