The Power of Focus Groups: Conducting Professional Focus Group Interviews
Two full days 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Continental breakfast, two manuals, refreshments, and handouts are included (no fee for GWU Sociology)
Janet Mancini Billson, PHD, Director
Day I
8:30 Meet and Greet—Coffee and…
(Coffee will be available in the room all morning)
9:00 - 9:45
Demonstration Mock Focus Group
- Preamble and Introductions
- Quantitative versus Quantitative Methods
- Building from Key Informants to Focus Group Interviews
9:45 - 10:10
Uses of Key Informant and Focus Group Interviews
- A social scientific approach to interviewing
- Maximum/minimum size of groups
- Duration and timing
- How should KIs and focus groups be used in research?
- Survey or interviews?
- Advantages and disadvantages compared to other methods
- Triangulation
- Limitations, generalizability, and reliability
10:15 - 10:30
Break
10:30 - 12:30
Research Design Issues
- Ethical issues, technical issues, defining the purpose of research
- Key variables: Breaks and number of groups--The “Group Blueprint”
- Secondary variables (sampling and composition)
- Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous groups
- Recruitment and screening of participants
Teams Develop Research Design for DAY II Mock Focus Groups
Tasks:
1. Define the key research question
2. Develop a research design
3. Design a “group blueprint”
4. Develop a screener
5. Determine a recruitment strategy
NOTE: USE the “GUIDELINES FOR TEAM PROJECTS in YOUR MANUAL, Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
12:30 - 1:15
Lunch: Continue Teamwork on Research Designs and Questions
1:15 - 2:30
Development of the Moderator's Guide (Protocol)
- Refining the research question (outcomes/hypotheses)
- Idea generation versus debate generation
- Opening procedures
- Principles for structuring the guide: avoid....
- Closure questions
- Teams Develop Moderator’s Guides
2:45 - 3:15
Moderation Theory and Techniques I
- Communication in the interview
- Complexities of interaction
- Enhancing participation
- Probing, listening
- Time management and staying focused: ensuring even coverage of questions
- What to do when a question has been answered in a previous question
- Non-verbal cues
- Moderator as group leader
- Content vs. Process
- Task vs. Socio-Emotional
- Effective moderation: Facilitating toward even participation/ balancing roles
- Ineffective moderation
- Effective moderation
3:15 - 3:30
(Break)
3:30 - 5:00
MOCK FOCUS GROUPS: TEAM I (one hour total)
Processing--Special Issues:
- Controlling dominants and dealing with difficult participants
- Single vs. co-moderators
- Working with various respondent types, organizations, consumer groups
- Incentives; note taking; recording; digital vs. conventional recorders
- Refreshments, atmosphere
Processing TEAM I
Note: Team II will work on interview guides overnight, if necessary.
DAY II
8:30 - 9:00
8:30
Further review of team designs and questions (optional)
9:00 - 9:30
Moderation Theory and Techniques II
- Coping with complex questions
- Deflecting questions about "facts"
- Avoiding politicization of the process
- Closure procedures
- Debriefing sessions
9:30 - 10:30
Mock Focus Groups: Team II (One Hour Total)
Processing Team II
10:45 - 11:00
Break
11:00 - 12:30
Introduction to Qualitative Data Analysis
- Linking the guide to action/change
- Maintaining control of the data
- Focusing the data
- Using transcripts
- The place of quantitative data in qualitative data analysis
- Structuring, coding, blocking, reorganizing data: “The Structured Transcript”
- Using the word processor in qualitative data analysis
- Uses of computerized text data analyzers
12:30 - 1:15
Lunch
1:15 - 2:30
Mock Focus Groups: Team III (One Hour Total)
Processing Team III
2:45 - 3:00
Break
3:00 - 4:00
Mock Focus Groups: Team IV (One Hour Total)
Processing Team IV
4:00 - 4:30
Focus Group Training Evaluation