An Approach for Being Able to Use the Options of Calculating Inter-coder Reliability Manually and Through Software in Qualitative Research of Education and Training in Sports

Abstract

Reliability that can be proved by numeric indicators in quantitative studies has become a very discussible issue. The reason for this is to be thought that in qualitative researches, reliability is not based on positive perspective and those forming reliability criteria is difficult. However, for testing the reliability of a qualitative study or raising it to the top level, some ways are used. The objective of this study is to introduce an approach to be able to use the options of inter-coder reliability calculating manually and through software in qualitative researches of education and training in sports. This research was conducted by document review method. In this context, how inter-coder reliability in qualitative researches will be formulated, how it will be calculated in software dimension, and the dimensions of inter-coder agreement, code frequency in document, code overlapping rate of segment level, and revealing code frequency were discussed. In the study, document analysis technique among qualitative research designs and in analyses content analysis method were used. The study results revealed with the examples that inter-coder reliability could be calculated in the various ways and that percentage flexibility could differ in every formula. Also, the options of inter-coder agreement were calculated by means of software, and it was identified that each option used had a different flexibility. This study, in terms of its originality, drawing the existing reliability from related to qualitative study from the framework of inter-coder agreement, suggests a synthesis of contemporary viewpoints. It is considered that in inter-coder qualitative studies, especially in sports education and training studies, will guide to the relevant researchers.