Qualitative data analysis techniques for the sport and exercise sciences Sport and Exercise Science Year 2

What the assessment Criteria says For P5, learners should provide a description of the main stages of qualitative data analysis. For P6, learners will need to describe two contrasting quantitative data analysis techniques; one being a parametric test and the other being a non-parametric test.

Where justification is required, learners will be expected to explain why a particular research design and technique is suitable for a particular practical qualitative (M3) or quantitative (M4) research-based example. Learners will be expected to have identified specific areas or topics within the sport and exercise sciences that they could research using a qualitative perspective and areas they could research using a quantitative perspective

Qualitative Data analysis Techniques Before you analyse your results you are going to have to prepare the data so you can talk about it. If you are going to use interviews and/or focus groups then the recording will have to be transcribed (written out) word for word (also known as transcribing verbatim) Would you have to do this with questionaires?

Qualitative Data With this Data there is usually a large amount of information and this information needs to be reduced into manageable amounts so that we can make sense of it and there are 3 main stages that has to be done Data Reduction Displaying data Drawing conclusions and verifying data

Data Reduction Data reduction involves reducing large amounts of data into manageable chunks. The most common form of data analysis in the data reduction stage is coding. Coding is part of your data analysis Coding is when you organise the raw data (sentences which you have transcribed) into categories Each category is given a heading and a rule for inclusion (inclusion: what do you think I mean by this)

Coding—using labels to classify and assign meaning to pieces of information—helps you to make sense of qualitative data, such as responses to open-ended survey questions. Codes answer the questions, “What do I see going on here?” or “How do I categorize the information?” Coding enables you to organize large amounts of text and to discover patterns that would be difficult to detect by reading alone (

Example Please click on the link ent/iar/programs/report/focus-QualCode.php ent/iar/programs/report/focus-QualCode.php

2:Displaying Data The way that you display it will affect the argument or point you are trying to make. Qualitative data is usually displayed using Venn, radial, network and cycle diagrams. These diagrams may show factors relating to a core principle

Drawing conclusions and checking Data The conclusions to your data must be valid and reliable There are 2 mains ways to do this which are Triangulation of data & Member checking

Triangulation It is generally accepted in action research “that researchers should not rely on any single source of data, interview, observation, or instrument” (Mills, 2003, p. 52) “In research terms, this desire to use multiple sources of data is referred to as triangulation.” ( Mills, 2003, p. 52)

Triangulation of Data What ways could triangulation of data be used in sport and exercise science Aerobic fitness (V0 2 Max, bleep test, cooper test) Anxiety during a game Interview the participant, fill in a questionnaire, interview their coach

Member checking This is simply checking with the participants after the results have been analysed. You are checking that what you have analysed is correct and that the persons who you asked for their opinions is agreeing with what you concluded (making sure that they are not misrepresented) used with what type of Research? Qualitative Research

References Mills, G. E. (2003), Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, 2 nd Edition, Merrill/Prentice-Hall: Upper saddle River, NJ