ABSTRACT
This chapter describes observation as a data collection approach and its different types. It describes the different roles that researchers take on when doing observations. The chapter offers practical suggestions for carrying out and evaluating observation in a qualitative study/ The chapter also outlines the advantages and disadvantages of this data collective method. Observation has long been a staple of ethnographic work and so has been a method of data collection for over a century. Bernard adds that observations help to improve the validity of a study. Observation also provides information about the physical environment’s influence on the researched. Observation may be exhaustive, in which one observes anything and everything. The researcher assumes no base knowledge and thus tries to collect everything. Conducting observation requires the researcher to engage in a systematic process of planning, watching, seeing, listening, hearing, understanding and documenting.
