How to Interpret the Data from an Action Research Study in the Classroom

The most useful strategy for summarizing or analyzing the collected observation and interview data is qualitative content analysis. Here is a step-by-step guide for conducting a content analysis: 1. Familiarize yourself with the data: Read through the observation transcripts and interview summaries to get a general understanding of the information available. 2. Create a coding scheme: Based on your research questions and observations, develop a coding scheme to categorize the data. The coding scheme could include specific themes or topics related to learners' motivation, experiences, and engagement in playing games for learning multiplication facts. It's important to ensure that the codes and categories are relevant and comprehensive enough to capture the essence of the data. 3. Assign codes: Apply the codes to the data, marking parts of text that correspond to the different themes or topics. Be systematic and thorough to ensure that you capture all relevant information. You can use software programs such as NVivo or Atlas.ti to help with this process, or you can manually highlight and label the text. 4. Review and refine codes: Analyze the coded data to identify patterns or trends. Look for consistency and discrepancies, and make note of any new themes or categories that emerge. Adjust your coding scheme as necessary and reapply codes if needed. 5. Summarize findings: Organize your findings into themes or categories, and interpret them in relation to your research question. Describe how playing games impacts learners' motivation to learn basic multiplication facts based on the qualitative data. 6. Reliability and validity checks: To enhance the trustworthiness of your analysis, have another person independently code the data and compare their findings with yours. You can also conduct member checks by sharing your interpretations with the study participants, if possible, to ensure your analysis accurately represents their experiences. 7. Reporting: Present your findings, discussing both the unique insights provided by the qualitative data as well as the ways in which your observations and interviews align with the quantitative results from the multiplication fact scores. By using qualitative content analysis, you will be able to systematically analyze the observation and interview data, providing valuable insights into how playing games affects learners' motivation to learn basic multiplication facts.