This free course, Introducing observational approaches in research with children and young people, introduces you to analysing academic writing and, in particular, the way an article might be structured to clearly explain an investigation to other researchers. It explores observation of children and young people using qualitative observation approaches in small-scale studies.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand observation as a research method
• reflect on an experience of research studies with children which use observation as a data collection tool
• understand the difference between a quantitative and qualitative approach to research
• distinguish between describing and explaining in a research study.