2.3 - Questionnaires and Interviews

• What are questionnaires used for?

  • reaching a large number of people
  • reaching widely dispersed people
  • self-completion
• What does operationalise mean?

  • the process used to define concepts so they can be measured reliably and so that they are valid
• What are the types of questions?

  1. Open Questions - allows respondent to explain
  2. Closed Questions - fixed response
• How are questionnaires administered?

  1. Post
  2. Phone
  3. Face-to-face
• PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES -

  • sample size is larger
  • data can be collected quickly
  • no need for researcher to be present
  • accessibility
  • pps are more likely to participate in questionnaires
  • easy to analyse
• PRACTICAL DISADVANTGES -

  • finding the sample
  • writing questionnaire itself
  • getting respondents to respond and send questionnaires back
• ETHICAL ADVANTAGES -

  • no major ethical issues
  • easy to keep identity hidden
  • no consent needed
• ETHICAL DISADVANTAGES -

  • no particular ethical guidelines
  • still must follow guidelines
• THEORETICAL ADVANTAGES -

  • positivists favour this method
  • more reliable
  • large sample size - representativeness
  • generalisability is greater
  • correlation and causal relationships
• THEORETICAL DISADVANTAGES -

  • questions may be interpreted differently despite same questions
  • assumes researcher knows what is important prior research
  • validity can decrease - social desirability bias
  • researchers are not present
• What is a structured interview?

  • pre set questions asked in the same order
  • no variation
  • positivists favour this method
• Advantages of a structured interview -

  1. Favoured by quantitative researchers because it is easier to replicate and compare results
  2. Less chance of interviewer bias
• Disadvantages of structured interviews -

  1. Less insight - hard to find out explanations and reasons why
  2. Less chance of discovering a hypothesis
• What is a partly structured interview?

  • list of topics to be covered
  • some fixed questions
  • interpretivists favour structured interviews
• Advantages of partly structured -

  • provides opportunity for respondents to lead the interviews while ensuring main topics are covered
• Disadvantages of partly structured -

  • lack specific advantages of both structured and unstructured interviews
• What are unstructured interviews?

  • there are few or no fixed questions
  • interview is more of a conversation
• Advantages of unstructured -

  • favoured by qualitative researchers because they allow respondents to direct the interview and provide more opportunity for developing new hypotheses
• Disadvantages of unstructured interviews -

  • hard to replicate
  • time consuming and difficult to compare
  • might need to code answers to get base statistics
• What is coding?

  • catergorising/analysing data to produce statistics - this could be into different themes
• What are the different interviewing styles?

  1 - Non directed - interviewer does not offer their own opinions and do not express approval/disapproval

  • most objective (reduces interviewer bias)
  • 2- Aggressive (Becker) - statements are challenged and there are more opinions
  • 3 - Collaborative (Oakley) - researcher befriends, interviewer becomes fully involved in research (rapports)
  • sees it as the most ethical
• What are the types of interviewer bias?

  1. Social characteristics of interviewer - ethnicity, age and sex will influence how interviewee perceives them. May make presumptions about the kind of response the interviewer wants
  2. Leading the interviewee - may direct interviewee to certain answers, could ask leading questions, can depend on type of voice, tone and communication
  3. Misunderstandings - interviewer can misunderstand what the interviewee is saying. This can lead to them explaining more or changing topic
• Advantages of group interviews -

  • interviewer can observe interaction and it encourages deeper thought about issues and more developed answers. It is closer to social life then more formal interviews
• Disadvantages of group interviews -

  • respondents may be influenced by the desire to conform to the views of others (especially dominant people in groups who say what they want to feel)
• Questionnaires in education (practical) -

  • advantages - sample is easy to gather, can include different areas from geographical areas, high response rate as you have a captive audience, quick and cheap
  • disadvantages - limited in questions you can ask children with poor literacy skills, sensitive topics
• Questionnaires in education (ethical) -

  • maintaining anonymity
  • schools need to be kept anonymous to maintain reputation
  • issues with informed consent
• Questionnaires in education -

  • interpretivist argue it does not allow for deeper meaning
  • difficult to prevent the discussion by pupils about the answers they should have put
  • social desirability bias
• Practical Interviews In Education -

  • flexible method
  • can be used by different researchers with different theoretical approaches to methodology
  • useful for studying groups who may not return their consent forms
  • can be time consuming
  • issues with pupil/parent absence
• Ethical Interviews In Education -

  • interviews can be on sensitive issues that may harm the participants recall. should be avoided unless researcher has appropriate training
  • can build a rapport with the interviewer