RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS 325
Rank ordering
The rank order question is akin to the multiple
choice question in that it identifies options from
which respondents can choose, yet it moves
beyond multiple choice items in that it asks
respondents to identify priorities. This enables
a relative degree of preference, priority, intensity
etc. to be charted (see http://www.routledge.
com/textbooks/9780415368780 – Chapter 15, file
15.6. ppt). In the rank ordering exercise a list of
factors is set out and the respondent is required to
place them in a rank order, for example:
Please indicate your priorities by placing numbers
in the boxes to indicate the ordering of your views,
1 = the highest priority, 2 = the second highest, and
so on.
The proposed amendments to the mathematics
scheme might be successful if the following factors
are addressed:
the appropriate material resources are in
school
□
the amendments are made clear to all teachers □
the amendments are supported by the
mathematics team
□
the necessary staff development is assured □
there are subsequent improvements to
student achievement
□
the proposals have the agreement of all
teachers
□
they improve student motivation □
parents approve of the amendments □
they will raise the achievements of the
brighter students
□
the work becomes more geared to
problem-solving
□
In this example ten items are listed. While this
might be enticing for the researcher, enabling fine
distinctions possibly to be made in priorities, it
might be asking too much of the respondents to
make such distinctions. They genuinely might not
be able to differentiate their responses, or they
simply might not feel strongly enough to make
such distinctions. The inclusion of too long a
list might be overwhelming. Indeed Wilson and
McLean (1994: 26) suggest that it is unrealistic to
ask respondents to arrange priorities where there
are more than five ranks that have been requested.
In the case of the list of ten points above, the
researcher might approach this problem in one of
two ways. The list in the questionnaire item can be
reduced to five items only, in which case the range
and comprehensiveness of responses that fairly
catches what the respondent feels is significantly
reduced. Alternatively, the list of ten items can
be retained, but the request can be made to the
respondents only to rank their first five priorities,
in which case the range is retained and the task is
not overwhelming (though the problem of sorting
the data for analysis is increased).
An example of a shorter list might be:
Please place these in rank order of the most to
the least important, by putting the position (1–5)
against each of the following statements, number 1
being the most important and number 5 being the
least important:
Students should enjoy school [ ]
Teachers should set less homework [ ]
Students should have more choice of subjects
in school [ ]
Teachers should use more collaborative methods [ ]
Students should be tested more, so that they
work harder [ ]
Rankings are useful in indicating degrees of
response. In this respect they are like rating scales,
discussed below. Ranking questions are treated
as ordinal data (see Part Five for a discussion of
ordinal data).
Rating scales
One way in which degrees of response, intensity
of response, and the move away from dichotomous
questions have been managed can be seen in
the notion of rating scales –Likertscales,semantic
differential scales, Thurstone scales and Guttman
scaling. These are very useful devices for the researcher,
as they build in a degree of sensitivity
and differentiation of response while still generating
numbers. This chapter will focus on the
first two of these, though readers will find the
Chapter 15