Research tools are the means of collecting the required data from tests, opinion polls, questionnaires, interviews, graduated scales, measuring devices, photography, or visual/audio recording. Whatever the case, we are concerned in this paragraph with written research tools such as tests and opinion polls, where we will briefly present some criteria for selecting research tools and then the principles and steps for developing them.
A – General criteria for selecting research tools:
Several criteria are taken into account here, including:
1- Appropriateness for the factors or individuals of the research in terms of readability and usability.
2- Appropriateness for the conditions of data collection in terms of the available time period and the types of sources involved.
3- Adequate representation of the types of data in what is referred to as validity.
4- The ability to provide repeated data or results when used in different circumstances, which is known as the reliability of the tool.
5- Appropriateness of the material cost of performance or the ability to finance its purchase or development.
B- General steps for developing research tools:
The selected tools for collecting research data can be developed using the following steps:
1- Determine the objectives that the tool will serve or achieve, i.e. the type and amounts of data required by it.
2- Determine the research individuals with whom the tool will be used in terms of their language, level of awareness, and abilities to persevere or focus on research tasks.
3- Review other similar available tools to be guided by their formats, instructions, contents, and characteristics in developing the new tool and avoiding weaknesses or shortcomings in them.
4- Develop a large group of elements that can be contained in the tool, to compare them and choose what is suitable for the goals and individuals of the research.
5- Develop the first preliminary version of the tool with its many and varied elements.
6- Evaluate the validity of the tool by:
* Comparing the content of the tool from questions or elements and the types of data it produces with what is actually required to solve the problem. If the result of this comparison is positive and sufficient, it means that the tool is initially valid for use, otherwise it must be modified for greater validity.
* Conducting the tool – especially if it is a psychological or practical test or scale – on samples of individuals who will be researched. If the answers of the high-achieving samples or those with characteristics or behavior are high, and the answers of the opposite samples are low, then it is possible to initially judge the validity of the tool’s representation of the relevant factors. However, if the researcher conducts the tool twice separately on the selected samples and the results are remarkably close, then the researcher can also make an initial decision about the reliability of the tool, i.e. its ability to provide repeated results.
* Sending the tool – especially if it is a scale, practical, achievement, survey/inquiry, or a specific type of observation tool – to a group of experts in the field of research, to poll their opinions about the representation of the tool’s elements of the required data and the problem to be solved. The common elements that these people arrive at are in fact the basic elements that should not be overlooked in the final version of the research tool.
7- Revising the tool to its final versions in light of the results of the previous step.
8- Reporting the validity, reliability, and difficulty data of the tool, keeping them until requested or reporting the research results.