• Activity 1: Introduction to Meeting Two (15 min)
  
  
• Activity 2: Reflection on a Phrase (30 min) Whole group activity. Participants get reacquainted and share current events.
  
  
• Activity 3: Learning about Data Collection (One day long including breaks) Independent and small group activity to introduce the basic principles and ethical issues surrounding qualitative research and the data collection methods participants will use to carry out their research.

Activity 1: Introduction to Meeting Two

Purpose:	To provide an overview of the agenda and to review the meeting objectives, scope of activities, and ground rules.
Time:	15 min
Materials:	Meeting agenda Ground rules from Meeting One

Group Process:

Welcome participants back. Review the agenda for the meeting. Briefly explain the focus and purpose of the activities planned for the next three days and how major blocks of time will be used. The meeting's objectives, which have been posted in the room, are for participants to:

• Understand the nature of data
  
• Learn data collection methods and strategies
  
• Refine the questions for research
  
• Determine their methods for collecting data
  
• Draft a complete plan for carrying out the research

Post the ground rules that your group created at the initial research meeting. (Ground rules generally include: arrive on time, don't interrupt, speak-up when someone says something personally offensive, limit side conversations, no question is too small or silly, etc.) Ask participants if any new rules are needed. Remind the group to reference these rules throughout the meeting.

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Activity 2: Reflection on a Phrase*
 

Group Process:

Introduce this warm-up activity by explaining that Reflection on a Phrase is a type of structured group discussion or conversation in which participants respond to a particular prompt - in rounds. Next, ask the group to respond in writing to the question:

What’s been happening in your classroom or program? 

In other words, ask participants to reflect on this phrase. Have everyone spend a short time (two or three minutes) responding to the question. Encourage participants to write freely about what’s been going on, since they first met. Participants should write about their daily work routine or practice rather than on their research projects.

Ask participants to stop writing after two or three minutes have passed. Next, each person takes a turn reading their passage out loud to the rest of the group. One person begins and you go around the circle in order. Go around the entire circle without interruptions of any kind. Participants should read precisely what they have written down. Hold all questions and comments until everyone has finished reading.

The facilitator takes notes on the participants’ responses. When everybody has taken a turn, summarize the themes or ideas that stood from the responses. Comment on the similarities and differences in participants’ responses. You may ask others in the group to add their own observations about what’s been going on in everyone’s work situations.

Note: The activity Reflection on a Phrase, above, is a variation of the one found in the PALPIN Inquiry Facilitators Handbook. In PALPIN, groups use a common word or phrase associated with the inquiry process that may have many meanings or could be used without clear meaning in the participants’ minds (phrases like learner-centered or standards, for example). Participants are asked “to think about and write down their understandings of the word, not in an attempt to define it, but as a way of exploring the contexts in which it might appear, their own experiences with it, and the meanings and other words and images it connotes.”

______________________________________________________________________

*Reflection on a Phrase: Adapted from the Pennsylvania Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Network, 1998. Originally developed by Pat Carini and colleagues at the Prospect Center in Vermont, 1986.

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Activity 3: Learning about Data Collection
 

Purpose:	To introduce participants to the basic principles and ethical issues surrounding qualitative research and the different types of data collection methods.
Time:	One day
Materials:	Markers, masking tape, poster board, chart paper, and other materials needed to prepare presentations. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education by Sharan B.Merriam: Conducting Effective Interviews; Chapter 4 Being a Careful Observer; Chapter 5 Mining Data from Documents; Chapter 6 Dealing With Validity, Reliability, and Ethics; Chapter 10 Facilitators: make copies of all four chapters available to everyone in the research group.

Group Process:

Briefly introduce the content covered in this activity. Tell participants that the entire rest of the day will be spent learning/teaching about data collection methods and the basic principles and ethical issues in qualitative research. Explain that there are three primary methods of data collection: interviews, observations, and documentation.

This activity is designed to provide participants with a foundation of information and resources to use when they formally begin drafting their research plans. This activity should help prepare them to select the data collection strategies that will provide the information and evidence needed to answer their research questions.

Explain that the data collection strategies the participants choose to use will vary. Not one form/design fits all. Data collection methods must fit the questions for research as well as the researchers' resources. Remind participants that later in the meeting they will revisit and refine their research questions and begin drafting research plans. Mention that all the activities planned for Meeting Two build upon this introduction to data collection methods and the principles of qualitative research.

Steps:

This is a jigsaw or cooperative learning activity. In a jigsaw, the participants in your group are challenged to become "experts" in one area and responsible for helping the other participants become knowledgeable in that subject area.

By the conclusion of this daylong activity everyone should have acquired a basic understanding of the four assigned areas plus enough information to continue comfortably in the research process -- to select suitable data collection methods and design a whole project.

Divide participants into four equal groups. Assign each group one chapter from the book, Qualitative Research and Case Studies in Research, by Sharan Merriam. Each chapter presents a topic and provides the information that you are challenging participants to learn and then teach to the whole group:

• Conducting Effective Interviews, Chapter 4
• Being a Careful Observer, Chapter 5
• Mining Data from Documents, Chapter 6
• Dealing With Validity, Reliability, and Ethics, Chapter 10

The members of each group will work together to prepare a thirty-minute presentation on their assigned topic/chapter. Allow ample time for the groups to complete the reading and understand the content and prepare their presentations (4 - 5 hours plus breaks).

Reconvene for the group presentations. Break for fifteen minutes at the conclusion of the second presentation.

At the conclusion of the fourth presentation, debrief the activity. Summarize the main points from each group's presentation. Add any important points about the three main data collection methods and validity, reliability and ethics in research that need to reinforced or were not included in the groups' presentations. For example, in using observation as a means to collect data, main points include:

• While collecting information as an observer, the researcher can assume one of several stances ranging from being a complete participant (the researcher is a member of the group being observed) to being a complete spectator.
  
  
• Carrying out an observation is only half the process. Observations must be recorded in as much detail as possible to form the database for analysis. The observational records are called field notes and come in many forms including: what people said, the observer's comments, and descriptions of the setting, the people, and the activities.
  
  
• Observation is a method to use when behavior can be observed first hand, or when people will not or cannot discuss the research topic.

Finally, respond to the participants' questions and comments.

Conclusion of session

Session 8: Practice Collecting Data

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