6a questionnaire

When I started to read into my 4 tools I could use for my inquiry in Module 3, I was unsure of which to use at first. So when I read my tasks for Part 6 I was glad I could plan and conduct at least one of them for a trial attempt. I choose I would have an attempt at a questionnaire as I was unsure to choose from interviewing or conducting a survey/questionnaire.
I had so many idea's for questions, and wanted to vary which type of questions, I did not want my participants to feel they had to write pages and pages, I wanted something quick and easy and a questionnaire that was not too time consuming. I found constructing my questions very hard and spent a few days re wording, simplifying and cutting them down but making sure they were easy to understand. My first attempt I started printing and then realised there was a silly mistake instead of putting down '12 teaching skills' I had put 10 and you had to rate them from 1-10 so I had to cancel my printing and change a silly mistake. I eventually narrowed my questions down to 12 which had 3 bigger questions, 2 questions rating 1-10, and a few closed questions and selecting answer/s, I then handed them out to a work colleague, and students I went to college with that now teach elsewhere or are touring in a show.
I found questionnaires harder than what I thought, there was a lot of time spent conducting the questionnaire and then analysing it, but I did find the answers helpful I just wish I could of had more in-depth questions. I then asked a couple of my close participants if they found it too short and if I could of made it longer but they both agreed it was the right amount of length and if it had of been longer people would of lost interest and their answers would of been short and not completely answered.

Question 1
Question 1 was easy, I first wanted to know what age group they feel under. I Had no one select under 18 or 31-41 most people were 18-25 then I had one from each group of 26-30 and 41 or older.

Question 2
Was still easy and I wanted to make sure everyone had been train in some way for dance, no one selected 'not ever' and most people started dancing 0-3 and a few older.

Question 3
Most people a gave my survey too, agreed to having some kind of paid employment on stage, varying between choreographing for pantomimes and touring the UK in Top Hat. I still had 3 that had no experience which is what I wanted, I wanted to compare and see if their answer were different to each others.

Question 4

For question 4 I made a pie chart to show the results more clearly, the smaller sections explain these are what people think are more important skills for teachers to have for example 'passion' and 'Hard working' is the smallest section by far. The larger sections such as 'organised' mean people found these less important over all.


Question 5
This question I thought would be very tough for participants, and was unsure weather to select it as one of my questions at first but not one participant complained about it being a hard question, I asked if you had to choose between expressive or technical skills, which would it be? I found the answer to this question was 4 people chose expressive while the remaining 3 chose technical.

Question 6
I was shocked with this question too actually, I thought the majority of people would prefer performing on stage compared to an exam situation. I once again found 4 who preferred performing on stage and 3 preferred exams, I now want to research into this further and see what else I can find out.

Question 7
Here is the chart for the results of question 7:

Question 8
I wanted to find out which type of teacher achieved the best from their students, I gave them 4 choices which were friendly, strict, high expectations and experience/respected. Most people chose experienced/respected but 3 chose high expectations and only one chose friendly which left strict with no options.

Question 9
Most people preferred an older teacher that could not demonstrate but there were still 3 that chose a younger teacher that could demonstrate but was not experienced performing on stage. I need to look at this question deeper as I think it also depends on the age of the students, younger children would prefer a teacher to join in compared to older students prefer the experience and wisdom.

Question 10
Asking people how important it is for your teacher to have knowledge on the dance industry, and being able to say they have had experience in auditioning etc. Most people rated this between 8,9 and 10. But again it would depend on the student so I would need to look deeper into this question.

Question 11
The last two questions were more open and people could write a sentence or two. My first question was asking if teachers that had the experience of performing on stage have a different side of knowledge other teachers do not have even if they are qualified. Everyone agreed having the experience would be an advantage as having more knowledge in anything is always better than none. It can help guide children in the right direction, and being able to admire a teacher who has been out there in the dance industry as such but also people said not every professional performer would be a good teacher it takes a lot more different skills to be a good teacher.

Question 12
My last question was asking people in their own experience how did they prepare for an audition or exam etc. Most of them said researching on the internet, practicing dance moves constantly, but I believe everyone said teachers guidance or friends that had done it before etc.

Although I did learn a lot from my questionnaire, I now think I will choose observing and interviewing as I will get more in-depth answers and be able to have a conversation about why and what if in my interviews instead. I may not be able to have as many participants while interviewing but at least I will be happier with the more in depth answers, I would prefer a few good answers than lots of vague answers. I am glad I had an opportunity  to try out a questionnaire and the research has helped a lot, I now know what I need to look into deeper, from looking at my results I was surprised with a couple but now want to know why.