“I wish I knew what I know now”: Exploring Psychology Undergraduate Students’ Experiences When Learning About Qualitative Research and CAQDAS

Abstract

Learning to conduct qualitative research and use computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) can be challenging, which is why it may be more effective to introduce the craft of qualitative research to undergraduate students who have the time and space to learn, even make mistakes, and ultimately build a better understanding for their future studies and careers. There are relatively few published studies sharing insights on teaching qualitative research and CAQDAS to undergraduate students. This descriptive qualitative case study explores students’ experiences in a qualitative research course for undergraduate psychology students, with the aim of discerning how feasible learning both qualitative research and CAQDAS was for these students as well as how they perceived learning about these contents. Data was collected from an online open-ended survey from two consecutive generations of students that completed the course. Students found the course to be a challenging but worthwhile experience: new knowledge and skills were gained that they felt would be useful for their professional and even personal lives. These students recognized that the qualitative research course was an important complement to their predominantly quantitative curriculum. By teaching undergraduate students about qualitative research and CAQDAS, professors can teach their students in a lower-stakes environment and provide them with valuable hands-on experience so that students may later make better-informed decisions about which research approach to use in their own projects and continued studies or work.

– The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research and Innovation: 2022 Official Conference Proceedings

“…Asada and Koike (2020) (Jiang & Yan, 2020), and includes specific suggestions for how supervisors can provide support effectively, particularly through the teaching of literature review (Herrström, Larsson, Einberg, Nilsson, Blomqvist, & Garmy, 2020;Suwito, Purwanto, Parta, Irawati, & Dika, 2019) and through understanding each of their students' uniqueness in educational background, interests, and abilities (Arif & Huda, 2019;Zhang & Pramoolsook, 2019). Additionally, at a broader level, past research suggests the importance of each institution's stakeholders being aware of how the curriculum and coordination among the administrators, faculty and staff influences the students' quality of their graduation theses (Herrström, Larsson, Einberg, Nilsson, Blomqvist, & Garmy, 2020;Kalpokaite and Radivojevic, 2020;Perrella, Dam, Martin, MacLachlan, & Fenton, 2020;Rosyidi, Budiningsih, & Wakhid, 2019;Sun, Graves, & Oliver, 2020). Finally, research related to graduation thesis writing of students and supervisors abroad suggest that weaknesses in graduation theses of graduate students may be ameliorated if students build a solid academic foundation in their undergraduate programs (Ebadi & Pourahimadi, 2019;Farahian, Parhamnia, & Avarzamani, 2020;Ravari & Kok, 2019;Shahsavar & Kourepaz, 2020).…”

“…In terms of the administrators' coordination with other faculty, Kalpokaite and Radivojevic (2020) conducted a descriptive qualitative case study, exploring students' experiences in a qualitative research course for undergraduate psychology students and found that the students who participated in the course perceived the course to provide new knowledge and skills they felt would be useful for their professional and personal lives. The students also recognized that the qualitative research course was an important complement to their predominantly quantitative curriculum.…”

“…The students also recognized that the qualitative research course was an important complement to their predominantly quantitative curriculum. According to Kalpokaite and Radivojevic (2020), many students shared that they initially thought that qualitative research was less scientific than quantitative research, but after they experienced qualitative research for themselves, they appreciated the usefulness and importance of analyzing rich data. Students initially felt that the research diaries they were asked to keep were not useful but found that they were useful in the analysis phase after data collection through interviews.…”

“…For experiences related to graduation thesis writing in Japan, (1) specific amount of time spent on writing graduation theses are stated (Kushimoto, 2019); ( 2) collaborative style by faculty members in getting students connected with outside sources of support such as incorporating fieldwork abroad and teacher training sessions as part of obtaining teachers' licenses into their students' theses are evident (Asada & Koike, 2020;Nagura, 2018); (3) the importance of supervisor feedback particularly in terms of getting students to think critically is emphasized (Nagura, 2018); and (4) the importance of having conducted a thorough literature review for students' undergraduate theses are emphasized (Nagura, 2018). As for experiences related to graduation thesis writing abroad, (1) 2) the importance of supervisors' support, specifically in terms of taking the time to provide feedback for the students on their papers to build a strong academic foundation is emphasized (Jiang & Yan, 2020); (3) the importance of supervisors' support, especially in terms of helping students to conduct literature reviews well is emphasized (Herrström, Larsson, Einberg, Nilsson, Blomqvist, & Garmy, 2020;Suwito, Purwanto, Parta, Irawati, & Dika, 2019); fourth, the importance of supervisors' support through understanding each of their students uniqueness in educational background, interests, and academic abilities is emphasized (Arif & Huda, 2019;Zhang & Pramoolsook, 2019); fifth, the importance of each institution's stakeholders not limited to supervisors, to be aware of how the curriculum and coordination among the administrators, faculty, and staff influences the students' graduation theses quality is emphasized (Herrström, Larsson, Einberg, Nilsson, Blomqvist, & Garmy, 2020;Kalpokaite & Radivojevic, 2020;Perrella, Dam, Martin, MacLachlan, & Fenton, 2020;Rosyidi, Budiningsih, & Wakhid, 2019;Sun, Graves, & Oliver, 2020); and sixth, current research suggests that weaknesses in graduation theses of graduate students may be ameliorated if students had built a solid academic foundation during their undergraduate years (Ebadi & Pourahimadi, 2019;Farahian, Parhamnia, & Avarzamani, 2020;Ravari & Kok, 2019;Shahsavar & Kourepaz, 2020).…”

Experienced qualitative researchers’ views on teaching students qualitative research design

“…Wagner et al's (2019) systematic review findings suggest that students of qualitative research methods may learn qualitative approaches in procedural fashion, but lack skills and experience with how and when to implement these approaches to master the "craft" of undertaking qualitative research. Similarly, findings from Kalpokaite and Radivojevic's (2020) descriptive qualitative case study exploring undergraduate psychology student's experiences with learning computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software suggest "Qualitative research is most effectively learned by 'getting your hands dirty'" and learning through experiential exercises (p. 1833). Arguably, experienced qualitative researchers navigate the task of designing and undertaking qualitative research informed by both explicit (i.e., formal) and tacit (i.e., cannot be or difficult to explicate; Collins, 2010) knowledge.…”