Dear @Fatimah,  the designing and doing focus group interview is discussed in detailed fashion in the following article entitled:"Designing and Conducting Focus Group Interviews" by Richard A. Krueger at the following link:

www.eiu.edu/~ihec/Krueger-FocusGroupInterviews.pdf

I hope it helps,

Abedallah Rababah

Dear Fatima, there is plenty of helpful guidelines that you can easily find on the internet, like the one recommended by Abedallah, or like this helpful "toolkit for conducting focus groups":

http://www.rowan.edu/colleges/chss/facultystaff/focusgrouptoolkit.pdf

However, while it is quite easy to follow and apply the fundamental guidelines, the trickier questions normally are a) if a focus group interview is the adequate method to base your research on; b) which variant of focus group (e.g., two-way focus group or client participant focus group) is the most suitable for your research; c) whom should you select as participants; c) what kind of stimulus material is useful to trigger and focus the discussion.

Good success!

I would recommend paying special attention to the group composition. Bringing together people who are interested in what each other has to say about the topic helps in creating a free-flowing discussion 

Hi,

I have conducted focus group for various research projects on immigration and social integration issues, and one of the things I would recommend is to work preferably with people aged 13-14 and above, because below those ages, their ability to express independent ideas and engage in debate is lower. In the case of younger individuals, we have found that conducting individual interviews is a better approach. Another important thing to take into account in the case of minors is that it is necessary to have a consent form to be signed by the parents before conducting the focus group.

Best,

Dan

Dear Fatimah,

My former graduate student Karolina completed for her master's thesis research focus group contained of 10   5-years old  preeschool children. It was difficult task to collect data and lead the group of vigorous children, but possible. She lead 10 meetings with focus group with aim to understand concept of disability in 5-years old 10 little informants. She  had of course prior  needed written consents of parents, teachers and the director of the preeschool.  While doing the research in focus group of little children, it is good to consider short times of meetings (15' - 20') as well as weather. Bad weather can promote interest in children's task while the beautiful weather makes impatient,  waiting for a walk to the playground and deconcentration.

Dear Fatimah

I would suggest that you make sure that everybody gets the opportunity to talk. If someone sits silent, try to give him/her the word. You might get new and interesting data that way. But it has to be done with great sensitivity of course, not pushing anyone to talk who feels uncomfortable to do so. A balancing act.

Best regards Åsa

Thank you all. I think my greatest concern is myself. Without realising, I sometimes correct their words or grammar - which I shouldnt. I will improve on that day in the near future. Thank you for the advises dearest all.

Excellent input, and your observation Fatimah is important. No intervention from the observer. Taking notes is highly important as well. Consent to record the session is a must.

I recommend note taking to my students not just as a way to gather more data, but also as part of a moderating strategy when the researcher wants to be less involved in actively managing the discussion.

Simply tell the participants that your role will mostly be to listen and take notes (which is a respectful attitude for you to take), and that their role will be to create the discussion by responding to each other. Then, make sure that the first substantive question you ask is something that they will find easy to discuss, so that they can indeed carry on a conversation while you do your note taking.

The main thing that happens here is that by concentrating on your note taking, you don't share eye contact with the participants. That leads them to look at each other for reinforcement, which leads them to talk to each other instead of to you as the "group leader."

I would suggest having some ground rules at the outset (phones off, no conversations with your neighbour, respecting people's right to talk, confidentiality etc).  In terms of note taking you could always have a colleague there to help with this and have a debrief with them after the FG.  If people are difficult to engage within the group try the '3 strikes' approach (ie. give them 3 attempts to contribute and if they do not don't worry about trying to include them - but if they do that's fine of course).  Conversely if someone dominates the conversation have strategies to help draw in others or move the discussion on to the topics you want to focus on.  Your adopted facilitator style will help here as will the seating arrangements in the FG (I suggest a circle with no desks).

My top focus groups tips would be:

Have a short ice-breaker at the beginning - especially if the group members are new to each other. 

Have 5 or 6 main questions (and some prompt questions such as - "can you tell me more about that"  - write these questions down on card as you probably won't remember the correct wording (that you will have planned so carefully for ethics!).

Let everybody have a turn at talking.

Have a facilitator to take notes, or better still have a facilitator to help you with video equipment or audio recording equipment, so that you have the role of leading the discussion (without giving your own views and opinions - as this is unimportant and uses up precious limited time).

Try to stick to 45 minutes or under with children and young people and an hour max for adults.

Good luck with your focus group!

Llinos

Hello Fatimah.  My experience with focus groups has been primarily with adults.  I would suggest that your introduction include: what the main focus is, what you hope to gain from them (e.g., their views, their insights on people in a similar role, &/or broader views they may know of regarding the group they represent), how long and an overview of ground rules - everyone is entitled to their opinion, let people finish their comment, give me a nod/wave and I'll make sure I get around  to you for a comment if someone is speaking.  

Depending upon the age group (and topic), you may want to have people introduce themselves and their background; you pick the background topics that may be pertinent.  Take notes on this intro!!  You will find this particularly useful during the discussion, since it allows you to follow-up comments made by one participant by directing it to someone else in the focus group that has a different characteristic/background.  Also, your notes allow you to address everyone by name ... and save the use of name tags.

David's comment above on composition is critical.  Are there some groups that would not make certain comments in front of others?  E.g., a business owner/manager may not complain about union activities with a union representative in the focus group.  In those instances, you may want to have separate focus groups with specific composition.  Alternatively, you may want to break out a focus group into a quick 5-minute sub-group activity to come up with comments on a particular topic.  Then report back to the whole focus group on behalf of the sub-group.  This depersonalizes the speaker's points.  

Breaking out into sub-groups can be useful for keeping participants engaged and lengthening the time of a focus group.  You don't want the focus group to descend into a discussion from only 'the loudest voice in the room'. Although you can go around the room for views on a particular topic, this quickly becomes tedious if done too many times.  And yet, you want everyone's views.  Breaking into a sub-group (even once) allows more engagement.  The presentation of their findings/points also lends itself to a sense of accomplishment & productive outcomes.  A focus group experience can feel unproductive for some participants because it offers such a variety of views and covers many areas of interest.  You may know where this is taking you, but participants often feel like there is no definitive 'answer' or 'accomplishment' at the end. 

For people who have made the effort to travel to a focus group, I tend to run a focus group for 90 minutes.  I'll do a single sub-group activity after 45 minutes, let them have a quick 5 minute break, and then bring them back to present.  Then I will continue with the focus group format.  You will still have about 60-75 minutes of focus group transcript, plus 2-3 lists on subject matter from the group.

Always wrap up with some thematic overviews you picked up during the conversation, assuming that there is no further research interaction with participants.  Your comments highlight how useful the discussion has been, from your perspective.  If this focus group will not have follow-up research activities, they always find it interesting to hear what other focus groups have mentioned - common themes, some differences.  Let them know where this research is going and perhaps when and if they might see some findings - even a 1-2 page highlights on issues that you feel they might find interesting.  

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the focus group discussion.

Tim