parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

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(ed.), 1993:77) have shown that the measuring instrument has the greatest
influence on the reliability of research data. The characteristics of measurement
are best controlled by the careful construction of the instrument. There is,
however, insufficient appreciation for the fact that a questionnaire should be
constructed according to certain principles (Kidder & Judd, 1986:128-131; Behr,
1988:155-156).
A well-designed questionnaire is the culmination ofa long process of planning the
research objective, formulating the problem, generating the hypothesis, etc. A
questionnaire is not simply thrown together. A poorly-designed questionnaire can
invalidate any research results, notwithstanding the merits of the sample, the field
workers and the statistical techniques (Huysamen, 1989:2). In their criticism of
questionnaires Berchie & Anderson (Schnetler (ed.), (1993:61) object to poor
design rather than to questionnaires as such. A well-designed questionnaire can
boost the reliability and validity of the data to acceptable tolerance (Schumacher
& McMiIlan, 1993:42).
It therefore stands to reason that questionnaire design does not take place in a
vacuum. According to Dane (1990:315-319) the length of individual questions,
the number of response options, as well as the format and wording of questions
are determined by the following:
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*
*
*
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Choice of the subject to be researched.
Aim of the research.
Size of the research sample.
Method of data collection.
Analysis of the data.
Against this background the researcher can now look at the principles that
determine whether a questionnaire is well-designed. It is thus necessary to draw