Preparing Research Tools (Notes)
Generally there are two types of questions a researcher can set for attaining research purpose:
Closed Questions
Closed questions prescribe the range of responses from which the participant may choose.
They are quick to complete and straight forward to code for computer analysis.
They include dichotomous, multiple choice, rank order questions and rating scales
On the other hand they do not enable participants to add any remark and explanation to the categories.
But there is a risk that the categories might not be exhaustive and that there might be bias in them (Oppenheim, 1992:115).
Open Questions
Open questions enable participants to write a free response in their own terms, to explain and qualify their responses and avoid the limitations of pre-set categories of response.
Most questions for an interview are open questions
On the other hand, the responses are difficult to code and to classify.
Types of Questionnaire Items
There are several kinds of questions and response modes in questionnaires, including, for example:
- Dichotomous questions
- Multiple choice questions
- Rating scales
- Rank order questions
- Open ended questions
Though there is a large range of types of questionnaire items, there is a simple rule of thumb:
The larger the size of the sample, the more structured, closed and numerical the questionnaire may have to be.
The smaller the size of the sample, the less structured, more open and word based the questionnaire may be.
Dichotomous Questions
Dichotomous questions require a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, e.g. ‘have you ever had to appear in court?’, ‘do you prefer ordinary buses or luxury buses’?
Advantages of Dichotomous Question
It is possible to code responses quickly, as there being only two categories of response.
It is a funneling or sorting device for subsequent questions, for example: ‘if you answered “yes” to question X, please go to question Y; if you answered “no” to question X, please go to question Z’.
Allows researcher to ask for information about dichotomous variables, for example gender (male or female), type of school (elementary or secondary), type of course (vocational or non vocational).
Weaknesses Dichotomous Question
A ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ may be inappropriate for a situation whose complexity is better served by a series of questions which catch that complexity
There may be comparatively few complex or refined questions which can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Requiring participants to make a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision may be inappropriate; it might be more appropriate to have a range of responses, for example in a rating scale.
Simple dichotomous question might build in participant bias as it is a natural human tendency to agree with a statement rather than to disagree with it.
Multiple Choice Questions
The researcher can move towards multiple choice questions, where the range of choices is designed to capture the likely range of responses to given statements.
Rank Ordering
The rank order question is similar to the multiple choice question in that it identifies options from which participants can choose, yet it moves beyond multiple choice items in that it asks participants to identify priorities.
This enables a relative degree of preference, priority and intensity to be charted.
In the rank ordering exercise a list of factors is set out and the participant is required to place them in a rank order, for example
E.g. Please indicate your priorities by placing numbers in the boxes to indicate the ordering of your views, 1 = the highest priority, 2 = the second highest, and so on.
Rankings are useful in indicating degrees of response. In this respect they are like rating scales.
Rating scales
One way in which degrees and intensity of response, and the move away from dichotomous questions has been managed can be seen in the notion of rating scales
These are very useful devices for the researcher, as they build in a degree of sensitivity and differentiation of response whilst still generating numbers.
E.g. How important do you consider your work placements to be in urban?
1 = not at all
2 = very little
3 = a little
4 = a lot
5 = a very great deal
Child labour is a survival option to orphans and those living in hardships
1- strongly agree
2- agree
3- undecided
4- disagree
5- Strongly disagree
The participant indicates on the scale by circling or putting a mark on that position which most represents what she or he feels.
Rating scales are widely used in research, as they combine the opportunity for a flexible response with the ability to determine frequencies, correlations and other forms of quantitative analysis.
They afford the researcher the freedom to temper measurement with opinion, quantity and quality.
They include Likert scales, semantic differential scales, Thurstone scales, Guttman scaling etc. NB: Find their details and be able to differentiate them.
Disadvantages of Rating Scales
The researcher may not be able in infer a degree of sensitivity and refinement from the data that they cannot bear.
There is no check on whether the participants are telling the truth.
There is no way of knowing if the participant might have wished to add any other comments about the issue under investigation.
Most of us would not wish to be called extremists.
For rating scales this means that we might wish to avoid the two extreme poles at each end of the continuum of the rating scales, reducing the number of positions in the scales to a choice of three (in a five point scale).
Open ended Questions
The open ended question is a very attractive device for smaller scale research or for those sections of a questionnaire that invite an honest, personal comment from the participants in addition to ticking numbers and boxes.
The questionnaire simply puts the open ended questions and leaves a space (or draws lines) for a free response.
It is the open ended responses that might contain the information that otherwise might not have been caught in the closed ended questions
Oppenheim (1992: 56–7) suggests that a sentence completion item is a useful assistant to an open-ended question.
An open ended question can catch the authenticity, richness, depth of response, honesty and openness.
Practical considerations in setting of the questions in a questionnaire form
Firstly, a questionnaire’s general purposes must be clarified and then translated into a specific, concrete aim or set of aims.
If you are using a questionnaire form is important, perhaps, for participants to be introduced to the purposes of each section of a questionnaire form, so that they can become involved in it and maybe identify with it.
If space permits, it is useful to tell the participant the purposes and focus of the sections or of the questionnaire form, and the reasons for the inclusion of the items.
To attain this you can include Covering letters
The purpose of the covering letter is to indicate the aim of the research, to convey to participants its importance, to assure them of confidentiality, and to encourage their replies
The covering letter or sheet should:
- Provide a title to the research;
- Introduce the researcher, her or his name, address, organization, contact telephone or fax or e-mail address, together with an invitation to feel free to contact the researcher for further clarification or details;
- Indicate the purposes of the research;
- Indicate the importance and benefits of the research;
- Indicate any professional backing, confirmation, or sponsorship of, or permission for, the research
- Set out how to return the questionnaire (e.g. in the accompanying stamped, addressed envelope, in a collection box in a particular institution, to a named person; whether the questionnaire will be collected and when, where and by whom).
- Indicate the address to which to return the questionnaire form
- Indicate what to do if questions or uncertainties arise
- Indicate a return by date
- Indicate any incentives for completing the questionnaire form if any
- Provide assurances of confidentiality, anonymity and non traceability
- Thank participants in advance for their cooperation.
The layout of the questionnaire form is important. The appearance of the questionnaire form is vitally important.
It must look easy, attractive and interesting rather than complicated, unclear, unfriendly and boring.
Clarity of wording and simplicity of design are essential.
Clear instructions should guide participants: e.g. ‘Put a tick’, for example, invites participation.
Complicated instructions and complex procedures threaten participants
Avoid leading questions, questions that their response categories presented in such a way as to suggest to participants that there is only one acceptable answer, and that other responses might not gain approval or disapproval respectively.
E.g. Do you prefer water from well or rivers which is flowing
Avoid highbrow or intellectual questions even with sophisticated participants.
E.g. What particular aspects of the current positivistic or interpretive debate would you like to see reflected in a course of development?
Avoid complex questions.
E.g. Would you prefer a short, non award bearing course (3, 4 or 5 sessions) with part day release (e.g. Wednesday afternoons) and one evening per week attendance with financial repayment for travel, or a longer, non award bearing course (6, 7 or 8 sessions) with full day release, or the whole course designed on part day release without evening attendance?
Avoid irritating questions or instructions.
For example: Have you ever attended an in-service course of any kind during your entire working time? Or If you are over forty, and have never owned a house, put one tick in the box marked never and another in the box marked old.
Avoid questions that use negatives and double negatives
E.g. How strongly do you feel that no body should join the intervention, award bearing program who has not completed at least secondary education?
Avoid too many open ended questions on self completion questionnaires.
Because self completion questionnaires cannot probe participants to find out just what they mean by particular responses.
Avoid preparing too long questionnaire.
E.g. This can be off putting the participants: Use pages 5, 6 and 7 respectively to respond to each of the questions about your attitudes to in service courses in general and your beliefs about their value in the professional life of the serving teacher.
Avoid ambiguity questions or words.
Take the following examples:
a) Does your child regularly do homework?
What does this mean: on roll, on roll but absent; marked as present but out of school on a field trip; at this precise moment or this week (there being a difference in attendance between a Monday and a Friday), or between the first term of an academic year and the last term of the academic year for secondary school students as some of them will have left school to go into employment and others will be at home revising for examinations or have completed them?
b)How many computers do you have in your school?
What does this mean: present but broken; including those out of school being repaired; the property of the school or staffs’ and students’ own computers; on average or exactly in school today?
Put sensitive questions later in the questionnaire form in order to avoid creating a mental set in the mind of participants, but not so late in the questionnaire form that boredom and lack of concentration have occurred.
Avoid, where possible, splitting an item over more than one page, as the participant may think that the item from the previous page is finished.
Ensure that the participant knows how to enter a response to each question, e.g. by underlining, circling, ticking, writing;
For postage questionnaire form
Use good quality envelopes, typed and addressed to a named person wherever possible.
Use first class rapid postage services wherever possible.
Enclose a stamped envelope for the participant’s reply.
Include a brief note at the end of the questionnaire form which can ask participants to check that no answer has been unintentionally missed out. Ask an early return of the completed schedule.
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