Application of research methods to education

Question 1

What are the advantages to using unstructured interviews to study anti-school subcultures?

Answer 1

• students who are part of an anti-school subculture may not want to talk about their school lives. Using unstructured interviews would allow the researcher to BUILD UP RAPPORT with the students, potentially giving them a greater insight into their thoughts and feelings.
• unstructured interviews are good for investigating sensitive issues, because the researcher doesn’t have to stick to a fixed questionnaire. They can change their approach to gain the trust of the students and make them feel more comfortable.
• offer greater validity than questionnaires because they give the interviewer a chance to adapt their questioning to the subject.
• using unstructured interviews mean that students could be interviewed away from any peer pressure. This gives them more time to reflect on the issues and give a more valid response.

Question 2

What are the disadvantages of using unstructured interviews to study anti-school subcultures?

Answer 2

• they are quite time-consuming. This means they tend to be used with smaller samples. This means the data wouldn’t be very representative.
• the interviewer could have an effect on the interviewee, making the data less valid. Students may give an answer that presents their behaviour in a more positive light. (‘interviewer effects’)
• the data collected from unstructured interviews is qualitative, so it would be harder to make comparisons between various student’s ideas. It is also harder to reproduce data, making it less reliable.
• students with a negative attitude towards school may also take a negative attitude towards the interviewer, seeing them as just another adult connected with school. This means they may not express their true feelings, or even deliberately lie, making the data less valid.

Question 3

What are the advantages to using covert participant observation to investigate labelling?

Answer 3

• teachers often label students without realising they’re doing it, so they may not mention it in an interview or questionnaire. Being a participant would allow the researcher to observe labelling in a natural, real-life setting.
• teachers probably wouldn’t want to be seen to label their students, so they might deliberately avoid doing it if they knew this was the issue being studied. By observing covertly, the researcher could get more valid data.

Question 4

What are the disadvantages to using covert participant observation to investigate labelling?

Answer 4

• misleading teachers counts as deception, which is arguably ethically incorrect. it may also be difficult to find a good enough cover explanation to gain access to a school, and using a cover would also be ethically questionable.
• the researcher may become too familiar with the teachers and find it hard to analyse them objectively. the researcher may even start to label the students themselves, so they stop recognising that teachers are doing it.
• the research couldn’t be exactly repeated, so it isn’t as reliable as questionnaires, for example. Covert participant observation also has to be conducted with a smaller sample, making the data less representative.

Question 5

What are the advantages of using closed questionnaires to find out about parental attitudes?

Answer 5

• questionnaires can be used to collect a large amount of data very quickly. Making the results more representative.
• parents may be more honest about their attitudes towards education if they can complete a private questionnaire.
• the study could be easily repeated, making the data more reliable.

Question 6

What are the disadvantages of using closed questionnaires to find out about parental attitudes?

Answer 6

• respondents can easily lie about their true attitudes. making the data less valid.
• using closed questions doesn’t allow the respondent to explain their answer. it might not be a suitable method for researching attitudes in education, which are often complex.
• if parents associate the questionnaire with the school, then the researcher might find that the questionnaire is mostly completed by those with a positive attitude towards education. This would SKEW the sample, making it less representative, so the data would be less valid

Question 7

What are the advantages of using official statistics to study mixed-ability teaching?

Answer 7

• using hard statistics would be a reliable source of secondary data, because they’re objective.
• statistics can be easily compared because they’re a form of quantitative data. e.g., the outcomes of mixed ability classes could be compared for different genders, age groups and schools. can also be compared over time.

Question 8

What are the disadvantages of using official statistics to study mixed-ability teaching?

Answer 8

• if soft statistics are used, the researcher would have to be careful that the data was valid. It could be adjusted by schools, e.g., to exaggerate the successes of mixed-ability teaching.
• official statistics don’t offer as much insight into the reasons behind achievement as other methods like unstructured interviews.
• at selective schools, the variation in abilities in mixed classes would be less great than at non-selective schools. so this could skew the data.