Paper III Strategies and reminders © John Crane & Jette Hannibal, InThinking .

Paper IIIPaper IIIStrategies and remindersStrategies and reminders

© John Crane & Jette Hannibal, InThinkingwww.tok-inthinking.co.uk

http://www.tok-inthinking.co.uk/

What is Paper 3?• A stimulus piece - that is, a summary of a

piece of research that you have never seen before.

• Three mandatory questions about the stimulus piece. Each of the questions asks you about qualitative research methods.

• Your task is to combine your knowledge of qualitative research methods with the information in the stimulus material.



Focus Paper 3 is only testing knowledge of qualitative research methodology so keep your focus on that when using the stimulus material in your response. Avoid suggesting that researchers use quantitative methods to do their research in this paper.

Do not address the topic of the stimulus piece – e.g. stress or helping behaviour. Focus on how the researchers could investigate the topic of the stimulus material.

You should not “cite research” as on Papers I & II.



How am I assessed?



How am I assessed?

Demonstrate knowledge of qualitative research methods.

Relate that knowledge to the stimulus piece.

Meet the demands of the command term.

Write a well-developed response that defines terms, uses correct vocabulary and clarifies all statements.



Before you begin You have five minutes reading time, read through the text carefully. Your goal is general understanding of the stimulus material.

When the exam begins, read the questions carefully. For each question, note (1) methodological focus if it is stated in the question (e.g. overt participant observation) and (2) command term (e.g. explain).

Re-read the text with a dictionary and a highlighter. Try to find information in the stimulus material that can help you to answer the questions.


Outline Make a brief outline for each question before beginning to write your response.

Make note of relevant information and reference the relevant lines in the stimulus material.

Check command terms. Each question will have one higher-level command term (e.g. discuss or evaluate).


Writing a response

Each response should address the question asked and nothing else. Try to demonstrate relevant knowledge (e.g. on sampling method if this is the focus) and combine this with information from the stimulus material.

Always refer to the stimulus material to support your argument. You may cite line numbers.

Define important terms (e.g. ‘credibility’) as you go along. Write for someone who knows nothing about psychology.


Example

Question: Explain one ethical consideration in this qualitative research study.


ExampleOne ethical consideration in this study could be to ensure anonymity for both students and teachers. Anonymity means that nobody will be able to identify the participants. In this specific study, audio taping the class in teaching situations (l. 10) could be an issue because people might be able to identify students and teachers from this tape. Therefore, all audiotapes should be destroyed as soon as transcripts have been made. In the report, participants should be anonymized, for example giving them different names or assigning them numbers.


Paper III Strategies and reminders © John Crane & Jette Hannibal, InThinking .

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