Research Project

[Guest]

I am in the process of writing my questionnaires for my research project and was wondering if you good people would be kind enough to give me your honest opinion of it and any pointers that you think it would benefit from.

 

I have identified 2 flaws already:

 

1. It is a bit long but I can't seem to cut it down. I think all the questions are relevant.

2. I have not mentioned SEN anywhere.

 

Please let me know what you think. HONESTLY!!!

 

I am looking at outdoor play, in particular the adult's role in supporting and developing the imaginative play of 3 and 4 year olds.

 

I'll look forward to your responses!

questionnaire_1.xls

[HappyMaz]

I've had a quick look at your questionnaire, and have a few points to make/questions to ask:-

 

Are you sending this questionnaire out to a variety of settings - if so do you need your respondees to identify what type of setting they come from, or the age of children they care for?

 

Question 3 talks about a 'suitable' outdoor area but doesn't qualify what suitable means. Question 9 does, so perhaps you could move them closer together - or perhaps you could ask for a description of what is available outdoors and draw your own conclusion as to whether it fits your 'suitability' criteria.

 

Question 4 says "if yes" answer this question too. Are you interested in why settings don't have an outdoor area? If someone ticks 'no' for question 3 what do you want them to do next?

 

I'm not sure I would know how to answer question 10 - do you have criteria against which people can judge whether their outdoor area is used as an extension of the indoor area?

 

After 16 would you consider asking how the respondee thinks adults promote children's enjoyment of imaginative play outdoors? This might give some insight into the different methods used by groups, and highlight any common themes for groups in similar environments.

 

Question 17 - your question about inappropriate play behaviours. Is this just for outdoor play or play in general? I was just wondering whether you're interested to see whether groups have different rules for indoor and outdoor play (so in our setting we're always telling the children we run outside), or whether the behavioural expectations are different for indoor and outdoor play?

 

In general I don't think the questionnaire is too long - just so long as you can fit it onto an A4 sheet. You have a good mix of straight forward yes/no questions, those that require respondees to make a value judgement, and those which are multiple choice. You also ask for some narrative answers, so that breaks up the flow of the answers so your respondees won't be able to get into a box ticking rhythm - always a good idea because obviously you want to do everything you can to guarantee the quality of the data generated.

 

You commented that you hadn't mentioned SEN and I was wondering what context you thought you should have mentioned it?

 

I hope this has helped, and hasn't been too negative. Its hard to do a questionnaire well, isn't it? Yours flows very well, the questions are in a logical order and I think people will find it easy to answer. Well done!

 

Are you going to add in a title and give some indication of what should happen to the questionnaire once completed? And are you going to ask people on here to fill it in for you? I'd gladly complete it if you're interested in my sort of group!

 

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

 

Maz

[Guest tinkerbell]

Hi Clare

 

What settings are you sending your questionnaire to? I teach in a reception class where the children enter at 4 years old ,so teacher and TA would need to be added to your first question .

 

I would be more than happy to fill it in when you are ready.

 

Tinkerbell x

[Marion]

I teach in a FSU and have children from their third birthday until they are almost six. Is the questionnaire aimed at PVI settings only?

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies. Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you all but I have been busy doing all of the other little bits and pieces.

 

Ok, I have read through your responses and have some answers for you. I had to print this thread off so I could answer each of them!

 

Basically, I was going to aim the questionnaire at private day nurseries only. The reason for this being that this is the kind of setting I have the most experience in. I'm not to sure of the differences, if any between the outdoor areas and their use in schools, pre-schools etc. Plus we were told to keep the question as tight and specific as possible and I felt that by including all different kinds of settings, I was opening it up. I guess I was worried about finding other things to divert my attention from the actual question. I'm not sure now though whether to limit it to just PDNs or whether to branch out and investigate other settings.

 

The kinds of behaviours that I am interested in relate specifically to the outdoor area. Although Maz, your point about behavioural expectations between the indoors and outdoors is making me wonder whether this could be a possible line of enquiry. I think the kinds of responses I am going to get to this is that staff actively discourage gun/weapon play and in my exprience, this mostly takes place outside.

 

I will be adding in a title and a brief description of what I would like done with the questionnaire, as well as what I plan to do with the results. This has just been a draft and I was eager to receive feedback so as I could play about with it and make it more specific to what I want to look at.

 

I hope this answers some of the main points raised from your collective feedback! Like I say, anything else you could add would be great.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read through it.