Research methods in the sociology of education

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a survey which is used to obtain a waelth of information froma lotof people. Most questionaire used closed ended questions to obtain quantitatvie and positivist information.

Advantages

• They are quick and cheap way of gathering large quantites of data.
• There is no need of train or recurit researchers to conduct questionnaires as they can be handed ti respondents who only need to fill them in and hand back
• As close ended questions are used in questionnaires the findings are quantifable and can be analysis to look for patterns.
• They are reliable as the questionnaire is standarised meaning that participant is asked the same question and are expected to answer in the same way. This ensure that the questionnaires can be replicated providing consistnet results
• They are useful when testing hypotheses as repondents' closed answers may show whether one variable has caused the other. From analysing the findings of questionnaire we can make statements about what we predict migh happen in terms of social behaviour and test if futher by experimentation.
• there are few ethical problems that can occur as participants have consented to answer the questionnaire,have been briefed on it purpose and know they habe a right not t answer any uestions they may feel too sensitive.

Disadvantages

• the findings of questionnaire are sometimes limited and not factual enough. This is because questionnaires have to be breif otherwise responents might not answer a time consumin questionnaire or take the answers seriously.
• Postal questionnaired have no incentive for respondents t send their questionnaire back which may mean the findings are not representative as not many people have replied.
• as questionnaires are standarised they are not flexible…