Considerations of sample size in chemistry education research: numbers do count but context matters more!

Abstract

A question which often arises for chemistry education researchers, and is also frequently raised by reviewers of Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP) articles, is whether a research data sample size (N) is big enough? However, the answer to this question is more complicated than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’! In fact, there is substantial discussion of this issue within research literature which can make it even harder for a researcher to decide.