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Qualitative Research Basics: A Guide for Engineering Educators

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solving, stress critical thinking, and use technology?” It is better to phrase these into<br />

separate questions. Internal bias is also something to avoid. The question “How does<br />

being the only woman on your design team cause conflict?” assumes that the conflict is<br />

caused by there being only one woman. A more appropriate question is “What factors do<br />

you see as causing conflict on your design team?” This question allows the participant to<br />

fully articulate her own view of what causes conflict.<br />

Another important aspect of developing interview questions is ensuring consistency with<br />

your epistemological perspective and overall research design. Consider as an example a<br />

study of critical thinking of engineering students. If one were conducting this study from<br />

a constructivist perspective, one interview question might be:<br />

What kinds of engineering problems require critical thinking?<br />

This question goes to the constructivist aspect of the study, in that it probes the student’s<br />

own view of what is meant by critical thinking and how it can be applied in engineering.<br />

The following question, although important, would not be consistent with a constructivist<br />

perspective:<br />

How do your engineering professors teach or demonstrate critical thinking?<br />

Asking the student about how they have learned critical thinking from their professors<br />

moves beyond the constructivist perspective towards social constructionism. Keeping the<br />

interview protocol focused within the areas of the general research design ensures that the<br />

specific research questions will be answered. In this example, while asking about the<br />

professors may seem important, including that question in the protocol can lead to a study<br />

that is unfocused and does not provide the data needed to answer the research questions.<br />

Conducting the Interview<br />

Preparing <strong>for</strong> an interview takes considerable planning. Punch (1998) lists several issues<br />

to consider (p. 180):<br />

• Who will be interviewed and why?<br />

• How many will be interviewed, and how many times will each person be<br />

interviewed?<br />

• When and <strong>for</strong> how long will each respondent be interviewed?<br />

• Where will each respondent be interviewed?<br />

• How will access to the interview process be organized?<br />

Each of these aspects represents an important part of the research design process, and<br />

depends on the epistemological perspective and research questions of the study. A<br />

phenomenological study may involve single, one-hour interviews with 5-20 participants,<br />

while a narrative study might involve many hours of multiple interviews with a single<br />

person.<br />

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