ICT use among kindergarten aged children – encoding the open ended items of a survey with the EKOD macropackage

Abstract

When we set out to study pedagogical situations, in certain cases the use of constructed response items is necessary. Although constructed response items provide us with a lot more information about a particular issue than their fixed choice counterparts, their use is frequently avoided because of the complexity, difficulty and time-consuming nature of the data processing. We developed an open source Excel macro (EKOD) to ease the burden on one core element of the process: coding and categorization. The aim of the present study is to analyze one open-constructed item eliciting responses about parents’ views about their kindergarten-aged child’s ICT use. First, we review the grounded theory used for data analysis and the methodical issues of coding. Then, we provide a detailed description of EKOD and its usability in finding keywords and establishing basic categories through the analysis of a constructed response item in the parental survey. The present work and the EKOD may assist kindergarten teachers in conducting qualitative studies and therefore contribute to a better understanding of pedagogical situations and the development of kindergarten-aged children. However, they can be applied in any qualitative study in social sciences.