1. Starter - Whiteboards Strengths & Limitations of questionnaires pg
Starter - Whiteboards Strengths & Limitations of questionnaires pg. 14 of your other booklet!
Strengths
Limitations

2. Starter - Whiteboards Strengths & Limitations of questionnaires pg
Starter - Whiteboards Strengths & Limitations of questionnaires pg. 14 of your other booklet!
Strengths
Limitations
Quick and cost effective way of gathering large amounts of data
No need to train interviewers or observers in order to collect the data
More ethical than other research methods
High reliability – standardised questions, removes risk of researcher influencing the responses given by ppts
Representative – positivist!
inflexible, may be a lack of exploration
Only provide a snapshot of social reality at one moment in time
Low response rates
Likely to lie – social desireability bias
No opportunity to clarify how a respondent interprets the question
Respondents may not understand or interpret a question in the wrong way.

3. MIC Questionnaires & Essay writing in context
Objectives:
To recap on the strengths and limitations of questionnaires
To apply this knowledge to the study of education
To plan an answer to a MIC question

4. Step 1 – read and highlight item…

5. Checklist…
BOTH booklets
Green PERVERT SHEET
White slip with research characteristics on
Page 121 of textbook

6. Step 2 plan out the question in context…
Strengths
Limitations
P –
E –
R –
V –
T -

7. Strengths
Limitations P- E- R- V- T-
R-.

8. Strengths Limitations P- Quick and cheap…
E- there are little ethical issues involved in using questionnaires to investigate the issue of unauthorised absences of school
R- closed questions can be standardised and repeated…
V- could produce more valid data than a face to face interview as students are more likely to be truthful on a questionnaire than an interview
E- See practical (Rutter)
R- more likely to be representative
Although there are problems posed with response rates, if researchers are allowed to conduct research using questionnaires…
T- Positivits prefer questionnaires as they are more likely to create quantitative data and therefore further generalisations can be made.
P- questionnaires may not be a suitable method to use for all students,
E- could potentially cause distress to students
R- open questions make it harder to…
V- are pupils likely to be honest about unauthorised absences? E-
R- response rates for questionnaires are often low, T-

9. Strengths Limitations
P- Quick and cheap… Rutter (1979) used questionnaires to collect large quantities of data from 12 inner London secondary schools. This enabled him to correlate achievement, attendance and behaviour with variables such as school size, class size and number of staff.
E- there are little ethical issues involved in using questionnaires to investigate the issue of unauthorised absences of school
R- closed questions can be standardised and repeated…
V- could produce more valid data than a face to face interview as students are more likely to be truthful on a questionnaire than an interview
E- See practical (Rutter)
R- more likely to be representative as a large number of questionnaires can be used to investigate unauthorised absences at school, researchers could investigate a range of different schools/year groups.
Although there are problems posed with response rates, if researchers are allowed to conduct research using questionnaires, this can lead to higher response rates and therefore creating more representative data from which generalisations can be drawn.
T- Positivits prefer questionnaires as they are more likely to create quantitative data and therefore further generalisations can be made.
P- questionnaires may not be a suitable method to use for all students, some students may not be suitable for students who have low language skills, or certain ethnic groups. Less likely to give honest answers
E- could potentially cause distress to students – do they know about their unauthorised absences?
R- open questions make it harder to standardise and therefore repeat
V- are pupils likely to be honest about unauthorised absences? E-
R- response rates for questionnaires are often low, schools may be reluctant to allow sociologists to create questionnaires for unauthorised absences which could threaten their reputation. Gatekeepers could also make it hard to access schools. T-