1. r These sorts of questions can best be
answered through a variety of survey
techniques that measure faculty attitudes r. When answers to a set of questions are
toward the oolicies of the administration. solicited in person, the research is called an
r A descriotive survev involves asking the interview-
same set of questions (often prepared in the r Responses are then tabulated and reported
form of a written questionnaire or ability test) usually in the form of frequencies or
of a large number of individuals either by percentages of those who answer in a
mail, by telephone, or in person. particular way to each of the questions
r The difficulties involved in survey research
are mainly threefold: r The big advantage of survey research is that
o (1) ensuring that the questions are dear and not it has the potential to provide us with a lot of
misleading, information obtained from quite a large
o (2) getting respondents to ansler questions sample of individuals.
thoughtfully and honestly, and
o (3) getting a sufficient number of the
questionnaires completed and retumed to enable
making meaningful analyses.
I . lf more details about particular survey I Wtty Are Surveys Coaducted?
questions are desired, the principal (or
someone else) can conduct personal
interviews with faculty. r The major purpose of surveys is to describe
r The advantages of an interview (over a the characteristics of a oooulation.
questionnaire) are that open- ended r ln essence, what researchers want to find out
questions (those requiring a response of is how the members of a population distribute
some length) can be used with greater themselves on one or more variables (for
confidence, particular questions of special example, age, ethnicity, religious preference,
interest or value can be pursued in depth, attitudes toward school).
follow-up questions can be asked, and items
that are unclear can be explained.
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