The students may also be provided with checklists or rating scales. When designing the questionnaire, the teacher should bear in mind the method to be used for analyzing the data obtained. Teachers should also determine to what extent the questionnaires are reliable and valid. Answers obtained from interviews tend to be more valid than those from questionnaires, but interviews are usually more time-consuming to administer. Interviews can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured, and they can be individual or group interviews.
Structured interviews are just a series of questions and answers.
Semi-structured interviews often have an initial question followed by probes. This is the type most widely favoured by researchers on education, as it gives students the opportunity to express themselves freely under the interviewer s control. Individual respondents determine the shape of unstructured interviews. The points to be considered are written on the board or on a piece of paper and discussed in groups or by the class as a whole. Students are asked to write a report on a general or specific question.