methods in context Flashcards
USING EXPERIMENTS TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) application in the classroom
- use field experiments to study aspects of classroom life
- has clear boundaries,e.g. space and time
- easier to control situation
2) reliability
- not exactly replicable but can be repeated in broadly similar ways
3) ethical problems
- pupils = more vulnerable and less aware of what’s happening, so less able to give informed consent
4) limited application
- small-scale and can usually only examine a single aspect of behaviour
5) controlling all the variables
- schools = large complex institutions, many variables affect teachers and pupils.
USING QUESTIONNAIRES TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) practical issues
- good for gathering large quantities of data
2) sampling frames
- schools are a good source of ready made sampling frames. keep lists of teachers and pupils
3) response rate
- often low, but in schools they’re higher
- once headteacher has put their authority behind the research, parents, teachers and pupils may be under pressure to cooperate
4) researching pupils
- children = short attention span so short questionnaires are more effective.
- poor lit skills may be a barrier
5) validity
- life experiences of children are narrower so they might not know the answers to questions. this means questionnaires are of little value.
USING STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) response rate:
- less disruptive to school’s activities bc short
- more likely to receive official support for research and hierarchical nature of the school may then work in their favour and increase the response rate
2) reliability
- easy to replicate. large-scale patterns in education behaviour can be identified
3) validity
- children tend to have better verbal skills than literacy skills, so they’re more successful. but formal nature means pupils are unlikely to feel at ease.
4) ethical issues
- parental permission may be required. whether it’s given or not depends on the sensitivity of the research topic
USING UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS TO STUDY EDUCATION
Unstructured interview are less formal that structured interviews and do not follow an interview schedule – that is there is no list of standardised questions. Researchers will have several topics to discuss, but will have the freedom to ask follow-up questions.
+ This allows the researcher to develop a rapport with the respondent, potentially leading to more informative responses.
It also allows the researcher to show empathy towards the respondent, particularly when dealing with socially sensitive topics such as being the victim of crime
Interpretivists argue that the use of unstructured interviews enable the researcher to gain an insight into the meaning and motivations behind an individual’s actions – something that gives the research validity
- However, critics have suggested that this leads to a loss of objectivity on the researcher’s part. They also suggest that unstructured interviews can be time- consuming and go off-topic.
Although this makes the results and findings unique, unstructured interviews are difficult to replicate and therefore lack reliability.
1) practical issues
- may be inarticulate or reluctant to talk, so this gives them time, space and encouragement work out their responses.
- younger children have a shorter attention span, so it may be too demanding
2) validity
- misunderstanding can be cleared up
- may present contradictory or irrelevant responses to the questions
3) reliability
- to make pupils feel at ease, some interviewers try to maintain a relaxed environment. this can’ be standardised so diff interviewers can get v diff results
USING STRUCTURED OBSERVATION TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) practical issues
- classroom is well suited.
- quicker, cheaper and observer needs less training
- some school situations (playground) involve too many different behaviours to be categorised
2) reliability
- range of classroom behaviours is limited so a limited number of behaviour categories can be established.
- generates quantitative data, easily to compare
3) valid
- int: criticise for lack of validity. ignores meanings that pupils and teachers attach to behaviour
4) observer presence
- presence can be off-putting. likely to affect teacher’s and pupil’s behaviour, so less valid.
USING PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) validity
- allows researcher to gain acceptance by pupils = more valid data. overcomes problem of status differences between pupil and researcher
2) ethical issues
- pupils are more vulnerable than adults and may not be able to give informed consent.
- greater issues when dealing with terms of protecting the school’s identity
- poor image can damage the schools rep.
3) Hawthorne Effect
- have to be overt (few covert opportunities)
- teachers may be suspicious of an observer in their classroom and alter their normal behaviour.
4) representativeness
- can only be carried out on a v. small scale
USING OFFICIAL STATISTICS TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) practical issues
- government collects statistics from every school in the country
- saves sociologists time and money. allows them to make comparisons
- official definitions of key concepts and issues may differ from those that sociologists use
2) representativeness
- high representative bc they cover virtually every pupil in the country
3) reliability
- uses standard definitions and categories in the collection of educational statistics.
- same collection process is replicated each year, allowing direct comparisons to be made.
USING DOCUMENTS TO STUDY EDUCATION
1) practical issues
- large amount of information about education is made publicly available (e.g. school policy statements, school brochures and websites)
2) ethical issues
- few concerns bc placed in public domain
- more issues w personal documents, e.g. school reports, pupils’ workbooks, teachers’ diaries, etc.
3) credibility
- public documents give the ‘official’ picture of what’s happening in a school or college.
- in an education market, schools want to present themselves in the most positive way
- many documents are constructed with a parental audience in mind.
- less believable and less valid
FIELD EXPERIMENMT
Field experiment, like lab experiments look to manipulate the Independent Variable, and measure the Dependent Variable
However, unlike lab experiments, other (extraneous) variables are not controlled as the experiment is conducted in the ‘field’ – that is a real world situation
+ As subjects are observed in their natural environment, there is less chance of the Hawthorne Effect influencing their behaviour
It has higher ecological validity than lab experiments as it takes place in real-world situations and can be replicated – a feature of scientific enquiry
- There are ethical issues such as deception and informed consent as subjects are often unaware they are part of an experiment
- The cost of monitoring the subjects in the real world is higher, with specific equipment being required to record subjects behaviours
_ The presence of extraneous variables means it cannot produce a cause and effect relationship – merely a correlation between two factors
WRITTEN QUESTIONNAIRES
A written questionnaire is a form of social survey where respondents answers are provided in a written format. These can be open or closed questions depending upon the type of data the researcher wants
+ The absence of a researcher in written questionnaires may also mean that people respond truthfully, particularly if their responses are anonymous
+ With written responses, people are able to discuss the impacts freely with no imposition problem. This also helps researchers discover impacts they may not have considered in their preparation
Written questionnaires may provide people a better opportunity to consider their responses – improving the validity of answers
- However, these questions may be better explored through unstructured interviews, where researchers can ask follow-up questions and get better clarity
Responses to open questions are harder to analyse and quantify as there are more potential responses
SELF QUESTIONNAIRE + MAILED QUESTIONNAIRES
A self-completion questionnaire is a form of social survey where respondents answer a list of standardised questions without a research present
+ An example of a self-completion questionnaire in social research is the census. Conducted every 10 years, it has a high response rate due to the legal requirement to complete it
- As they are self-completion – no researcher is present when the respondent complete the questionnaire. This can negatively impact on the response rate and the validity of the research – we are not sure who is completing them
- However, questions may be misleading or difficult to understand – as there is no researcher, this cannot be addressed – which may lead to false responses
A mailed questionnaire is a questionnaire that is distributed by postal services or e-mail and requires the respondent to return the completed questionnaire to the researcher.
+ As they are standardised questions, the same questionnaires can be sent out to multiple address with relative ease. This allow researchers to replicate research or to expand the sample of their research
- However, mailed questionnaires are often disregarded as not being important enough by potential respondents or are not returned as people simply forget to return them, leading to a low response rate
An example of this occurred in Hite’s research into love and relationships with less than 5% of over 100,000 questionnaires sent out. This can be costly for researcher
It is also problematic gaining access to potential participants unless they have agreed to take part. However, all data, including addresses must be stored in accordance with official guidelines
NON PARTICIPANT OBERVATION
Covert participant observations require the researcher to become part of a group without revealing their true identity or that they are conducting research. This method has many practical and ethical issues.
+ An advantage of this method is that it allows researchers to experience first-hand the activities of the group. As the group are unaware of being researched they may act more naturally – increasing validity
However, they are useful for hard to reach groups and provide verstehen (insight) into lives of others
There are many practical issues however, including the recording of conversations and taking notes. The researcher is often reliant upon their memory and if found out could be at risk of losing research or worse.
Ethically, researchers are deceiving their participants, failing to gain informed consent and potentially placing themselves and others at harm. Covert obs have to be approved by ethics committees
