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Chapter 4

Chapter 4 focuses on data analysis, presentation, and discussion of findings, emphasizing the importance of response rates and structured analysis based on research objectives. It outlines the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, including content and discourse analysis, while advising against conclusions during data analysis. The chapter also highlights the need for clear presentation of data and the significance of identifying themes and patterns in qualitative research.

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OLYNE MUSARIRI
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2 views

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 focuses on data analysis, presentation, and discussion of findings, emphasizing the importance of response rates and structured analysis based on research objectives. It outlines the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, including content and discourse analysis, while advising against conclusions during data analysis. The chapter also highlights the need for clear presentation of data and the significance of identifying themes and patterns in qualitative research.

Uploaded by

OLYNE MUSARIRI
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 4: Data Analysis, Presentation and Discussion of Findings

 Provide an introduction section and highlight composition of the chapter

 Provide an outline of the response rate. Response rate shows the responses in terms
questionnaires distributed and those returned and this is expressed in percentage. Usually,
its not necessary to provide response rate for interviews.

 Analysis should be done on responses per each objective

 Provide a clear headline highlighting purpose of the research

 Students have a problem of analyzing and presenting graphs on each and every question
asked in the questionnaire. This is not allowed. Analysis and presentation of data is done on
each and every research objective and its related sub headings.

 On analyzing data, describe the data using quantitative or qualitative means then interprete
data to give meaning

 Avoid conclusions and recommendations when analyzing data

 Use, content analysis on qualitative data and computer software packages such as the
Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS).

 Quantitative data needs to be presented in an informative way. (a) Describe the sample, (b)
Remind the reader of the research objectives being addressed or hypotheses being tested.
(c) Tell the reader what you want him or her to get from the data. (d) state which differences
are significant (e) Highlight important trends and differences or comparisons. (f) Indicate
whether the hypotheses are confirmed, not confirmed or partially confirmed.

 Qualitative data - Reporting of qualitative data is much less bound by convention than that
of quantitative data. In reporting the data it is generally important to convey both the
themes and some of the flavor of the actual words. The data needs to be connected back
through the layers of detail to the overarching research question it relates to. This can be
done through structured sections and sub sections. Individual data extracts can be
connected back into this structure through a process of tell-show-tell. In analyzing qualitative
data content analysis is often used.

 Miles and Huberman (1984) and Cassell and Symon (1994) suggest that content analysis is a
reliable approach of analyzing qualitative data. Qualitative data is usually obtained through a
series of interviews with a sample of respondents and the content of the interviews can then
be examined. By using content analysis researcher needs to have a special skill of recording
emerging themes, concepts and note the frequencies of events, words, actions and
transcript these into meaning. Researcher identifies key themes, patterns and categories
from the data itself. Researcher will then use his skill in explaining patterns and categories in
data.

 Discourse analysis is another approach which can be used to analyse qualitative data.
Discourse analysis treats the whole transcript of an interview or the whole text of a
document as a complete narrative and seeks to analyse that narrative by considering its
contents. There is an assumption that the more an issue is talked about and the greater the
detail, the more significant it is. There are a number of different techniques used for
discourse analysis and a variety of software packages such as N-vivo to help with this
analysis. N-vivo looks for concepts and combine their frequency and level of detail in order
to understand their importance. The techniques are all based on upon an analysis which
requires identification of concepts and the coding of the text. Key concepts are identified and
sentences or phrases are coded according to their perceived meaning. This form of analysis
allows multiple meanings to be built into the analysis making it richer and more
comprehensive than content analysis. Discourse analysis requires a greater level of skill and
judgment.

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