The Center For Public Policy

Although the series of questions used in each interview was essentially uniform across participants, further prompting and probing questions such as, “Tell me more,” “Anything else?” “Why?” or “How?” were carried out when the quality of the participant’s response could be enhanced, that is, when the response was vague, limited, or unclear (Bibace & Walsh, 1980).

were each given a questionnaire to fill out as part of their course requirement. The aim of the

The authors did a good job of setting up the survey questions. The questions was framed so that they asked opinions about

The researcher felt that was the nature of focus group but to a larger degree a behavior of human nature, especially in groups where the participants know each other and work together. Therefore to head off a loss of control of the groups the participants were asked to rate topics that were popular in similar focus groups (Levy, Mandell and Schultz 2009; Pellicano et al. 2014). The strategy was used to integrate the topics into the focus groups that participants

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A focus group discussion was conduct in our lecture whereby the moderator was testing the public (students) opinion on a more intimate level toward a sum of different members of Parliament. I would like to clarify that this was not a classic focus group but a practical one. As it was not a classical one, the information which was delivered was quite true and some were not of serious however more of a mockery. There were positive as well as negative. The positive one was that people where open to express they opinions which were intimate freely, everyone came up with different opinion that was accurate and the rest of the group seemed to have agreed on, the group was not undecided.

Groups of fewer than 8 are unlikely to generate the momentum and group dynamics necessary for a successful session, while groups of more than 12 members may be too crowded and may not be conducive to a cohesive and natural discussion . Participants for a focus group discussion session are selected in a manner that they have certain characteristics in common (such as socioeconomic status, demographics, and lifestyle factors) that relate to the topic of the focus group. They gather together to discuss a specific issue with the help of a moderator in a particular setting where participants feel comfortable enough to engage in a dynamic discussion for one or two hours. It is important to note that commonality among group members avoids interactions and conflicts among group members on side issues . Thus, a female focus group should not combine young adolescents, young mothers, and elderly women because their lifestyles are substantially different. Moreover, it is important to consider the cultural and social context of where the focus groups are being conducted. For instance, in Bangladesh, separate focus groups need to be conducted for males and females, as mixing the two genders in a single discussion session, would often yield minimal to guarded to zero responses

A focus group looks and feels informal, but it’s actually carefully planned and orchestrated. The format is designed to evoke rich information and insights that would be difficult to get through other data collection methods.

Questions are powerful tools for assessing the understanding of facts to beliefs and behaviors to dreams and wishes. Most questions are framed for receiving the ‘right answer’ rather than discovering what the ‘right question’ is. A powerful

I encouraged all participants to speak naturally and honestly. The focus groups were recorded and some brief notes were made to note any particularly important details but without disengaging from the focus group. The focus groups were structured, with several key questions that were asked to the participants, however these key questions were very general, which was the same approach used by Schlesinger et al. (1992). This allowed for the two focus groups responses to be compared, as without this structure the two focus groups could have discussed very different topics and been difficult to analyse (Bryman, 2012). The broad natured questions allowed for in-depth discussions to take place between the participants in the focus groups, and when an interesting point arose, the questions were altered to gain more information in addition to preventing the respondents from repeating themselves. A copy of the focus group topic guide can be found in Appendix 2.

A qualitative focus group provides a mean to collect qualitative information on a target population through the process of conducting rapport style interview (Carlsen & Glenton, 2011; Cohen & Crabtree, 2006). There are several advantages to a focus group. As it allows the researcher to obtain new research information, discover sensitive subject matters that would otherwise be overlooked, find subthemes to categorized their main research topics, and provides a quick turnaround time to gather up research information (Cohen & Crabtree, 2006; Laureate Education, 2014b). The disadvantage of focus group like the one viewed in the video, it does not give all members of the group an equal amount of time to express their concern or rationales. Such will require additional strategies to engage the 'quiet ones ' to yield their ‘voices’ by directing questions towards them to answer (Laureate Education, 2014b). Another disadvantage is that if the moderator does not conduct the focus group appropriately, it can quickly get off topic and lose focus (Laureate Education, 2014b).

Data was collected during the online survey and added to a spreadsheet. The order of questions were given in the order provided below in a open-question model with room for comments

Focus groups have been renowned for its inherently complex data analysis. It requires an experienced researcher to identify the themes that have emerged throughout the discussions, to ensure no bias tailoring has been made to support theoretical assumptions.

2. In thinking about a market economy and a regulated or planned economy, discuss the difference between “end-independent” rules or laws in society versus “end-dependent” rules or laws in society. In what ways would “end-dependent” rules or laws limit the use of knowledge by people in society, and how does “end-independent” rules or laws provide opportunity for people to use their different types of knowledge in society? (The distinction between “end-independent” and “end-dependent” rules or laws were discussed in class and in the article on, “Free Markets, the Rule of Law, and Classical Liberalism.”)

The focus group participants were recruited voluntarily during their free time at the university. The informed consent was given to each participant on Thursday, April 14, 2016, and returned on Friday, April 22, 2016, (See Appendix A). A script was created to make sure all basis of the focus group was covered (See Appendix B). The seats were arranged in a semicircle, all facing the moderator to assure eye contact with each individual (See Appendix C). Incentives were available to all participants, which included food (See Appendix D). Before administering the questions to the focus group, a demographic sheet was given to each participant to fill out (See Appendix E). Following the demographic sheet, the informed consent was read out loud to assure all participants understood the terms of the focus group. A transcriber was present to take note of all questions, responses, body language, etc. (See Appendix F). Cards with the facilitator contact information was handed at the end of the focus group (See Appendix G). All participants seemed to enjoy each other’s company, and