J Vet Med Educ. 2021 Oct;48(5):511-518. doi: 10.3138/jvme-2019-0101-p1.
Qualitative methodologies are relative newcomers to health sciences education research. While they may look very different to their quantitative counterparts in terms of size and scope, when well-applied they offer a fresh perspective and generate valuable research findings. Although qualitative research is being increasingly conducted in veterinary medical education, there are few contextualized resources to assist those who would like to develop their expertise in this area. In this article, we address this by introducing the principles of qualitative research design in a veterinary medical education context. Drawing from a range of contemporary resources, we explore the types of research goals and questions that are amenable to qualitative inquiry and discuss the process of formulating a worthwhile research question. We explain what research paradigms are and introduce readers to some of the methodological options available to them in qualitative research. Examples from veterinary medical education are used to illustrate key points. In a second companion article, we will focus on the decisions that need to be made regarding data sampling, collection, and analysis. We will also consider how qualitative research is evaluated, and discuss how qualitative findings are applied. Taken together, the two articles build an understanding of qualitative research, illuminate its potential to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in veterinary medical education, and equip readers with an improved capacity to appraise its value.
定性方法是健康科学教育研究中的新成员。虽然它们在规模和范围上与定量方法有很大的不同，但如果应用得当，它们提供了新的视角，并产生了有价值的研究结果。虽然定性研究在兽医医学教育中越来越多地进行，但很少有针对这一领域的专业知识发展的上下文资源。在本文中，我们通过在兽医医学教育背景下介绍定性研究设计的原则来解决这个问题。我们从一系列当代资源中探讨了适合定性探究的研究目标和问题类型，并讨论了制定有价值研究问题的过程。我们解释了什么是研究范式，并向读者介绍了定性研究中可用的一些方法选择。兽医医学教育的例子被用来举例说明要点。在第二篇配套文章中，我们将重点讨论关于数据抽样、收集和分析的决策。我们还将考虑如何评估定性研究，并讨论如何应用定性研究结果。总的来说，这两篇文章使人们了解定性研究，阐明其对兽医医学教育教与学的学术贡献的潜力，并使读者提高评估其价值的能力。
