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DEVELOPMENT
PRESENTATION
OVERVIEW
What are questionnaires and what do they
measure?
Objectives in questionnaire research
Advantages/Disadvantages
Main parts and formats
Dos/Donts of questionnaire writing
Questionnaire administration
Issues in questionnaire research
Ethical principles of questionnaire research
WHAT ARE
Questionnaires are any written instruments
QUESTIONNAIRES?
that present respondents with a series of
questions or statements to which they are
to react either by writing out their answers
or selecting them from among existing
answers. (Brown, 2001:6)
Referred to by different names
Inventories, forms, opinnionaires, tests, batteries,
checklists, scales, surveys, profiles, indexes
(Aiken, 1997)
WHAT DO
QUESTIONNAIRES
Questionnaires (Qs) can yield different
types of information (Dornyei, 2003)
MEASURE?
Factual questions
Find out information about who respondents are;
demographics
Behavioral questions
Find out what respondents are doing or have done in
the past
Attitudinal questions
Find out what people think
Attitudes, opinions, beliefs, interests & values
OBJECTIVES IN
QUESTIONNAIRE RESEARCH
To obtain accurate and relevant information/data
To maximise the response rate (the proportion of
subjects answering the Q)
ADVANTAGES
Unprecedented efficiency in terms of researcher time,
effort and financial resources (Dornyei, 2003)
Versatility can be used successfully with a variety of
people in a variety of contexts targeting a variety of
topics
Collect a large amount of data in a short time (Brown,
1988)
Easier and less expensive than other forms of data
collection (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989)
Can be used to research any aspect of teaching and
learning (Nunan, 1989)
Can be easily used in field settings such as classrooms
(Nunan, 1992)
DISADVANTAGES
Simplicity and superficiality of answers
Qs must be understood by all; written in
simplistic way; cant probe deeply into an
issue; results in superficial data (Moser &
Kalton, 1971)
DISADVANTAGES
Social desirability or prestige bias
People do not always provide true answers
about themselves
Over reporting good behavior or under
reporting bad or undesirable behavior
Happens because Qs are often transparent
(i.e. Rs have a fairly good idea of what the
desirable/acceptable answer is)
Presenting ourselves in a good light is a
natural human tendency
DISADVANTAGES
Acquiescence bias
Halo effect
Fatigue effects
MAIN PARTS OF
QUESTIONNAIRES
Title
MAIN PARTS OF
QUESTIONNAIRES
Instructions
Specific
Explains and demonstrates how Rs should answer
questions
Each new task type requires instructions
Questionnaire Items
Additional Information
OPEN OR CLOSED
FORMATS?
Responses can be in open or closed formats
Open-ended formats
Rs formulate their own answers
Closed formats
Rs are forced to choose between several given options
Allows exploration of
the range of possible
themes arising from
an issue
Minimise
discrimination against
the less literate or the
Can be used if a
comprehensive range less articulate
of alternative choices Easy to code, record,
cannot be compiled
analyse results
quantitatively
Easy to report results
Likert Scale
Differential Scale
OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
Specific open questions
Ask about concrete pieces of information
(i.e. facts, past activities, preferences)
How many languages have you studied?
Clarification questions
Questions that are so important you need
follow-up information
If you rated the textbook you are using as
poor or very poor, please briefly explain
why
OPEN-ENDED
QUESTIONS
Sentence completion questions
One thing I liked about this class
was
I found this activity
Short-answer questions
Exploratory inquiry about an issue
What was it that you found most
useful about this class?
LENGTH?
General temptation is always to cover
too much ground by asking everything
that might turn out to be interesting
Experts agree that anything over 4-6
pages and requires more than 30 min
to complete is too long
As a general rule, long questionnaires
get fewer responses than short Qs
QUESTION
ARRANGEMENT
Go from general to particular
Go from easy to difficult
Go from factual to abstract
Start with closed format questions
Start with questions relevant to the
main subject
Do not start with demographic and
personal questions
negative statements
tendency to mark every item at the same
end of the scale
by offering positive/negative responses Rs
must evaluate every statement
Begin with non-threatening and interesting
items
Leave space for comments
Place most important Qs in the first half of Q
Ss often send back partially completed Qs
WHAT TO AVOID
Avoid scale point proliferation
Never/rarely/occasionally/fairly
often/often/very often/almost always/always
Research has shown that most Ss cannot
reliably distinguish between more than six or
seven levels of response
four to five scale points are sufficient
Distinguish between a neutral and no
response
when you dont want to have a neutral
option you can sometimes have a prefer
not to answer, not applicable, or no
basis for judgement
QUALITIES OF GOOD
QUESTIONNAIRES
Brings out the truth
Qs must be non-threatening
if your Q has sensitive items, be sure to
clearly state your policy on confidentiality
QUALITIES OF GOOD
QUESTIONNAIRES
Produces a variety of responses
Follows comfortably from the previous
question
QUESTIONNAIRE
ADMINISTRATION
Sample
QUESTIONNAIRE
ADMINISTRATION
How large should the sample size be?
No hard/fast rules
10% of population is generally ideal
recommendation
Basic requirement is normal distribution
which equates to at least 30 Ss (Hatch &
Lazarton, 1991)
For statistical significance at least 50
For multivariate statistical procedures like
factor analysis at least 100
ISSUES IN QUESTIONNAIRE
ADMINISTRATION
Most common way to administer is by
mail or online
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF
QUESTIONNAIRE RESEARCH
Five Ethical Principles (Oppenheim,
1992; Sudman & Bradburn, 1983)
ISSUES IN QUESTIONNAIRE
RESEARCH
Rs that tend to sit the fence
Sensitive issues
Difficult to obtain truthful answers to sensitive questions.
Controversial topics
Various biases in research
CONCLUSION
Qs must be carefully designed to yield
valid information.
Attention must be paid to ensure that
individual questions are relevant,
appropriate, intelligible, precise and
unbiased.
The order of Qs must be carefully
arranged and the layout of the Q must
be clear.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In writing questionnaire items
no amount of textbook admonition
can take the place of common
sense.
(Moser & Kalton, 1971:310)