Project Summary: Revisiting Predictions In the past few weeks of this course, you have worked on a Mini-Project in which you tested a data collection tool. Before you tested your data collection tool, you made some predictions about what themes and patterns you expected to emerge from the data. For this Discussion, you will analyze the accuracy or inaccuracy of your predictions. To prepare for this Discussion: Review the required reading for this week. Review the predictions you made in the Week 6 Application about the themes and patterns you expected from the data generated by your data collection tool test. Did your predictions come true? To what extent? Where did the two differ? To what degree? What was your reaction to this discovery? What does this result tell you about qualitative research, data collection, and data analysis? What conclusions can you draw? With these thoughts in mind: QWUESTION: Post a 2- to 3-paragraph comparison of your predictions about themes and patterns in data to your actual results. Conclude your posting by describing what these results tell you about qualitative research, data collection, and data analysis. When appropriate, be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the reading(s) and/or video program(s), using APA _____________________________________________________________________________________ Drawing Conclusions From Data Introduction As you analyze your qualitative data, patterns, relationships, and themes will begin to emerge; the trick for the qualitative researcher is identifying them. This week, you will use the data that you gathered from your test data-collection tool to practice drawing conclusions from your data. Learning Outcomes By the end of this week, you will be able to: Compare predictions about themes and patterns in data to results Evaluate the effectiveness of a data collection tool _____________________________________________________________________________________ Required Resources Course Text: Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook o Chapter 10, "Drawing and Verifying Conclusions," pp. 277293 In this excerpt from Chapter 10, you will review tactics for generating meaning, such as noting patterns and themes, clustering, counting, making contrasts and comparisons, factoring, noting relations between variables, and building a logical chain of evidence. Course Text: Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches o Chapter 8, "Data Analysis and Representation" This chapter reviews concepts involving data analysis and representation, including analysis strategies and analysis within approaches to inquiry. Course Text: Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. o Chapter 8, "Qualitative Analysis and Interpretation" In this chapter, you will learn about concepts of qualitative analysis and interpretation, including organizing data, computer-assisted data management, logical analysis, interpreting findings, special analytical issues and frameworks, and reporting findings. This reading is a review from Week 8. Research Toolkits Handouts o Walden Dissertation Rubric Available from http://researchcenter.waldenu.edu/ The Dissertation Rubric is a Word document linked in the section for PhD Dissertation Process and Documents. o Walden Qualitative Dissertations This document directs you to dissertations in the Walden Library that use a variety of qualitative approaches and disciplines. _________________________________________________________________________________