Structured Interviews - Methods in Context Flashcards
What two skills of children are genuinely less than that of adults? (Practical)
Linguistic and intellectual skills
Attention span of children compared to adults (Practical)
They have shorter attention span to adults
Vocabulary of children compared to adults (Practical)
They may have a more limited vocabulary range compared to adults which may affect their knowledge of different questions
Children’s understanding of question and concepts (Practical)
They may not be able to understand long, complex questions and abstract concepts
Memory retrieval of children compared to adults (Practical)
They have a poorer memory retrieval than that of adults
What may factors such as not understanding questions led to? (Practical)
Misunderstanding and incorrect or incomplete answers to questions
Consequence of incomplete or inaccurate answers (Practical)
Reduces validity
What practical issue of structured interviews may imply that unstructured interviews are a better option for educational research?
Communication issues because unstructured interviews allow interviews to explain concepts
What practical factor about children may imply that general interviews (structured or unstructured) are better than questionnaires for educational research? (Practical)
Children have better linguistic skills than literacy skills meaning they are better at speech-based questioning compared to written questioning
What may get passed around the to most pupils or teachers after only a few interviews have taken place? (Practical)
The content of the interviews which may include inaccurate information
Consequence of information being passed around before everyone has completed interview (Practical)
Reduces validity as content of interview information may influence later responses given
Example of how the location of the interview impacts the results (Practical)
If they are conducted on school premises, comfortability of pupil or parents will be affected
Young people may feel unsettled by an interview. What will researcher have to do? (Ethical)
Researchers will have to take significant care that interview doesn’t cause pupil any harm
Why do structured interviews produce reliable data? (Theoretical)
Because they are standardised
Why may structured interviews not produce valid data? (Theoretical)
Because young people are unlikely to respond well to formal style because it makes the interviewer appear as a teacher
What about the interviewers will reduce the validity and compatibility of the findings? (Theoretical)
Different interviewers are likely to obtain very different results
What type of institutions are schools and what is the affect of this? (Theoretical)
Hierarchal institutions which can cause problems when seeking to interview teachers or pupils
What do Powney and Watts state about hierarchy of schools? (Theoretical)
The lower down the hierarchy the interviewee is, the more approvals that have to be obtained
Why may schools be reluctant to allow sociologists to conduct interviews? (Theoretical) Two reasons
May cause distraction to lessons if they are conducted during lesson time
School’s may not approve of chosen topic
Consequence of parental permission being required to interview children (Theoretical)
Likelihood of parental permission being given depends on subject of research. Possibility reduces response rate
How is parental permission being required a theoretical issue?
Can lead to low response rates which reduces representativeness of findings
How is parental permission being required an ethical issue?
Links to informed consent
