Using questionnaires in education

Question 1

Operationalisation of concepts

Answer 1

This means turning key terms into a measurable form. In other
words, it means that the researcher must clearly define exactly what
they mean by a concept, e.g. educational underachievement.

Question 2

Strengths of Operationalisation of concepts in questionnaires when researching into education

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Limitation of Operationalisation of concepts in questionnaires when researching into education

Answer 3

children’s grasp of abstract concepts is less well developed than in adults so the researcher has the difficulty of making sure that children understand concepts such as deferred gratification. To do this the researcher must express the concept using simple language. If the children misunderstand the question, the data gathered will be invalid. Similarly, not all parents will be well educated or even speak English well enough to understand complex language which makes writing questionnaires for children or parents difficult.

Question 4

Strengths of Samples and Sampling Frames in questionnaires when researching into education

Answer 4

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. If the school gives the researcher the permission to carry out their research at the school, the school will give the researcher the list of teachers’ and students’ names from which they can select the sample. Schools can also provide info about teachers’ and students’ ethnicity, age etc.

Question 5

Define sampling and sampling frame

Answer 5

sample refers to the people taking part in the questionnaire; the
respondents.

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

Question 6

Limitations of Samples and Sampling Frames in questionnaires when researching into education

Answer 6

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, e.g. In a study into how parents chose to send their children to FHS, we have all your parents’ addresses and names, but are not legally allowed to give them to a researcher so the researcher will struggle to post the questionnaire to the parents.

Question 7

Access and response rate

Answer 7

Access refers to whether the researcher is allowed to carry out their
research in a school in the first place.

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

Question 8

Strengths of Access and response rate when using Questionnaires in education

Answer 8

response rates to questionnaires carried out through schools tend
to be higher compared to other types of questionnaires. This is because if the head teacher approves the questionnaires, 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.

Question 9

limitation of Access and response rate when using Questionnaires in education

Answer 9

Schools may not allow the researcher full access to all
students, e.g. access to Yr7 students may be denied if the study is on a topic the school feels is inappropriate, e.g. underage sex. If this happens, the research simply can not take place at that school. Parents and teachers may be too busy to complete the questionnaire so the response rate will be low.

Question 10

Practical strengths when using questionnaires in edu

Answer 10

questionnaires are a relatively quick and easy way of
gathering large quantities of data from many respondents. For
example, 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 who worked at the schools.

Question 11

Practical limitations when using questionnaires in edu

Answer 11

the quantitative data gathered through questionnaires is
limited, for example, 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. Children have a shorter
attention span so the questionnaire must be designed not to be too
long. However, this limits the amount of information that can be
gathered. As the news of the researcher’s presence at the school
spreads among students, the students may find out the questions in
advance. This may affect their answers thus making the data invalid.

Question 12

Anonymity

Answer 12

Anonymity means that the respondents are not asked to provide
information such as their name to the researcher.

Question 13

Strengths of anonymity when using questionnaires researching edu

Answer 13

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 14

Limitation of anonymity when using questionnaires researching edu

Answer 14

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 15

Validity issues

Answer 15

Teachers and parents may give false answers in order to give a good impression of themselves. Students may be completing the questionnaire in class with other students – they can talk about the questions and thus influence each other’s answers. All this would make the data invalid – not the truth.

Question 16

Reliability issues

Answer 16

questionnaires are highly reliable as they can be repeated over and
over again in many different schools.

Question 17

Representativeness issues

Answer 17

if the response rate is low the data will be unrepresentative,
e.g. w/c parents with anti-school attitudes may be less likely to complete the questionnaire sent to them via the school while e/m parents’ lack of Eng language skills may prevent them from completing the questionnaire. This means their experiences will not be represented in the findings.

Question 18

Ethical issues

Answer 18

psychological harm – some topics may cause psycho harm to
children, e.g. a questionnaire on bullying.

Question 19

which sociologists used questionnaires to study education

Answer 19

Chubb and Moe

Bowles and Gintis

Question 20

Chubb and Moe

Answer 20

Come from the New Right perspective.

Proposed the education system should be marketised as it is
failing. The 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

Chubb and Moe carried out questionnaires to gather information about parents’ attitudes to schooling, in particular their attitudes on how schools should be run and how much choice parents should have.

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

Question 21

Bowles and Gintis

Answer 21

Come from the Marxist perspective.

They argue that the purpose of education is to create an unquestioning workforce for capitalism. It does this by reproducing class inequality and legitimating it. This is done through the correspondence principle whereby school life reflects the day to day work life.

To prove the existence of the correspondence principle, Bowles and Gintis carried out questionnaires to compare 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.