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Service-Learning Research Primer (PDF)
Using Existing Instruments versus Modifying versus Creating
An important decision point when planning research is whether to use existing tools,
adapt from those that have already been developed, or create new tools to fit a specific purpose.
Some of the pros and cons of each option are listed below in Table 4.
Table 4. Deciding on Instruments
- Using Existing Instruments
- Pros:
- Can be incorporated into research quickly
- Often prepared by professional expert
- May have norms for comparison purposes
- May have known reliability and validity indicators
- Can build on existing knowledge base using the same instrument
- May be keyed to content or proficiency standards
- Cons:
- May not "fit" research question exactly
- May require training for administration, scoring, or analysis
- may incur cost to purchase, score, or analyze
- May be too long for the purposes at hand, take too much time to complete
- Pros:
- Adapting Existing Tools
(e.g., using portions of an instrument, small wording changes, changing the time frame)- Pros:
- Can be modified to suit research question or service-learning context
- Most of the work of creating the tool has been completed
- May be able to compare results with previous results or norms (but only on relevant items or subscales)
- Using only a portion of an existing instrument may lessen completion time, and thus increase response rate
- Cons:
- Changing a known quantity into something unknown
- Previous reliability and validity indicators may no longer apply
- Pros:
- Developing New Instruments
- Pros:
- Can develop instrument to fit specific need
- Instrument itself may comprise a significant contribution to the field of research
- Cons:
- Requires time, effort, resources, expertise
- Requires knowledge of scale development procedures
- Runs risk that instrument will not be reliable or valid for purpose at hand
- Pros:
