Research tasks and exercises (supplement for academic teachers)

Exercise 1: Introduction

Type: Classroom activity

Duration: 10-15 minutes

Methods: Discussion moderated by teacher

Instruction:

Ask your students the one of the following questions and lead the discussion.

  • Have you read or watched an interview (with a celebrity, a politician, an expert) lately? What did you learn from the interview? What did you find interesting about the questions or the answers?
  • Think of a journalist or talk show host who is famous for their interviews. What skills and qualities does a good interviewer need to have?

Exercise 2: Research interview

Type: Classroom activity

Duration: 15-20 minutes

Instruction:

Form groups of 3-6 of the students. Have them read the text about the interviews and answer the following questions individually:

  • What do you think are the advantages of a structured interview?
  • What do you think are the advantages of an unstructured interview?

Ask students to discuss their answers in the group. Then ask them to present their ideas to the class.

EXERCISE 3: Preparing for the interview

Type: Classroom activity

Duration: 10-20 minutes

Instruction:

Give students the following instruction: “Imagine that you need to conduct a research interview. Read the guidelines below. Underscore with a single line the words/ideas that seem the most important to you. Underscore with a double line the words/ideas that you want to learn more about.”

Write down students’ words/ideas, including the recurrent ones, on a board in two columns: 1) to keep in mind, 2) to learn more. The latter can be used as a topic for home assignment. 

Interview Guidelines

  • Prepare the questions according to your research objectives: what do you want to know? What do you already know? What are the major areas of knowledge that you need to cover? Start writing down the questions as they come to your mind. You can later test and improve them.
  • Use open-ended questions, i.e. questions that cannot be answered with a single “yes” or “no”. Each question should be about one idea, so that your interviewee doesn’t get confused. Use the kind of language and vocabulary that your interviewees understand. Test your questions with someone to make sure they are easily comprehensible.
  • Make an interview plan where you start with neutral topics and warm-up questions that can be easily answered. Leave the sensitive topics (depending on your context -- health, delinquent behavior, religion, political affiliation, gender, sexual preferences or practices etc.) in the final part of the interview. Try to order the questions and topics so that they follow in some logical order.
  • Be aware of your possible bias in the topic and things that might trigger you -- how are you going to maintain a neutral stance? Are you prepared to handle emotions?
  • Remember that the interviewee always tells their version and story. It is not up to the interviewer to “correct” them.
  • Before the interview, make agreements about the time, place and format. Prepare consent forms if you need them (student research usually has less strict rules about this, ask your teacher or supervisor about your particular situation).
  • Check the equipment and have a back-up plan if something fails (internet connection, battery etc.).

EXERCISE 4: Practicing open-ended and non-leading questions

Type: Classroom activity or home assignment.

Instruction:

Ask the students to re-write the questions and explain their choice. 

  1. Do you think eating meat is ethical?
  2. Have you always been a book nerd?
  3. Do you have any bad habits?
  4. Have you done anything lately to be more physically active?
  5. Are you politically conservative?
  6. Why do you think older people are more conservative than young?
  7. Do you like skiing and other winter sports?

EXERCISE 5: Planning the interview

Type: Classroom activity

Duration: 45 minutes

Instruction:
Initiate brainstorming: ask students to name social phenomena they would like to explore. Write suggestions on the board or in some digital medium.


Organize a poll or voting to order topics by popularity/relevance to the class.


Encourage discussion of topics suggested. Why do students find them important and/or interesting? What makes these topics relevant right now? What do we already know about them and what we would like to learn?


Divide students into groups of 4-6. Each group selects a topic and formulates a research problem. Comment and suggest improvements, if needed. (Refer to the unit about research gap and research questions for more ideas for activities.)


Ask every group to write 5 interview questions for a semi-structured interview based on their research problem.


Give feedback or organize peer feedback (each group reviews another group’s work). 

EXERCISE 6: Conducting an interview

Type: Home assignment

Instruction:

Rely on the previous task (writing questions).

Ask the students to read the recommendations below and arrange short online interviews, using the questions from the previous task.
During an interview, one group member is an interviewer, the other interviewee and the third one is an observer, who takes notes and gives feedback to the interviewer (use observation sheet below). Then the roles will be changed so that every group member can be in all three roles. The group then writes a reflection summarizing their experiences:

  • Which questions were better or worse answered and why?
  • Which unplanned changes were made to the interview plans and why?
  • What is the most important knowledge you gained about interviewing and/or about yourself as an interviewer?

If the group so agrees, they may record the interviews for the next task. 

Requirements and recommendations for the interviewer

Look and act professional and trustworthy. Introduce yourself and your research purpose. Tell your respondents that they have a right to decline from the interview.

Explain how the collected data will be used, how and where will be the results presented. Explain how the personal data will be handled, whether and how confidentiality and anonymity will be achieved.

Build a rapport with the person(s) you interview. Listen attentively, be polite; if the interviewee pauses -- wait. Don’t show judgement, don’t lead the respondent, accept them. If you do not understand the answer, ask the respondent to clarify their point.

Make sure to have respondent’s contacts in case of any additional questions and for sending your finalized work.

After the interview thank the interviewee(s) for their time.
PDF icon Worksheet 1

EXERCISE 7: After the interview

Type: Additional voluntary assignment

Instruction:

Give the students the instructions to follow:

After the interview, make a backup copy of the recording. Give the file a meaningful name (date, place, interview number or other identifying information).
Start transcribing the texts soon, when the interview is still fresh in your memory. Start taking notes if you already have initial ideas for analysis and interpretation.
If you do interviews for research, you generally record them so that the recordings can be transcribed for analysis. (Alternatively – take written notes and check them later with your interviewees.)
If you have made a recording of your interview, try web-based transcription.

How do you rate the accuracy of the transcription?

To sum it up

Instruction for students:

Based on your experiences, write a cheat sheet (200-300 words) or make a short slide presentation (4-5 slides) for someone who needs to know the most important things about doing research interviews.