triangulation

Categories: Site glossary

originally triangulation applied to locating something by taking bearing from different sites (plotting the direction of the object from different directions should lead to lines crossing at one point)

in research the term is used metaphorically to mean using multiple sources of data to help answer a research question

often the term refers to the use of different kind of data (methodological triangulation), but it could be the same types of data collected at different times, or from different informers

See: Triangulation

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.