Having difficulty knowing many numbers of participant to use for pilot study and if there's need for any because I'm interviewing people living with diabetes. Working towards 40 participants in the main study( semi-structured interview)
Maybe start to think of a an area where you can pilot your study this might give you an idea of how many people you might need and work it out from there, if possible you have means to pilot your study please do it will give in-depth of how it goes well in the social context
You should also consider statistical methods to ensure that your study will have adequate power and therefore practically meaningful results when selecting a certain group size and all the variables you are interested in following. If you are not proficient in statistics, you should consult someone who can advise you.
5 - 6 people is enough for qualitative descriptive research. (Sandelowski, 2010) This one of best references to find out more on this type of research.
We do not pilot qualitative studies. That is reserved for quantitative studies. A quantitate pilot is designed to test tools and instruments to see if they need refining to apply to a border sample and, ultimately, do that so that generalisation is more robust. The idea of a qualitative sample is that it is contextually representative of the purposive /convenience sampling technique and is 'unique' of that sample. It cannot be piloted and then extended or replicated.
Pilot studies are not necessary in qualitative studies. However, with that said, I think that conducting one or two "test" interviews can be very helpful for refining your interview guide (if you are using one) and getting a general feel for how the interviews will go. Doing this will help you iron out some of the kinks before you proceed with your sample. I did this with my dissertation research and it was beneficial. This is useful especially if you are new to qualitative interviewing.
Yes Anthony - 'dummy runs' are a useful tool - especially if they are peer reviewed and/or recorded for feedback.
Perhaps what she meant is conducting a pilot study as part of a case study in which case she is entitle to use qualitative interviews along with other tools in a case study site to help understand what likely scenarios she face when doing the main study.
Is that the case, Damilola?
You can apply the Social Network Analysis Method. The data closer qualitative but the analyse, more quantitative. With this method, you can the relationships and how those can influence on performance.
Thanks everyone for the contribution, that was really helpful. Basically, I'm doing semi structured interview, so I think testing my interviews will be very helpful for refining your interview guide so as to have a general feel for how the interviews will go, just like Anthony and Dean said earlier. I wasn't just sure how many to pilot for the study. I'm looking at 40- 50 people in total for the study but they are from three different sectors with different question to ask them, but all still answering my research questions. so would picking one participant from each sector for piloting be enough?
Damilola - I personally would suggest more than one participant per sector; two (so six in total) per sector would be better. The individuals you pick could be 'outliers'. If it were 'experts' that you were using to pilot - then three would be enough.
Morning, I solicit your assistance to conduct my pilot study on my research, please,
am Bashir Ibrahim M.a English students at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin Malaysia
Is there any citation that state that there's no need to pilot testing qualitative research? i'm currently looking for any supported citation for this area. thanks.
Thanks you for your answers. I have another question that is related to the importance of the piloting and trying-out stage of an instrument in a [qualitative or quantitative] study ...would you mind helping me?