This past week, we had the opportunity to practice our observation and analysis skills. Our class watched a video of two children playing Minecraft. Each of us recorded our observations and discussed what we noticed. Although the exercise was short, I learned a lot from the experience.
When conducting qualitative insurance, it’s important to have multiple people making observations to ensure the reliability of details recorded. When just one person is observing the situation, it is easy to miss details or misinterpret the situation. When multiple people are making observations and recording information, researchers can check details against other observers and discuss implications based on a shared experience. If multiple observers aren’t possible, an alternative solution would be to make a video recording that can be consulted to review details included in fieldnotes.
As my classmates and I discussed our observations, we noted several questions we would like to ask the children. In order to understand a situation, researchers should interact with participants and ask questions. Although there is a lot of information to be gathered through observation, interviews can offer additional details that may help the researcher to make more sense of the what they are seeing. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to qualitative research, but it seems to me that we can learn more when we utilize multiple methods to gather information.
While watching the video, I tried to record as many details as I could about what I was seeing. I wasn’t sure what would be important to our research. I made notes concerning the activities, behaviors, and conversations of the children as well as what was going on in the game. Although I wasn’t able to actually observe the physical actions of the children (and parent), I made notes of interpersonal interactions I could observe through conversations. Knowing the purpose of the research would have helped me know which lens I should have used during my observations. This experience was limited to a brief moment in time involving three people. However, in a classroom of 20-25 kids, having a better sense of the research being done would allow the researcher to concentrate on specific activities, conversations, etc. that could be relevant to the research.
Once we finished the video, we discussed our observations. Patterns we noticed, and our initial thoughts. As a group, we began to draw conclusions based on our observations and prior experience working with children. During an actual research project, we would use our observations and discussions to guide the next stages of our research. Although in truth, we would probably spend multiple sessions observing the participants and their interactions. Multiple observations, along with interviews, would provide a better understanding of the situation and how it relates to the research.