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Step 5: In
an effort to word questions clearly, you think about wordings that
will make the students understand exactly what you are trying to learn
from them.
A) For questions 1 and 2 (which are now really sets of questions)
you consider these alternative phrasings:
- How much do you like (the subject)?
- How much do you enjoy (the subject)?
- How much fun is (the subject)?
- How much do you appreciate (the subject)?
- How difficult is (the subject)?
- How interesting is (the subject)?
By brainstorming these alternatives you realize that you actually
want to understand two dimensions of the students' attitudes:
how interested they are in the subjects, and how difficult
they believe the subjects to be. Asking them only how much they
like the subject will yield too much ambiguity on these critical
dimensions. Because of this, you decide to turn each set of questions
into two sets of questions, using the following response scales:
Example:
For each subject in the table below, place a check in the cell
that indicates how interesting you find it.
| |
Very interesting |
Somewhat interesting |
Not very interesting |
Not at all interesting |
| History |
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| Mathematics |
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| Science |
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| Writing |
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For each subject in the table below, place a check the cell that
indicates how easy or difficult you find it.
| |
Very easy |
Somewhat easy |
Somewhat difficult |
Very difficult |
| History |
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| Mathematics |
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| Science |
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| Writing |
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B) For questions 3 and 4, you decide to break them up in the
same way, but employ the ranking format that you decided on in
Step 4.
Example:
Rank the following types of writing activities on how interested
you are in doing them. Assign a 1 to the least interesting and
a 5 to the most interesting.
____ writing research reports
____ writing stories
____ writing autobiographies
____ writing scripts
____ writing poems
Rank the following types of writing activities on how easy or
difficult you find them. Assign a 1 to the most difficult and
a 5 to the easiest.
____ writing research reports
____ writing stories
____ writing autobiographies
____ writing scripts
____ writing poems
C) For questions 5 and 6, you decide that each question should
be divided into two separate questions:
- What are some things you like about (the subject)?
- What are some things you don't like about (the subject)?
You do this because, as they are worded in your first draft,
you run the risk that respondents will only answer half of the
question, or will neglect to indicate whether they are discussing
their likes or dislikes.
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