ABSTRACT
The use of observation in educational research presents a number of advantages to the researcher. In particular, observation is a very direct method which provides the researcher with close contact with the subject, behaviours or events being studied, thereby enabling a ‘real life’ picture to be achieved. It lends itself well to the researcher who wishes to gain an understanding of what is happening, for example in a classroom, on the playground, or during a school visit, and in combination with other data collection methods such as interviews or document scrutiny it can be a particularly useful part of the researchers battery of techniques.
