In the first phase of the research, participants completed a 30-question online survey
(Oakley, 2011) investigating their use of, and attitudes toward, dissection and dissection alternatives.
The majority of the survey questions (26 in total) were closed-ended, featuring checklists
and Likert scales, along with open-ended comments fields so that respondents could elaborate
upon their answers. The remaining four questions were open-ended. The numerical data reported
in this paper were taken from an analysis of survey questions asking teachers whether they used
dissection (and why), whether they used alternatives and what types of alternatives they used
(and why), and the benefits and concerns they associated with each instructional method. The
narrative data—including the descriptions of each theme and supporting quotations—were selected
from comments shared in the open-ended questions and comments fields on the survey, as
well as select passages from the transcripts of nine interviews conducted in the second phase of
data collection.