20 marker - methods in context

plan

3-4 peel paragraphs and a conclusion

link = subject choice

stengths = bounce off each other, saves time and less formal - comfortable and open up this increases validity

weaknesses =off topic, one individual might dominate, peer pressure / embarrassment may not answer honestly so might decrease validity

Item C states that group interviews may encourage deeper thoughts. This is because group interviews are done with multiple interviewees at the same time. Therefore, the students will be able to bounce off of each other’s ideas that are put forward. This is a strength because those pupils who may struggle to think of ideas can be influenced from the others that are talking. A student may be embarrassed to give the reason on why they chose a specific subject but if another student tells the interviewer that reason then they may speak up themselves as they aren’t alone. They wouldn’t have been able to do this if the interviews were one on one.

Group interviews will work better when interviewing school children as they are less formal and intense so the pressure may be decreased causing them to feel more comfortable and potentially opening up. If the students are more comfortable in the researching environment then they may open up to the interviewer, this increases the validity of the research. However, as the group interviews are with many students, there’s a risk of one student dominating which may make the quieter students keep to them selves and not want to participate due to embarrassment. If the interviewer is only gathering data from those students who are louder and confident, the data will therefore be invalid. Invalid data will create false information on pupils and subject choice, so it would’ve been a waste of time and effort for the sociologist to conduct the interview.

Another strength of using group interviews to investigate reasons behind pupil subject choice is that they are cost and time effective. Conducting group interviews are great for settings where time is often limited - just like a school as lots of information can be collected over a shorter amount of time. In comparison to individual interviews, these will take a lot longer to conduct as well as analyse. Group interviews also minimise the need for resources such as travel as group interviews have better resource allocation compared to individual interviews. Data analysis is also a lot more straightforward in a group interview as they are a lot more interactive. This saves time during the analysis part the interviewer has to do.

In conclusion, group interviews can be an effective method of investigating reasons behind subject choice because they gather diverse perspectives and encourage further discussion. However, limitations such as dominant voices can make the data invalid. For this reason, these limitations out weigh the strengths.