Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology

"This manuscript provides a blueprint for people conducting focus groups. The examples are highly useful and in combination with the book give people the information they need to actually run a focus group. . . . Chapter nine is uniquely useful for educators who frequently work with children and teachers in school settings. The concrete examples will be extremely helpful to focus group moderators. . . . The book will be useful for reference and for courses in survey research. I will recommend the book for both purposes." --Kathy Green, University of Denver "This book does a nice job of providing readers with the specific steps necessary to conduct focus groups. If a person had never heard of a 'focus group interview' before reading this book, they would have an excellent comprehension of the history, specific methods, and pitfalls of using the focus group interview methodology." --Thomas M. Archer, The Ohio State University Why use focus groups in educational and psychological research? The focus group interview is a research tool that holds great promise for application in educational and psychological research. Focus groups offer an effective way to obtain knowledge about what key stakeholders think and feel resulting in information that yields better surveys, evaluations, and research studies. Although there are numerous books and articles that address focus groups, most are directed at business and marketing. Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology shows the specific steps to take to conduct focus groups in educational and psychological settings. Through the use of numerous examples, the authors show readers how to prepare for a focus group, create a moderator's guide, select a setting, and analyze the results gleaned from focus groups. In addition, they devote an entire chapter to doing focus groups with adolescents and children. Each chapter contains numerous procedural tables as well as end-of-chapter applications for performing "trial runs" of the techniques discussed. Qualitative and quantitative researchers and students in education and psychology will find this book a useful guide for refining their research instruments and for opening new vistas to understanding their subjects' responses. Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology is an invaluable tool that is beneficial to researchers and professionals in research methods/evaluation, psychology, education, and social work.