Exercises for Chapter 5 Group Discussions (Focus Groups)

I am sharing exercises to accompany each chapter of Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit (Policy Press). https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/qualitative-research-methods-for-everyone

Here are the exercises for Chapter 5.

Assessing the quality of your focus group questioning skills:

Prepare and test out a checklist to use after a focus group to assess its quality.

It could include:

were your questions single, simple and open-ended?

Did you get enough depth and coverage?

did you probe fully?

did you find out how others felt?

did you cover the guide? does it need amending?

did participants discuss among themselves without you asking all the questions (did it reach the performing stage?)?

did everyone take part or did some participants dominate and others hardly contribute at all?

Role play: focus group role play is a great way to ensure you get the experience of being in a focus group and start to understand the experience from the point of view of participants.

Creative and participatory approaches.

Design a vignette for an imaginary or planned project and test it out using role play.

For a bit of fun, working in small groups, design a creative or participatory exercise to use in a focus group. Present them to each other and take a vote on which one is best.

Discuss: what are the main things that concern you about running a focus group? How might you overcome them? What are the main things that excite you about running a focus group? How can you ensure you make the best of the group? Are there things you want to understand that might be better understood using a different method?

Comment below. Please share any tips or insights in the comments.

You might also enjoy the book’s accompanying Podcast series: Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone, wherever you get your podcasts.