Abstract
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination.] Qualitative studies in the domain of physics education research have become more common in the last several decades. Methodologically, this has been marked by an expansion of the types of data collected in physics education research (PER): namely, in the use of individual and group interviews, problem-solving sessions, and classroom observations—often in the form of video data. However, depictions of those video data in publications, a key opportunity for communicating analytic approaches and results, are often left out or are constructed without addressing some important implications of video data depictions. In this paper, we critically examine how video data can be depicted, first providing a rough taxonomy of depiction approaches. We then emphasize the case of line illustrations as a depiction approach with significant potential for improving (i) the transparency of analytic perspectives, (ii) communicational clarity, and (iii) the handling of ethical issues, such as participant anonymization, followed by a discussion of the limitations and challenges of using illustrations. In the Appendix, we provide a practical guide for researchers interested in making their own illustrations for academic publishing purposes.
1 More- Received 1 February 2023
- Accepted 8 August 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.020120
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
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Qualitative Methods in PER: A Critical Examination
Physics Education Research (PER) uses various research methods classified under qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. These approaches help researchers understand physics education phenomena and advance our efforts to produce better PER.