I wonder-do we ever really inish? ...You could always do more and that's OK. We stop when we run out of time and we feel we have enough to say something.
- Stacey Crooks (personal communication, August 2007)
Andrea Pheasey (2000) worked with a group of students who wanted to organize computer training in their program. While the students undertook an action research project about computer use, Andrea researched how the group worked together. Her data on the group process included her notes from group meetings and activities, group interviews at the beginning, middle and end of the research, and students' writing.
Fay Holt Begg (2002) worked with one student in her program over an extended period of time. Fay documented and reflected on her observations, collected the student's writing, and had conversations with the student about the tutoring.
In a study of practitioners' interests in professional development (Norton, 2004), participants responded to a questionnaire and took part in interviews and focus groups. In this case, there was funding for co-researchers and someone to collate the questionnaire responses.
Use one method with different groups of participants. You could interview students and practitioners about your research question. As mentioned above, in their original plan about studying effective ABE/Literacy instructors, the researchers wanted to interview both practitioners and students.
Use one method with the same participant or participants over time. You could do several interviews with an individual over a period of time, or review a series of journal entries by an individual.
Use one method with a large group of participants. You could interview or survey many people. Kate Nonesuch (2008a) used an online survey to hear from 507 practitioners.
As you plan your research, think about how much data you might need to feel confident that you can draw conclusions and support them.
Ideally, you continue to collect data until you feel that you are not learning anything new related to your research question. Realistically, you need to balance the desire for quantity with your time and resources and with participants' time (Dana & Yendol-Silva, 2003).