Deck 8: Gather the Evidence

Question 1

Why do many researchers have low response rates to surveys?

Answer 1

Responses should include the themes of participant interest, time, knowledge of the subject or researcher, and clarity of the survey items. Discussion should help students to realize the importance of sampling and of generating a large enough sample to be able to collect sufficient data for the project.

Question 2

What issues are encountered if a researcher sends a survey to 200 randomly selected participants and only 25 respond?

Answer 2

Answers should include the concept of bias. Those who do respond, and those who do not, may be doing so because of a specific bias toward the research topic, and the responses therefore might include, or omit, crucial data that would be present in a truly random response.

Question 3

Why is an interview sometimes a better way to collect data than a survey?

Answer 3

Interviews allow for the reading of nonverbal feedback and allow the researcher to probe the subject when responses are unclear or incomplete. Answers should recognize that the subject and the data needed are crucial in determining the data-collection device.

Question 4

When is a survey more efficient than interviews?

Question 5

What data-collection technique could be used to measure student behavior in the classroom?

Question 6

What are the benefits of having respondents rank-order a set of variables rather than provide numerical-value responses for each?

Question 7

Why is a random selection of participants less important for qualitative research?