Question

Hi,

My question is: Let's say that you were interested in finding out how students use the campus Tutoring Center. How could you use case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys to learn more about how they use it? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method?

Thanks a lot for helping me

Answer 1

Campus tutoring centers provides services to students who have difficulty in achieving academic success which are caused by many factors like difficulty in understanding the course or the subject, procrastination of assignments and tasks, lack of attendance to class, students not taking the help from their faculty members and so on. In order to understand the benefit of these campus tutoring centers and how students use it, few research methods such as surveys, naturalistic observation or case studies could be used.

CASE STUDY

Advantages

Case study is a method that allows an in-depth understanding of the subject or a group of subjects or an event by investigating it in detail. The qualitative data obtained by case study provides a clear and detailed information about the behaviors of the subject. This could be done by observing the subject or interviewing them with questions that the researcher wants to find answer for. It not only allows the researcher to record what happens but also enables them to ask for clarifications regarding their behaviors.

Disadvantages

The data obtained from case studies are qualitative, hence it cannot provide a quantitative value or measurement. This method is time consuming and a researcher cannot obtain case study details from multiple subjects at once. Each case study has to be made in detail by observing or interviewing one subject at a time. While recording the data, the researcher's subjective feelings may bias the objectivity of the data. The results obtained from one subjects may not be generalized to the population and it is also difficult to replicate it.

Using case study method to find how students use campus tutoring centers:

For example, if 50 students in the college or school is attending the tutoring center, a sample of 5 students are selected to obtain data through case study method. Initially, these students are observed as how they use the tutoring service by recording the time they go to center, how many hours they spend there, how attentive are they in listening to the class, how they take down notes, and how much they interact with the teacher. The students is also interviewed about how useful was the tutoring service, did they find it easy, how it had helped them to better understand their subjects, how was their teaching, did they encourage them to perform better, and were they reachable when needed. The researcher then records all these information in detail for all the five subjects and then identify the effectiveness of the service by comparing their performance before and after joining the tutoring center.

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

Advantages

Naturalistic observations are used to observe the behaviors of the subjects in a natural and real life environment. This is particularly useful in instances where conducting a lab experiment is expensive, or when the behaviors are affected by the artificial conditions. This method helps in understanding the true nature of the behaviors that are not influenced by any experimental factors such as changing the variables or interrupting the subjects. This is also useful in situations were replicating the real setting is not possible.

Disadvantages

If the subjects know that they are being observed, it may bias their behavior and the actual behavior would not be exhibited. The researcher has no control over the situation, he cannot alter the variables or obtain any other information apart from those he observes. The results obtained by observations may differ from researcher to researcher because their subjective feeling could bias it.

Using naturalistic observation method to find how students use campus tutoring centers:

In this method, the research may observe all of the students who are attending the class from a corner space without letting the students know that he is observing. If the students know that they are being observed, it may bias their behavior. The observations could be noted down or recorded in the form of audio or video tapes. The researcher record the behaviors of the students like how they are paying attention to the class, how they are noting down the subjects, how talkative they are, how they interact with the teacher, how the teacher is answering to the students doubts, and so on and prepares a report on it.

SURVEY

Advantages

Survey method helps in obtaining quantitative data by providing questionnaires to the subjects. The items in the survey consists of questions for which the researcher wants to seek answer. In a psychological research, a sample is chosen from the population completes the survey, because they serves as a true representation of the population and then these results could be generalized to the entire population. This method enables obtaining data from large number of sample at a single time and it is not much time consuming as case study or naturalistic observation.

Disadvantages

The data obtained from survey may not provide descriptive and detailed information. There are chances that the subjects may skip answering certain questions or provide dishonest answers. The items in the questionnaire must be standardized to obtain valid and reliable results. It provides closed ended questions, so subjects cannot express what they actually feel.   

Using survey method to find how students use campus tutoring centers:

All the students in the tutoring center could be provided with questionnaire that includes items on how effectively the students are utilizing the tutoring services. The answers are then scored and calculated to obtain a quantitative measure or a percentage that would represent how much the students have used the tutoring services.