How to go about data collection...?

I would like to look at student thinking. I want to get to data collection and see evidence of how students think of our classroom. Do they think of it as a safe place where they are helped and supported by other students? The kind of data that I can collect are watching student interaction through video tape and comparing it from time to time, informal note taking but the one I would like to get is some sort of written response to a target question that would give me evidence of how they feel about their classroom community. I wonder if I asked them, “What is something you have to do at school that you don’t like and why?” would that give me any insight into their perception of their voice and degree of participating in their own learning. Maybe that is the data that I will collect and see if that was useful data or not.