Creating a Mentoring Programme for Sport: A ... - sports coach UK

Creating a Mentoring Programme for Sport45MethodsMethod Purpose Advantages ChallengesQuestionnaire/SurveyTo get a lot ofinformation from alarge group of peoplequite quickly in anon-threateningmanner• Can be completed anonymously• Inexpensive and easy to administer tolarge groups• Easy to compare and analyse• Provides lots of data• Can be provided in many forms(eg online, paper, verbal)• Might not get thoughtful feedback• Wording questions can be difficultand bias respondent’s answers• Can be impersonal• Doesn’t get the full story• Creating surveys takes time7InterviewDocument Review(eg minutes, menteejournals, evaluation forms)To fully understandsomeone’s impressionsor experiences, or learnmore about theiranswers to aquestionnaire or surveyTo gain an impressionof how the programmehas gone without theneed to contactmentees or mentors• Able to get a full range and depthof information• Can be used to develop relationshipswith participants• Good at measuring attitudes• Allows for probing andfollow-up questions• Able to gather comprehensivehistorical information• Doesn’t interrupt participants• Information already exists as aconsequence of normalday-to-day activities• Can take a lot of time to undertake• Can be hard to analyse or comparewith others• Can be expensive to administer• Interviewer can bias responses• Perceived anonymity is low• Often takes a lot of time toreview information• Information can be incomplete• Need to be clear about what you arelooking for• Data restricted to what already existsObservationFocus GroupCase StudyTo gather accurateinformation about howa programme isactually workingTo explore a topic indepth through groupdiscussion (eg askingrespondents abouttheir reactions to anexperience)To fully understand ordepict participants’experiences• Opportunity to view operation ofmentoring sessions as they areactually occurring• Not relying on what people say• Can be an objective measurement• Helps to understand the importance ofcontextual and environmental factors• Can be an efficient way to get a range ofinformation in a short time period• Useful for exploring ideas and concepts• Can be used to see how participantsreact to/with each other• Can depict more fully participants’experience• A powerful means to convey a message• Depending on the data, there are anumber of different types of case studiesthat can be developed (eg promotionalbest practice, process and impact)• Can be difficult to interpretobserved behaviours• Can be expensive andtime-consuming both to undertakeand analyse• Participants may change behaviourdue to being watched• Can be hard to analyse responses• Requires a good facilitator• Can be difficult to schedule 6–8people together• Participants may feel obliged to saysomething that does not reflect reality• Can be quite time-consuming tocollect, organise and summarisethe information• Represents depth of information,rather than breadth• Only has true relevance toone context