Interviews in Education Research
Content
INTERVIEWS IN EDUCATION RESEARCH
CONTENTS
A. INTRODUCTION
B. HOW TO USE INTERVIEWS IN EDUCATION RESEARCH
A. INTRODUCTION
Interviews can be used to collect facts, e.g information about peoples age,
gender, occupation etc. These are preceding questions seek to elicit
information about opinions, beliefs, attitudes and experiences. Interviews
are a common means of selection for entry to school/ college, getting a job
or promotion. They are a powerful tool to obtain information and gaining
insights.
Interviews are available in a range of styles. Social scientists make use of
pre-set interviews on sample groups to test their efficiency before trying out
on larger populations.
Apart from an oral questionnaire and a completely unstructured
conversation, there is an interview designed with questions to be raised
before the actual interview. The conversation is flexible with allowance for
additional topics. These are known as semi structured interviews. They are
the form, most often used in education research.
B. HOW TO USE INTERVIEWS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH.
Q. 1. Why should interviews be used for data collection?
To answer this question we have to make a list of the strengths and
weaknesses of interviews. Next we should consider the nature of the
research question and the available resources.
Interviews are a very useful means of inquiry, but they do not fit all
circumstances, e.g. teachers interviewed about their pedagogic styles
often respond with description intended to impress the interviewer.
However, there is a strong probability that the questions posed may make
the interviewee think about their practice in ways they haven’t
considered before and an experience is co-created during the interview.
Q. 2. Who should be interviewed?
You should attempt to involve as many participants as possible. You will
pick out those who can provide the best insights, and represent the full
range of experience and opinion. You may interview just those you
consider to be the most important informants.
Q. 3. How to get access?
If your project is linked to your practice you are likely to have access to
suitable participants. Generally speaking, people are quite flattered to be
asked about their experience. The information required should be easily
readable with an outline of key aspects of the project. Potential
participants should be given time to decide whether they wish to be
involved so that they feel happy to be involved. They should be confident
that you will respect confidentiality. The aspects of ethics protocols
should be explicit from the beginning.
Q. 4. What Questions Should be asked?
When thinking about the questions, you should have in mind the
concerned research.
The focus should be on what you are trying to find out?
Every interview must have a purpose.
Q.5. How should questions be Phrased?
Some questions should be thought provoking.
Questions should create a positive relationship to get the lest pastille
relationship to get the last possible responses for different topics the
“guess who technique” may be used to find out how many students
smoke…. A class list can be handed over with the questions; without
telling the names tell me how many people smoke.
Q.6. Techniques for the best quality answers:
Attention should he paid to the location, seating assuagement, how the
dresser, manner of approach, a pleasant chat on what the research is
about. The rapport establishes will get the interviewer to talk. Pay close
attention. Focus on the subject. Dewdrop empathy with interviewees, win
their confidence. Not imposing one’s own influence on the interviewee.
The best technique is the unstructured interview with some general ideas
to flow into a natural discussion.
A structured interview might be more appropriate if the researcher
wishes to known certain things. This is less naturalistic and there is not
much scope for the interviewee. Hence, researchers use semi structured
interviews which have some pre set questions but allow more scope for
open ended answers.
CONTENTS
A. INTRODUCTION
B. HOW TO USE INTERVIEWS IN EDUCATION RESEARCH
A. INTRODUCTION
Interviews can be used to collect facts, e.g information about peoples age,
gender, occupation etc. These are preceding questions seek to elicit
information about opinions, beliefs, attitudes and experiences. Interviews
are a common means of selection for entry to school/ college, getting a job
or promotion. They are a powerful tool to obtain information and gaining
insights.
Interviews are available in a range of styles. Social scientists make use of
pre-set interviews on sample groups to test their efficiency before trying out
on larger populations.
Apart from an oral questionnaire and a completely unstructured
conversation, there is an interview designed with questions to be raised
before the actual interview. The conversation is flexible with allowance for
additional topics. These are known as semi structured interviews. They are
the form, most often used in education research.
B. HOW TO USE INTERVIEWS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH.
Q. 1. Why should interviews be used for data collection?
To answer this question we have to make a list of the strengths and
weaknesses of interviews. Next we should consider the nature of the
research question and the available resources.
Interviews are a very useful means of inquiry, but they do not fit all
circumstances, e.g. teachers interviewed about their pedagogic styles
often respond with description intended to impress the interviewer.
However, there is a strong probability that the questions posed may make
the interviewee think about their practice in ways they haven’t
considered before and an experience is co-created during the interview.
Q. 2. Who should be interviewed?
You should attempt to involve as many participants as possible. You will
pick out those who can provide the best insights, and represent the full
range of experience and opinion. You may interview just those you
consider to be the most important informants.
Q. 3. How to get access?
If your project is linked to your practice you are likely to have access to
suitable participants. Generally speaking, people are quite flattered to be
asked about their experience. The information required should be easily
readable with an outline of key aspects of the project. Potential
participants should be given time to decide whether they wish to be
involved so that they feel happy to be involved. They should be confident
that you will respect confidentiality. The aspects of ethics protocols
should be explicit from the beginning.
Q. 4. What Questions Should be asked?
When thinking about the questions, you should have in mind the
concerned research.
The focus should be on what you are trying to find out?
Every interview must have a purpose.
Q.5. How should questions be Phrased?
Some questions should be thought provoking.
Questions should create a positive relationship to get the lest pastille
relationship to get the last possible responses for different topics the
“guess who technique” may be used to find out how many students
smoke…. A class list can be handed over with the questions; without
telling the names tell me how many people smoke.
Q.6. Techniques for the best quality answers:
Attention should he paid to the location, seating assuagement, how the
dresser, manner of approach, a pleasant chat on what the research is
about. The rapport establishes will get the interviewer to talk. Pay close
attention. Focus on the subject. Dewdrop empathy with interviewees, win
their confidence. Not imposing one’s own influence on the interviewee.
The best technique is the unstructured interview with some general ideas
to flow into a natural discussion.
A structured interview might be more appropriate if the researcher
wishes to known certain things. This is less naturalistic and there is not
much scope for the interviewee. Hence, researchers use semi structured
interviews which have some pre set questions but allow more scope for
open ended answers.
