Selecting a methodology Scholarship in Health Education Research and Innovation (SHERI) course Rachel H. Ellaway Community Health Sciences Office of Health and Medical Education Scholarship

The process of empiricism Observe the world and identify phenomena for study Describe phenomena in increasing breadth and depth Identify relationships and differences within and between phenomena Build models, develop theories and test them, break them, improve them Iteratively refine models and theories to: Explain the underlying structure/function of the phenomena Predict how these phenomena will behave

Methods and methodology Methodology: “the research design or plan that shapes the methods to be used in the study. The methodology provides a rationale for the choice of methods used in a study” Illing 2010 Methods: “the techniques used for data collection” questions methodology methods Illing J. Thinking about research: frameworks, ethics and scholarship. In Swanwick (Ed). Understanding medical education: evidence, theory and practice. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell: 2010.

Developing a methodology Needs to be able to answer research/study questions Should be grounded in theory and in ontological and epistemological paradigms Practical questions What kinds of data do you need? How will you analyze them? What is practical, allowable, parsimonious? What methodologies have others used? Do your skills and resources align with methodology?

Dimensions of methodology Overall strategy Problems Hypotheses Questions Conceptual grounding Data collection methods Data analysis methods Synthesis methods Reporting

Modes of inquiry: METRICS Metascholarship Methods, tools, publication, translation Evaluation Value, good/bad, better/worse Translation Things from elsewhere, effectiveness Research Inductive knowledge and theory testing, generating Innovation New things, ideas Conceptual Deductive knowledge and theory, critiques Synthesis What do we know, how do we know, what do we not know

Exemplars Metascholarship Bibliometrics, discourse analysis Evaluation Audit, program evaluation, Kirkpatrick levels Translation Effectiveness studies, adaptation Research Efficacy studies, experiments, trials Innovation Design-based research Conceptual Instruments, frameworks, critiques Synthesis Systematic review, meta-analysis

Methodological implications Ontological Exists What kind of thing Epistemological What can we know How can we know Axiological Beliefs and values

QQ Wars Quantitative Qualitative Multiple - parallel How much? Qualitative How well? Multiple - parallel Mixed - integrated Many paradigms and stances … Creswell, J (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Sage.

Choosing between methodologies Creswell’s ‘among 5’ qualitative methodologies: Grounded theory Ethnography Phenomenology Case study Narrative research Creswell J. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. 3rd ed. SAGE.

Paradigm vs pragmatic Adopt/align established Strengths Weaknesses Pragmatically borrow/adapt

From methodologies to methods Alignment Logical top down and bottom up See the separate presentation on methods

Summary Your methodology is your overall inquiry strategy Select methods within a methodological frame Many methodological positions Each with strengths, weaknesses, implications