ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the micro-cycle of analysis and exploration. It provides an overview of the main activities and outputs in this phase. The chapter deals with descriptions of how analysis and exploration have been conducted in the context of two actual educational design research studies, and the provision of an assessment tool for critiquing documents reporting on this phase of work. The main goal of exploration, which is often conducted alongside analysis activities, is to seek out and learn from how others have viewed and attended to similar problems. Exploration is often conducted through site visits, professional meetings, and networking. Seven methods are among the most often used during the analysis and exploration phase: interviews; focus groups; observations; questionnaires; tests; logbooks; and document analysis. In the analysis and exploration phase of educational design research, representativeness refers to how well the data actually represent the problem, the context, and/or stakeholder voices.
