ExpertMedium4 marksStructured
AQA GCSE · Question 18 · Sociological Research Methods
Identify and explain one advantage of using structured interviews to investigate working-class students' experiences of school.
Identify and explain one advantage of using structured interviews to investigate working-class students' experiences of school.
How to approach this question
First, identify a known advantage of structured interviews (e.g., reliable, easy to analyse, quick to conduct). This will get you 1-2 marks. Then, explain *why* this is an advantage specifically for investigating the experiences of a group like working-class students. This explanation will get you the remaining marks.
Full Answer
One advantage is that structured interviews are reliable. Because every student is asked the exact same set of pre-set questions in the same order, the research process is standardised. This means another sociologist could easily replicate the study to check the findings. This makes the research more scientific and allows for the data from different working-class students to be directly compared to identify patterns in their experiences.
Structured interviews are a quantitative research method that involves asking pre-determined questions in a fixed order. Their main advantages are linked to their standardisation.
1. **Reliability:** The process is easily replicable by other researchers, which is a key feature of scientific research.
2. **Comparability:** As all respondents answer the same questions, their answers can be easily compared and quantified, allowing the researcher to identify trends and patterns.
3. **Practicality:** They are relatively quick to conduct compared to unstructured interviews, allowing for larger sample sizes.
Common mistakes
A common error is to confuse structured interviews with unstructured interviews and describe the advantages of the latter (e.g., high validity, in-depth data). It is crucial to focus on the 'structured' aspect.
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