Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

considering the students’ levels of engaging in such tasks, it was decided that a
shorter questionnaire to cover the outstanding necessary questions would suffice. As
Denscombe points out, ‘the researcher has to walk a tightrope between ensuring
coverage of all the vital issues and ensuring the questionnaire is brief enough to
encourage people to bother answering it’ (2007, p.162). In total, the students were
asked 75 questions.
5.4.2 Administration of questionnaires
The planning and micro-management of each day of data collection was necessary
otherwise it would not have worked because time was limited. Most importantly,
arrangements with all relevant teaching staff across the two schools had to be made,
to allow students to miss part of a lesson for this. Mainstream students knew where
the interview room was and were able to make their own way there and did not need
to be collected. However, they did need reminders which were sent to them via
student reception and correspondence with tutors by email was essential to ensure
that students attended at the right times. For students at The Centre School, however,
times had to be arranged with teaching staff and the students needed to be escorted to
and from the interview room.
I collected students and managed the timetable for each day 29 . Students were seen
individually and I sat outside the interview room for each session in case a student
chose to leave early or the interviewer needed support. Each student was allocated 40
minutes and a register was kept of students as they attended and completed the
questionnaires (appendix 5.4.2a).
The students all followed the same procedure: they were interviewed by Dr. Long 30
and then they answered the questionnaires. However, the conditions in the
administration of the questionnaires did vary because the students at The Centre
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#* !Each data collection took an average of 3 days to complete.
$+ !Dr. Marion Long is an experienced teacher and researcher who was involved in
research studies at the Institute of Education, University of London (IOE) at the start
of this project. As the IOE supports this project and The Music Therapy Charity’s
Youth At Risk study, as described in chapter one, Dr. Long was recommended as
interviewer. !
! "#+!