Steps in Developing a Questionnaire or Interview Schedule:
a) Preliminary Decisions:
- Decide on the form that the schedule will take e.g. structured, unstructured,semi-structured.
- Decide on type of information that needs to be collected.
- List and operationally define the variables. Develop pattern of coding and recording.
b) Drafting the Schedule:
- Wording of each question needs to be carefully monitored.
- Decide how to sequence the questions.
c) Revising and Pretesting:
- Draft of the instrument should be critically discussed by experts both who are knowledgeable about the topic under study as well as those who are capable of detecting technical difficulties to develop content validity.
- A pretest of an instrument is a trial run to determine, in so far as possible, its clarity, reaearch adequacy and freedom from bias. Pretest should be administered to individuals who are similar in attributes to those who will participate in actual study.
- A pretest does not obtain information on the reliability of the responses of the questions asked.