Sunday 22 April 2012

Pilot Interview

As part of planning my professional enquiry I conducted a very short interview in order to review the benefits and draw backs of using this tool to gather data for my inquiry. I interviewed a woman in her early twenties who has been dancing since she was 3:


1.       Why did you start attending dance class?
Because my mum took me. I was only tiny, but then I liked it.
What do you remember liking about it?
Not much really. Just remember getting excited to go dancing. It was fun getting dressed up for it and going to see my friends.

2.       Was discipline one of the things you learnt about when attending dance class as a child?
Yeah I think so. Our teacher was always quite strict and because we were so young when we started it kind of stuck with us when we got older and went to school.

3.       Do you believe dancing influenced your personality?
Yeah I think so...it made me more confident.
And did that confidence transfer into other aspects of your life?
Yeah a little bit...but im a shy person anyway.

4.       How do you feel your dancing has benefitted  you?
Its improved my fitness and kept me slim my whole life. And its given me a purpose and something to be good at, cos i wasn’t good at any other subjects at school.

5.       Do you think what you learnt in dance classes helped you with any other subjects?
Yeah P.E, and drama.
In what way?
Cos i was already fit from my dancing for P.E, and drama cos I was already used to performing.


Upon reflection I think I may have kept the questions a bit too open, as I don't feel I achieved the answers I was looking for. I think when I come to plan my interviews for my enquiry I will be able to use the data gathered from the surveys to inform what questions I ask and how I structure the questions.
Another point worth making is that I think the participants shyness effected the quality of the responses. This is something I will need to address, as it is likely that a lot of my participants, being aged 14-18, will also be shy. I need to find a way to relax them in order to get more in depth responses. This of course is also reliant on the structure of my questions.



2 comments:

Ahmet Ahmet said...

This sounds like it can be a tricky task. You don't want to keep them too open as you say, but at the same time you don't want to feel like the question expects a certain answer too. I guess it's about a balance...

Liam said...

Exactly Ahmet, and if you consider that most of the subjects will be young teenagers, who are probably a bit shy in this situation. I think my subjects could be quite easily impressionable. It's going to take some serious planning!

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