Business Research Methods

Introduction:

 Questionnaire are useful tools used in the research, they are used in the collection of data and in most cases they are used when we have a large number of respondents who are not possible to interviews, this is a cheap method of collecting data although it requires that the questions are of quality in that they are not misunderstood by the respondents. This paper analysis the goods and negative side of the questionnaire set for the purpose of collecting data regarding teachers performance.

 The questionnaire

 The questionnaire regarding the rating on teacher’s performance has various demerits due to improper planning and development, a good questionnaire should have clear questions and at the same time avoid leading questions, and the scale of the questionnaire should also be properly explained and laid out.

From the paper the most obvious weakness of the questionnaire is the lack to give a brief description of the purpose of the research, there is need to include a brief description to the respondents on what the research is aimed at finding out.

The other problem with the questionnaire is that the questions are not logically set, there is need to set the questions in a logical manner and opt to mix them up. This is achieved by grouping questions that tend to get same information together and arranging the questions from simple questions to the more complex question. The format of the questions in the questionnaire is mixed up and does not follow this rule.

 The other crucial information missing from this questionnaire is the information on confidentiality, there is need to add a note on the extent to which ethical issues on confidentiality will be observed, this will ensure that the respondents don’t give biased information as a result of fear of exposure of information. Therefore there is need to give a statement that tells the respondent about the level of confidentiality.

Descriptions on where to return the complete questionnaire is also missing, there is need to clearly explain where to return the form and also advice the respondent to completely fill out all the questions because a questionnaire that is not fully filled is always discarded.

The other drawback with the questionnaire is that there are two questions in one question, this is evident from the use of the word “and” in the questions, a research question in a questionnaire should not contain two question and thi9s is avoided by not using and in the question, this is evident from question 15 and 7, the problem with the two questions is that the respondent is not sure which question to answer and this leads to biasness in responses given.

The research questions are qualitative in nature, the scales of the questions should be well defined and explained, this is not the case with our research questions, for question 18, 19 and 20 the scale of the responses is not clearly given and that the scale is not complete, this is a major draw back to the questionnaire and there is need to give a scale that rates the numbers 1,2,3,4 and 5 like the other questions.

A good questionnaire is one which gives the scale and these indicates the answer that the respondents give, in addition to the scales there is need to have an extra space that requires the respondent to give a description as to why a certain scale is chosen. This is not in existence in our questionnaire and therefore there is a need to include a space after every question where respondents will give their comments.

The questionnaire does not include questions that cross check the viability of respondents, these questions are put in place in a questionnaire to check whether the respondent is lying about certain issues, these questions help to check whether a respondent is lying and therefore in our case we have no such questions which check the viability of the responses.

 Conclusion:

 The questionnaire at hand is not of the best quality and there is need to rectify the various mistakes in the questionnaire, first the questions should be arranged in a logical manner whereby the simple question come first and then followed by complex questions, there is also a need to group questions that ask questions that give information on the same field of research.

There is also a need to avoid two questions in one question, also the questions should have a scale that is well explained and defined, in our case there are questions where the scale is not complete and there is need to complete the scale in order to get unbiased information in the research.

 References:

 Donald Cooper and Pamela Schindler (2005) business research methods, McGraw Hill publishers, Maidenhead, UK