Hello,
I am in the implementation period of a new educational technology (ET) which we experimentally modified to help raise students' homework motivation. Along with other research instruments, I will also use focus group discussions (FGD) at the end to learn students' views about this new ET. For this, I will ask some classical FGD questions (What did you like/dislike about it, what should be changed, what is your advice, etc.), and wait for them tell me whether this new technology has also raised their homework motivation. My question is:
Can I simply ask them a direct question like this: "How did this new educational technology affect your views on homework?"
Or, should I just wait and see whether they will naturally mention this theme in their responses to other more general questions.
Thanks a lot in advance for your time.
Yusuf
The issues is 'understanding'. Your research questions are usually stated in the broader context and may not be understood by respondents. Hence, just simplify them during the interviews. Break it down to 2 or 3 understandable questions.
Eg. Did you enjoy the new technology? how has it made your homework experience? (good or bad, explain why) etc
Enjoy.
I agree with Sachin Suknunan that it would help to ask questions that are based on the participants' own experiences. This is especially important for the early questions, to help them start the discussion with questions that are relatively easy for them to answer. Once they are more involved in talking about and thinking about the topic, it will be easier for them to answer questions such as "How did this new educational technology affect your views on homework?"
Another classic way of starting a focus group is a variation on your idea to ask about like/dislike by having the participants write two or three thing they liked about the program on one side of a card, and two or three thing they did not like about the program on the other side of the card. It is then relatively easy to share what they wrote (usually by first talking about the positive things and the moving on to talk about the less positive things).
I agree with David L. Morgan. I conducted a focus group discussion for my study. And I think personal experience can help you.
What I did, what asked them a very general open-ended question (one-word guess related to the terminology or topic of research). Afterwards, I also used pen-paper exercises and asked them to list several positive and negative side of the topic. Let the participants engage in and then you will see they will give really beautiful verbatims.
I don't see anything wrong with it, but, it may be very technical to the layman so may be very good to break them down into specific question, This will help you implement the feed back theory well.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Psychology