Collaborate – Think Critically: Learn from researchers who have been in your shoes – use their examples and experiences to explore how their ‘lessons learned’ can improve your own research approach. Take it one step further with additional thought-provoking questions online.

11.1 Forming a peer group

At a research workshop for my students, Tim Rapley noted there was something missing from Simon Allistone’s transcript of a parent-teacher interview. When Simon replayed the recording, we heard the sound of papers being banged on a table. Simon realised that this sound reflected a strategy the teacher was using to convince a parent that her child’s poor grades were from the report of her subject teacher not her own view of the child. Simon eventually got a whole new chapter from this observation.

Getting feedback from our peers – classmates or friends – can be extremely useful. You might want to form a writing partnership or group, and to sustain a successful relationship it's useful to know how to give practical, helpful and kind feedback. Try listening to each other’s recorded data to correct transcripts and to discuss new interpretations.

What observations did your fellow students have? Did anything surprise you?

Did you catch any additional sounds auditory information listening with others?