Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
What are questionnaires? Why use them? Properties of a questionnaire Procedures for questionnaire design Principles of questionnaire design Questionnaire piloting Conclusions
A set of questions arranged in a certain structure to collect information from targeted group to answer one or several of research questions A set of questions particularly used to address some statistically typical issues by gathering information in a survey. And others
3
Why questionnaire?
Questionnaire is used to Assess the need for investment and development, and the differences among project targeted areas. To measure outcomes of project and intervention programmes Assess the beneficiaries satisfaction Assess the project impacts
4
Collect most accurate data Increase response rate Reliable and valuable Save time and money
From easy to difficult, from general to specific From most interesting to less interesting
No matter what style to be chosen, follow the logic, i.e. questions in each part are relevant Keep the rhythm of the questionnaire Avoid overusing of skips and turns
Ask the right question Respondents must understand the question Respondents must know the answer Respondents must be willing and able to give the answer
13
3.
Questions about activities, facts/events Questions about psychological status or attitudes Questions about knowledge/perception
14
Specifying
Who, what, when, where and how? Ex. : Whose income? What are included? Over what period of time? Ex.: In 2002, what was your total household income? Before tax? Please provide the incomes of each member of your family, including wages, social welfare, and public aids
16
17
18
Open questions are those left open for respondents to freely answer.
How do you feel about your health status today?
Closed format
Asking for the frequency of sensitive behaviors There are many different possible answers
21
Open format
Nominal scale
Ex. Male/female; Provinces: Bac Kan/Ha Tinh/Tra Vinh/Tuyen Quang
Ordinal scale
Ex. Very poor poor average rich very rich; like normal dislike
Interval scale
Ex. range of income, range of age.
Ratio scale
Ex. Percentage of male/female, ethnic groups 23
24
25
26
27
28
Use of words
Wording should be accurate: a small change could make great differences Words in a question affect the answer. The more specific the question, the more it influences the answer.
29
30
31
Ready-made questions from previous successful investigations are encouraged to use, so that:
To save time and money (short-cut) To compare with the previous results To improve the validity of the answers of research with similar sample size, context and without changes For investigations with different time and with changes, use the same questions to measure trend.
32
33
Other principles
Guarantee clear codes for main and subquestions (ex. 1, 2a, 3, 4b) Start with simpler questions (not sensitive) Use proper logic. If the questionnaire is long, start with the keys Put questions on anthropology at the end Put questions for past experiences prior to those for current status. Put general questions first, then specific
34
35
36
37
Piloting
38
Checklist items: (adapted by Bowling 2002) The questions measure what is intended wordings are understood by and means a similar thing to all Instructions are easily understood/followed Do the responses cover all relevant issues? Any questions systematically/frequently missed? Basically test for bugs
39
2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Decide what information is needed Search for existing questions Focus groups Draft new questions/revise existing ones Sequence the questions Get peer evaluation Revise and self-test or peer test
again, if necessary 14. Prepare final interviewer instructions 15. Modify questionnaires if interviewers raise questions in training 16. After the interview completes, debrief interviewers for potential problems 17. Use experience from a study for planning a study in the future
Conclusions
Not general recommendations, just issues to be aware of, consider and balance out Consider the aims of study, population and resources available
Principal objective is to collect data that is RELIABLE, VALID & UNBIASED
43