title: The observation of educational events.
abstract: This booklet is a guide to using observational research methods in medical and health-care education. Emphasis is given to the role of observation in providing concrete, detailed descriptions of how educational events unfold. It is suggested that observational methods have a valuable contribution to make to our understanding of the structures, functions and 'mechanisms' of educational activities. Three approaches to observation are described: participant observation, interaction analysis and fine-grained sequential analysis. Questions of reliability and validity are addressed. Finally, some sources of further information are given.
authors.affiliation: Educational Services Unit, Medical School, University of Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Fleming
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004501:Education, Medical; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006801:Humans; D012107:Research Design