Research Methods - Questionaires

Question 1

what is a questionnaire?

Answer 1

list of written questions

Question 2

what is a postal questionnaire ?

Answer 2

questionnaire that is posted to respondents and posted back to the researcher

Question 3

what is a self completion questionnaire ?

Answer 3

questionnaire given to respondents to do in their own time and return it

Question 4

what are close ended questions ?

Answer 4

limited range of possible questions
eg multiple choice

Question 5

what are open ended questions ?

Answer 5

The respondents are free to
write / express the answer in their own words

Question 6

what is a pilot study ?

Answer 6

small scale trial run of the first draft of
the questionnaire. It allows the researcher to spot any
mistakes and correct them before carrying out the main survey

Question 7

what are the practical strengths of questionaires ?

Answer 7

time and money - very cheap and quick method of gathering large amounts of data in short amount of time
e.g. Connor and Dewson carried out research into the
factors that affected w/c students’ decisions about going to uni by sending out 4000
questionnaires to students in 14 different universities around the UK.

• no need to recruit or train interviewers - also saves money
• easy to analyse
• useful to study social change overtime

Question 8

what are the ethical strengths ?

Answer 8

informed consent if completing questionnaire
anonymity and confidentiality remains as names arent used

Question 9

what are theoretical strengths ?

Answer 9

reliability ( repeatability)
validity - there’s no researcher bias as researcher isn’t there when they are doing questionnaire
representativeness - reflective of population as questionnaires get sent out in masses
objectivity - unbiased as researcher isnt present
conduct hypothesis testing - allow for testing hypothesis about cause and effect relationships between different variables

Question 10

practical limitations of questionnaires

Answer 10

researcher might need to offer incentive to get volume of responses higher - this adds to the cost
low response rate - treated like “junk” mail
inflexibility - with close ended qs too much inflexibility
superficial data - data tends to be limited as questionnaires cant be too long otherwise people wont complete them

Question 11

theoretical limitations -

Answer 11

lack of validity they are a snapshot - interpretivists argue that lack of meaning so there is not a full understanding
data is likely unrepresentative

Question 12

what is operationalisation of concepts ?

Answer 12

turning key terms into a measurable form. it means that the researcher must clearly define exactly what
they mean by a concept,

Question 13

what are the strengths of operationalising concepts?

Answer 13

relatively easy if the
respondents are teachers as teachers are highly educated so are more
likely to understand complex language and words.

Question 14

what are the limitations of operationalising concepts ?

Answer 14

children grasp onto concepts after explaining as concepts are difficult
researcher must express the concept
using simple language. If the children misunderstand the question,
the data gathered will be invalid.

Question 15

what is a sampling frame ?

Answer 15

Sampling frame is the list from which the researcher gets the sample

Question 16

what are the strengths of a sampling frame ?

Answer 16

schools keep lists of all their students, staff and parents. This
provides a ready-made sampling frame for the researcher to draw their sample from

Question 17

what are the limitations of a sampling frame ?

Answer 17

– schools are under legal obligation to keep the data they hold
about their students, staff and parents confidential so they may not be able
to pass this information to the researcher,

Question 18

what is a response rate ?

Answer 18

Response rate is the number of
respondents who actually complete and return the questionnaire.

Question 19

what are the strengths of response rates in school ?

Answer 19

tend to be higher the students and teachers may
feel under pressure to take part and the parents may feel it is important to
do so. Also, time can be allocated during the school day for the
questionnaires to be filled in, e.g. during Registration or PSHE lessons.

Question 20

what are the limitations of response rates in school?

Answer 20

schools may not give full access to researcher ( with students )
Parents and teachers may
be too busy to complete the questionnaire so the response rate will be low.

Question 21

what are the strengths for practical issues ( methods in context )

Answer 21

questionnaires are a relatively quick and easy way of
gathering large quantities of data from many respondents. , Rutter used questionnaires to gather data from 12 high
schools in London. He was able to gather data on behaviour,
attendance and achievement and correlate them to class size and number of teachers that worked at the schools

Question 22

what are the limitations of practical issues ? ( methods in context )

Answer 22

Rutter’s research shows correlations between
variables such as class size and achievement, but it does not provide
us with any explanations for the correlation.

Question 23

what is anonymity and detachment ?

Answer 23

Anonymity means that the respondents are not asked to provide
information such as their name to the researcher. Detachment
refers to the fact that the researcher has very little personal
contact with the respondents.

Question 24

what are the strenghts of a and d ?

Answer 24

questionnaires are anonymous so they are a useful
way of gathering data on a sensitive topic as the respondents
are more likely to tell the truth. This ensures the validity of the data

Question 25

limitations of a and d

Answer 25

lack of consent - however, students are young
and a vulnerable group so can they really understand what it
means to take part in a questionnaire

Question 26

more issues

Answer 26

Validity –pupils in anti-school subcultures may associated completing the questionnaire with following school rules thus they may deliberately give
inaccurate information which would reduce the validity of the findings.
Reliability - questionnaires are highly reliable as they can be repeated over and over again in many different schools.

Question 27

what perspective are chubb and moe ?

Answer 27

new right

Question 28

what did chubb and moe propose ?

Answer 28

education system is failing because it is run by the state. If the education system was marketised, schools would
be run like businesses; having to complete against each other to
attract parents in order to get more funding. This would force
the schools to raise their standards (improve their grades).

Question 29

what did chubb and moe carry out questionnaires for ?

Answer 29

parents’ attitudes to
schooling, in particular their attitudes on how schools should be run and how much choice parents should have.

Question 30

why have chubb and moe been criticised?

Answer 30

for producing data that suited their
perspective’s views on education by using ‘leading’ questions.

Question 31

what perspective do bowles and gintis come from ?

Answer 31

marxist

Question 32

what do bowles and gintis argue ?

Answer 32

they say that purpose of education is to create an unquestioning workforce for capitalism by reproducing class inequality and legitmating it

Question 33

what did bowles and gintis do questionnaires on and what did they find ?

Answer 33

students’ personality traits and their grades. They found a
correlation between the personality traits valued by
employers such as passivity and obedience and high grades