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Merits and limits of Inquiry Tools - 6B

This task involves us looking at the merits and limits (pro's and con's) of the tools provided in relation to our professional inquiry topic, of which mine is looking at community dance: history and benefits. 

Tools of Inquiry:

Observations:

Merits:
Easily repeated.
Planning is simple. 
You can be both a participant and an observer giving you different aspects of the observation.
Accessible in my line of work. 
You can pick up points that you may not have considered using other tools. 

Limits:
Time consuming.
Getting permission from the correct people. 
Analysing is quite complex. 

Interviews: 

Merits:
Can either be informal or formal. 
Structured provides an easy to repeat method. 
Uncover unexpected data. 
Using equipment such as a tape recorder can help you check your analysis. 

Limits:
Time consuming.
People may not be comfortable taking part in interviews. 

Focus Groups:

Merits:
People may open up more in focus groups. 
Explores different dynamics. 

Limits:
Hard to manage. 
Can come easily off the task. 
People are likely to take over. 
Hard to take notes/record if people talk over one another. 

Surveys/Questionnaires:

Merits:
Simple and effective. 
Gets data from a large amount of people.
Only takes a few minutes to complete. 
Cheap. 

Limits:
Low response rates  really effect data. 
Hard to analyse. 
Can't guarantee responses are serious and valid. 

Looking through these a lot of the merits out way the limits. However after looking through them and seeing how they could help in my line of work and for my inquiry I still think that observations and interviews would help me inquiry the most. Through observations I will be able to look at the way different practitioners teach a variety of participants and how they differ. Also the benefits these have on the participants. With interviews, as I know a range of people from this line of work, I will be able to get a variety of information and sources asking specific questions regarding my inquiry. Using these two I will also be able to compare what goes on in the classroom to what the teachers are actually thinking when they are in that classroom and what made them want to do this as a profession.  




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