Questionnaire Method

Question 1

What are the practical advantages of questionnaires.

Answer 1

-Quick and cheap
-No need to recruit or train interviewers and observers
-data is easy to quantify

Question 2

Reliability of questionnaires

Answer 2

Can be repeated accurately and the interviewer has no influence on the respondent. They allow comparisons of time and societies.

Question 3

Hypothesis testing of questionnaires

Answer 3

Useful for testing the cause and effect relationship between different factors and variables. We can make a hypothesis as questionnaires allow us to identify possible causes.

Question 4

Detachment and objectivity in questionnaires. (Advantages)

Answer 4

Favoured by positivists as they are unbiased and can produce more real to life results making the experiment valid and reliable.

Question 5

Representative of questionnaires

Answer 5

Can collect information from a large group and stand a better chance of being representative of the wider population. Enable us to make generalisations about the wider population.

Question 6

Ethical advantages of questionnaires

Answer 6

Respondent has the right to not answer all questions and their anonymity is almost guaranteed.

Question 7

Practical disadvantages of questionnaires.

Answer 7

-time consuming and can be superficial
-fairly brief
-costly
-problems with sending and receiving the questionnaires. Technical problems.

Question 8

Theoretical problems with questionnaires

Answer 8

-low response rates
-unflexibility
-snapshots
-lack validity

Question 9

Questionnaires and low response rates

Answer 9

Not all complete the form and return it. Eg. Shere hites sent out 100000 questionnaires to USA but only 4.5% of them were returned.

Question 10

Questionnaires and inflexibility

Answer 10

Once the questions have been finalised, the researcher is stuck with the questions and can’t explore further interest.

Question 11

Questionnaires as snapshots

Answer 11

Give just a picture of social reality at only one moment meaning that questionnaires fail to give a valid picture as they don’t capture people’s attitude and behaviour change.

Question 12

Questionnaires lacking validity

Answer 12

Interprevists argue that data lacks validity and don’t give a full picture of what is being studied. Questionnaires are mostly detached, lack of contact means clarifying questions are difficult.

Question 13

Who is Cicoutel in questionnaires

Answer 13

Argues that we only gain a valid picture by using methods that allow us to get close to the subjects of the study, and share their meanings.

Question 14

Ethical problems with questionnaires

Answer 14

Depends on the respondent’s willingness and ability to provide full accurate answers. They may lie and forget or not know the answers. Make them less valid and reliable.

Question 15

What issues in education do sociologists study in questionnaire form

Answer 15

• subject and university choice
• bullying on experience of schooling
• achievement and school factors
• parental attitudes of education

Question 16

Operationalisation ideation of concepts in education

Answer 16

Involves turning abstract ideas into measurable forms. Difficult with this method for pupils as their grasp of abstract concepts is less than adults. It is difficult to turn ideas such as cultural capital into language that pupils will understand.

Question 17

Samples in education in questionnaire Methods

Answer 17

Schools may have ready made samples like classes and teacher departments for sociologists to draw a representative sample. Schools may not have lists to reflect the researchers interests.

Question 18

Distributing questionnaires in education, sampling frames

Answer 18

Surveys in schools are easy and access a large number of respondents. However, it will need schools permission. Parents are harder to locate so surveys can be an effective way to overcome this difficulty. It is a formal document which younger people may find of putting.

Question 19

Access and response rate in educational questionnaires.

Answer 19

Response rates can be low as schools may be reluctant to distribute due to disruption to lessons. However they can be higher if the head makes it compulsory. This can produce representative data and generalisations can be made.

Question 20

Practical issues of questionnaires in education.

Answer 20

Useful for gathering large qualities, quick and cheap. Data can be limited and superficial. Younger children may not be able to read the questions or know the answer. They also have a shorter attention span than adults.

Question 21

Who is Michael Rutter in questionnaires on education

Answer 21

He used questionnaires to collect large quantities of data from 12 London, secondary schools. He was able to correlate achievement, attendance and behaviour with variable such as School sizes, class sizes and number of staff.

Question 22

Anonymity in questionnaires on education.

Answer 22

Can be useful when researching sensitive issues, such as bullying. pupils can overcome embarrassment if they are anonymous. Leads to higher response rates and more valid answers.

Question 23

Detachment in questionnaires on education.

Answer 23

Reassurance is difficult to achieve with detached methods as there is little personal contact with the researcher. Less contact with respondents is difficult with young people as they are less likely to give honest responses.

Question 24

Why do peoples with Anti school subcultures reject questionnaires?

Answer 24

It’s a formal document, which equates with School and teacher authority, leading to them refusing to cooperate, resulting in incomplete or invalid data.