Internet and social media research has created new methodological opportunities for educational and social sciences, but also new ethical challenges. In many ways, current research ethics guidelines and legislation are still limited and provisional. In this chapter, we address ethical considerations emerging from a research project based on a…

New technologies transform research specialties and potentiate new fields. Sociometers--wearable electronic sensors collecting quantitative, dynamic data about embodied social interactions at hyperfine scales--represent such a possibility for small group research. This article introduces this new method and its distinctive qualities and…

Standardized interviewing (SI) and conversational interviewing are two approaches to collect survey data that differ in how interviewers address respondent confusion. This article examines interviewer-respondent interactions that occur during these two techniques, focusing on requests for and provisions of clarification. The data derive from an…

An ecomap is a social work data collection tool that is used to gather data about a participant's environment. Derived from Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory, the ecomap can be used in adult education and human resource development to record information of in-and-out-of-work and learning experiences and show how these interactions support…

This article explores the types of interactions that take place within "Interactive Groups" when individuals come to a meaningful understanding of mathematics. We discuss the possibility for dialogic talk to unveil the process of learning, and we explore the role that tutors may play in making this process happen. We postulate that…

In this paper we explore the value of theoretical triangulation as a methodological approach for the analysis of classroom interaction. We analyze an excerpt of a whole-class discussion in history from three theoretical perspectives: interactivity of the discourse, conceptual level raising and historical reasoning. We conclude that using…

Much pedagogic research undertaken in geography and other disciplines relies on post-hoc methods such as surveys or interviews to investigate the student experience of higher education (often based on self-reports of behaviour). However, observation of students provides a far more direct route to obtain information about their behaviour, and there…

Various formats of online discussion have proven valuable for enhancing learning and collaboration in distance and blended learning contexts. However, despite their capacity to reveal essential processes in collaborative inquiry, current mainstream analytical frameworks, such as the cognitive presence framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer,…

This study proposes a new method named the IIS-map-based method for analyzing interactions in face-to-face collaborative learning settings. This analysis method is conducted in three steps: firstly, drawing an initial IIS-map according to collaborative tasks; secondly, coding and segmenting information flows into information items of IIS; thirdly,…

Child obesity research has generally not examined multiple layers of parent-child relationships during weight-related activities such as feeding, eating and play. A literature review was conducted to locate empirical studies that measured parent-child interactions and child eating and child weight variables; five papers met the inclusion criteria…

An abundance of academic research has focused on identifying, explicating, operationalizing, and analyzing variables used to understand the dynamics of customer service. Despite this scholarly attention, applied researchers and the popular press have long reported consumers' dissatisfaction with the service received during their customer…

While numerous publications signal the merits of collaborative research, few studies provide interpretive analyses of collaborative-research practices or collaborative relationships. Through this multiple case study design of collaborative-research teams, the authors attempt to provide such an analysis by focusing on the collaborative-research…

This paper introduces a new method for the detection of patterns or phases in small groups based on fuzzy pattern recognition procedures. It tells how the method provides an accurate description of all the patterns of group interaction, detects rather than assumes the number of patterns and their length, and is based on fuzzy set theory so that it…

The implications of the dialectical perspective for research methodology are reviewed and illustrated with examples from research on memory and memory development. Three conversations or dialogues are described: within the researcher, between the researcher and the research participants, and between the researcher and social-historical context. It…

The purposes of this paper are to note specific weaknesses characterizing small group research and to propose suggestions for their solution. Adapted from a speech given at the Second National Conference about the Teaching of Group: Theory and Practice, Temple University, Philadelphia, February 1976. (Author)