1. Design ten questions that could be used on a self-completion questionnaire investigating pupils’ experiences of sporting activities in school, and type them onto a sheet of paper. Get some fellow students to fill in the questionnaire and ask them the questions in Box 11.9. What items of behaviour would you include if you decided to study the same topic using a structured observation instrument?

2. You want to study one of the following groups. In each case, outline the arguments for using either a structured interview, a self completion questionnaire or a structured observation, and describe how you would administer it.

• Homeless people.
• Ex-offenders.
• Politicians.
• University students.
• School pupils.
• Social welfare claimants.
• Small business owners.
• Magazine readers.

3. In a group of three or more, design a short interview schedule, containing some open, some closed and some pre-coded questions. The topic may be anything of which people in the group can reasonably be expected to have some experience of (for example, watching or participating in sports events; studying research methods).

One person should use the interview schedule to interview another person in the group, while others observe, considering the following issues:

• What difficulties were there in doing the inteview?
• Did the interviewer feel or appear at ease?
• Did the respondent feel or appear at ease?
• Did the respondent find the questions unambiguous and easy to answer?
• Did he or she find them relevant to his/her life experience?

4. Use the FIAC (Box 11.12) to study interaction in a student seminar. What categories would need to be changed or added in order to more fully reflect what is going on?