Chartered ABS

Learning, Teaching & Student Experience

5th Annual Conference, 26-27 April 2016,

Aston University

Dr Lesley Ledden

Dr Marvyn Boatswain

Kingston Business School, Kingston University

Teaching Qualitative Data Analysis:

A Game of Homophones?

Session outline

More workshop than presentation

Only three slides!

1. Context and student population

2. Problem statement

3. What’s the solution?

Some wordplay games …

Way forward? How can we develop?

Context and student population

Core module – Market Research & Data Analysis – 1-year FT

masters in marketing and communications programmes

“Boot camp” approach – intensive block mode; lectures introduce

the key concepts, followed by hands-on practical workshops

80 students, mainly international – for most, English is not their first

language

Considerable heterogeneity

among the student body

Graduates from social sciences,

engineering, business, etc.

Some with work experience,

others are fresh graduates

Different cultures and

county contexts

What’s the problem?

Qualitative data analysis is difficult to

teach due to the inherent complexity of

the subject, the level of conceptual

abstraction and the ‘mystery’ that

surrounds it, and the anxiety that this

complexity causes in students (Raddon

et al., 2009)

Dry nature of the subject matter

constrains opportunities for class

engagement

The data being analysed are not, for the

majority of these students, in their native

language

What’s the solution?

Emerging evidence that gamification enhances student

engagement and improves the learning experience (Dicheva et

al., 2015)

Using fun and humour can reduce students’ anxiety with subjects

that are perceived to be difficult (Lesser and Reyes, 2015)

We introduced a set of challenges that focus on the nature of the

spoken and written word and the roles that context, grammar,

punctuation and inflection play in construing meaning

Students work in groups to resolve the challenge, leading to a

(usually-humorous) discussion of the solutions and their

implications for qualitative data analysis

VIP: this is work in progress! A simple idea – can we grow it?

I did not steal your

money last night

Go return not in the

war you will die

Punch

State

Fair