How and Who

Question 1

What are two practical issues with experiments?

Answer 1

Its difficult to gain acess to conduct laboratory experiments using children as authorisation is needed from teachers and parents. 2. Field experiments such as those done by Rosenthal and Jacabson and Jane Elliot are more likely to be suitable but may still be difficult to obtain.

Question 2

What are 4 ethical issues of experiments?

Answer 2

1. Conducting experiments is deemed unethical alot of the time. Bur using minor s is even more as they are a vulnerable group. 2. R&Js research has been critised as damaging the educational progress of half of the participants. 3. Elliotts research has been critised for causing social divisions between children. 4. Neither of these studies had the informed consent of the participants so there is the issue of deception.

Question 3

What are 2 theoretical issues with experiments?

Answer 3

1. All experiments by nature are artificial, and therefore lack validity due to the hawthorn effect. 2. They also tend to be small samples and are not so representative.

Question 4

What’s a practical positive of questionnares?

Answer 4

Accessing larger samples which is made even easier in an educational context as sampling frames are readily available in the forms of pupil registers or staff lists of teachers.

Question 5

What is a practical disadvantage of questionnares?

Answer 5

They may be unsuitable for researching very young or low ability students as they may find the reading and completing the questions to be a challenge.

Question 6

What are two ethical disadvantages of questionares?

Answer 6

1. Gaining informed consent from young people or children is difficult as they may not always understand what they are consenting too. 2. Maintaining the anonymity of the respondants and not asking for a name or signature on the request form, especially for students under 16.

Question 7

What are 2 theoretical disadvantages of questionares?

Answer 7

1. If questionnares are filled in simultaneously subcultures or peer pressure groups may lead to invalid answers, as they may influence the responses of their friends which leads to biased results. 2. Children may misinterpret questions or just find it hard to articulate their answer on paper and responses may become invalid.

Question 8

What are 2 practical disadvantages of interview’s?

Answer 8

1. They have to be easily accessible to your target population. Simple language and appropriate timings will need to be considered so young people don’t become easily distracted. 2. Acess can be inhibited by things like: gaining consent from parents, teachers cherry picking a sample, researchers requiring a DBS check to be in contact with minors which isn’t needed in questionnares.

Question 9

What’s an ethical positive with interviews?

Answer 9

Interviews with children or minors can be done in a non distressing way by avoiding certain questions and doing interviews over a long time period.

Question 10

What’s an ethical issue with interviews?

Answer 10

Interviewers would normally be expected to keep a participants identity confidential. But if a minor discolosed any form of abuse the researcher would have a duty to report any safe guarding issues.

Question 11

What are 3 issues with interviews?

Answer 11

1. Interviewer bias can occur which can alter a participants responses.2. Interviews are often perceived as authoritarian. This may cause participants to want to be open or honest with researchers especially children, who may want to impress or seek approval from the researcher. 3. Group Interviews often result in peer pressure, especially in teenagers.

Question 12

What are 3 practical issues with observations?

Answer 12

1. Access such as DBS clearance and permission from gate keepers like parents and staff. 2. Time consuming .

Question 13

What are 3 practical issues with researching educational staff?

Answer 13

1. Access to educational staff may be limited to lack of time. Teachers have full time tables and they may not feel as if they have enough time to commit to being a participant. 2. Schools are based on a hierarchy and teachers will need permission from various people so their availability may be restricted. 3. Senior staff are subject to scrutiny, for example, head teachers are responsible yo the governors which may limit their willingness to participate.

Question 14

What are 2 ethical issues with researching educational staff?

Answer 14

1, It would be vital to maintain confidentiality as comments could damage their teaching career. 2. Observing teachers without full consent from the people involved would be unethical.

Question 15

What are 3 theoretical issues with researching teaching staff?

Answer 15

1. The validity may be effected by the hawthorn effect as teachers are likely to acssoisate observations with ofsted inspections and change their behavior. 2. Teachers may state what they think is the right answer due to worries about confidentiality which may effect the validity. 3. Senior management may put down a teacher who they would think would perform in the best light for the school which may effect the representivness.

Question 16

What are 6 practical issues with researching students?

Answer 16

1. Consent not only needs to be gotten from the students put also gate keepers such as teachers and parents. 2. The department for education may also be needed to ask for consent. 3. Researchers will need to get a DBS check to be suitable to work with minors. 4. Timing would have to fit around the academic year. 5. Less able students may be unable to answer questionnaires or use online technology. 6. Researching young pupils would be time consuming and expensive as they have a tendancy to stray from the point.

Question 17

What are 4 ethical issues with researching students?

Answer 17

1. Researchers must always ensure that students wont suffer any phycological stress during the research. 2. Research might distract students from their education which would be harmful and may effect their performance. 3. Gaining the consent of students would be hard as they may not fully understand what they are consenting too. 4. Researchers would have to report any issues to do with child protection.

Question 18

What are 4 theoretical issues with researching pupils?

Answer 18

1. The validity may be effected as education is a hierarchy and students may feel as if they are not able to openly express their views. 2. The validity may be effected by younger pupils who may not fully understand or be able to respond to the questions. 3. The presence of a researcher in observations may cause a Hawthorne effect. 4. Due to numerous access problems, the final result may not be representative.

Question 19

What are 3 practical issues with researching parents?

Answer 19

1. Data protection, the GDR may make it hard to find the contact details of parents. 2. May be time consuming and inconvenient for parents to fit around their schedules. 3. Things such as homework and progression take place at home which would be unlikely for a researcher to be able to observe.

Question 20

What is an ethical disadvantage of researching parents?

Answer 20

Confidentiality

Question 21

What is an ethical advantage of researching parents?

Answer 21

They can give full informed consent.

Question 22

What are two theoretical disadvantages with researching parents?

Answer 22

1. Validity issues may arise as parents may want to impress the researcher and exaggerate their involvement in their childs education. 2. Representativeness may be affected by the uneven response rates from parents from different backgrounds.