University of california, san francisco school of medicine Focus Groups For Educational Research and Evaluation School of Medicine Educational Skills Workshop.

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine

Focus Groups For Educational Research and Evaluation

School of Medicine Educational Skills Workshop 2009-2010

Arianne Teherani, PhDBridget O’Brien, PhD

school of medicine

Overview

• Use in educational research & evaluation

• Benefits and limitations • How to design a focus group protocol • How to run a focus group & collect

data

Today we will cover the following aspects of focus groups:

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Qualitative Research

• Research about lives, behavior, organizational functioning, interactional relationships

Exploratory Open-ended Data = Words

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine

Qualitative Research Questions

• What are the qualities of an ideal mentor?

• How are the professional identities of students shaped during clerkship X?

• How does participation in a teamwork & communication skills curriculum improve small group process in Year 1 of medical school?

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Data Collection Decisions

Methods

Types of Data

Focus groups Interviews

Open ended prompts

Observations Collect Artifacts

How Interactive? Researcher’s Role?

Audio Recording

Notes

Transcripts

Written response

Typed response

Notes

Video

Documents

Photos / Visual

Video

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Focus Groups are:

• Moderated group interviews

• Concentrated data on topic of interest in short time span

• Insight into group interactions on topic (compared to interviews)

• Topic easy for participants to discuss in group

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Uses

• To understand phenomena

• To contribute to a needs assessment

• To generate hypotheses

• To develop items for a questionnaire

• To facilitate interpretation of quantitative data

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Considerations

• Scope of topic• Group size• Group membership and sampling:

– Pre-existing vs. random– Homogeneity vs. heterogeneity– Interaction– Generalizability vs. transferability

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Considerations

• Location and timing• Incentives• Moderator

– Role– Identity

• Note taking• Audio or Video Recording

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Facilitation Skills

• Maintain neutral stance• Sensitive to

– number of agreements & disagreements– non participants / non respondents

• Notice and pursue opportunities for probing

• Establish and enforce ground rules

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Note Taking Skills

• Designated ‘note-taker’

• Sociogram of the room

• Document level of agreement

• Document group interaction

• Document non-verbal communication

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Reporting

• Consensus vs. Comparison

• Interaction

• Transferability vs. Generalizability

• Anonymity

• Participant Verification

• Unit of Analysis

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Benefits

• Identifies issues that are salient to a group

• Captures the degree of consensus on a topic

• Captures multiple perspectives and group dynamic on a topic

• Participants may feel empowered by the opportunity to contribute expertise, participate in decision-making or problem-solving, help find solutions

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Limitations

• Time and resource intensive• Training required• Not a substitute for interviews or

surveys• Fewer opportunities for in depth

probing• Not necessarily representative of

larger population

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine

Instrument Development

Purpose guides specificity, sequencing, # and types of questions

Open-ended questions Probe as needed Advanced decisions on adherence to

protocol and time checks

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Activity 1

• Small groups

• Develop 3 focus group questions to address the following research question:

“How have furloughs impacted

the work of faculty?”

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Activity 2

• Select 2-3 focus group questions from activity 1

• Conduct a focus group

• 2 volunteers to take notes

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine Summary

• Focus groups are best used when– Qualitative data is needed

– Insight into group interaction is useful

– Concentrated data collection on topic is needed

– Trained facilitator and note takers are available

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine References• Barbour, R.S. (2005). Making sense of focus

groups. Medical Education, 39(7), 742-750.

• Freeman, T. (2006). Best practice in focus group research: Making sense of different views. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(5), 491-497.

• Gibbs, A. (1997) Focus Groups. Social Research Update. Winter issue. Available at: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic549650.files/Focus_Groups.pdf

• Kitzinger, J. Introducing focus groups. BMJ 311, 1995.

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine References

Lofland & Lofland. Analyzing social settings.

Rubin, H.J. & Rubin, I.S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage Publications

university of california, san francisco

school of medicine

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