I have done a quantitative questionnaire but the panel asked me to change it to a qualitative questionnaire although students do not like to answer such type of questions.
I know that qualitative questionnaire needs open ended questions but I want to make those questions with choices for example Likert scale.
But I cant find any examples or thesis that have used this method.
I need suggestions and guidance please
my topic is about students' reticence in English classroom discussions
I agree with the importance of making qualitative questions open-ended. Sometimes, even when one has good intentions, a researcher may compose a question that is leading. For example "In what ways did the instructor contribute to the class discussions?" appears to be an open question but it implies that instructor contributions occurred. However restating the question as "In what ways, if any, did the instructor contribute to your ability to participate in class discussions?" is more open and less leading. In addition, it might be important to elicit ideas regarding how the instructor potentially discouraged participation in class discussions and recommendations for how the instructor might encourage participation in class discussions.
Likert scale items, by contrast, require respondents to provide a closed response - for example, the number 5 might correspond to "strongly prefer" a specific behavior on the part of an instructor such as use of ample wait time, or a procedure such as "making the rounds". This is very different from an open item requiring the respondent to describe the actions of an instructor the respondent strongly prefers. So, Likert items would not reflect a qualitative approach, though they could be a part of a mixed methods approach including both quantitative and qualitative items.
If you want to use Likert scale, then you are taking quantitative measures which require quantitative analysis. However, it seems that for your topic, you would get better results from qualitative measures because you will have the freedom to examine in-depth the students' perceptions and reasons on why they are unwilling to participate in a discussion. I suggest you do an in-depth interview, with semi-structured questions. Then do a content analysis of the interview script to extract factors, themes, etc. All the best!
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