Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

Rules for proper construction of a questionnaire

Define or qualify terms that could easily be misunderstood or misinterpreted.

	What is the value of the tools in your Vo-Ag shop? (Replacement, present, market, teaching value, etc.)
	What are you doing now? (Filling out your stupid questionnaire.)

Be careful with descriptive adjectives and adverbs that have no agreed upon meaning, such as frequently, occasionally, and rarely (one person’s rarely may be another person’s frequently).

Beware of double negatives.

	Are you opposed to not requiring students to take showers after gym classes?
	Are you in favor of not offering Vo. Ag. IV in your Agriculture Program?

(One must study these questions carefully or answer improperly.)

Be careful of inadequate alternatives.

Married Yes ____ No ____
Employed Yes ____ No ____
(There are other answers that these types of questions do not answer, such as divorced, separated, union strikes, etc.)

Avoid double barreled questions.

	Do you believe that students should be placed in separate groups for instructional purposes and assigned to special schools?
	Should all Vo. Ag. I students take both wood and metal in shop? (One might be for one part of the question and opposed to the other.)

Underline a word to emphasize its importance.

The following illustration will serve to emphasize how a line under the word one wishes to emphasize can change a sentence from the standpoint of the respondent’s train of thought.
Were you there last night?
Were you there last night?
Were you there last night?
Were you there last night?
Were you there last night?

When asking for a rating, a point of reference is needed.

	How would you rate campus dress today?
	How would you rate student attitudes? (Compared to what?)

Avoid unfounded assumptions.

Are you satisfied with the salary you received last year? (A no answer might mean that I didn’t receive a raise last year or that I did get a raise, but I’m not satisfied.)

Phrase questions so that they are appropriate for all respondents.

What is your monthly salary?
What is your yearly salary?
(Both questions may not have a definite answer. Salaries could be ten months, eleven months, etc. Yearly salaries are subject to commission, seasonal changes, etc.)

Design questions that give complete possibilities for comprehension of responses.

	Do you read the New York Times?
	Do you watch the news on television?

(Neither question indicates much about the reading or viewing habits of an individual.)

Provide for a systematic quantification of responses.

	What is your favorite TV program?
	What is your favorite radio program?

(It is hard to summarize where the respondents pick a number of items from a list. A better way is to rank in order of preference. Example: Rank one through five the following radio programs. The items can then be tabulated by inverse weightings or points.)

Consider the possibility of classifying the responses yourself rather than having the respondent choose categories.

A student might miss his father’s occupation.

Unskilled labor ____
Skilled labor ____
Clearance work ____

Ask a child one or two short questions.

At what place does your father work?
What kind of work does he do?
(A younger child might not be able to choose the proper category in number one above. He could, however, answer the questions in the second example.)
The opinionnaire, or attitude scale, is an information form that attempts to measure the attitude or belief of an individual. How one feels or what he believes is his attitude, which can’t be measured or described. The researcher, therefore, must depend upon what the individual says are his beliefs and feelings. From the statement of his opinion his attitude is inferred.
Limitations of inferring attitude from expressed opinion

An individual may hide his real attitude and express socially acceptable opinions.

He may not really know how he feels about a social issue.

He may never have considered the idea seriously.

He may not know his attitude about a situation in the abstract and so may be unable to predict his reaction or behavior until confronted with a real situation.

Interview
An interview is a direct face-to-face attempt to obtain reliable and valid measures in the form of verbal responses from one or more respondents. It is a conversation in which the roles of the interviewer and the respondent change continually.
Advantages

	Allows the interviewer to clarify questions.
	Can be used with young children and illiterates.
	Allows the informants to respond in any manner they see fit.
	Allows the interviewers to observe verbal and non-verbal behavior of the respondents.
	Means of obtaining personal information, attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs.
	Reduces anxiety so that potentially threatening topics can be studied.

Disadvantages

	Unstructured interviews often yield data too difficult to summarize or evaluate.
	Training interviewers, sending them to meet and interview their informants, and evaluating their effectiveness all add to the cost of the study.