Conducting Professional Focus Group Research
Training Workshop
Janet Mancini Billson, Ph.D., and Norman T. London, Ed.D.
Group Dimensions International
8:30-9:00 a.m.
• Registration and Submission of Questions
9:00-10:00 a.m.
DEMONSTRATION FOCUS GROUP
• Preamble
• Introductions
• How should focus groups be used?
• Advantages and disadvantages compared to other methods.
10:00-10:30 a.m.
• A social scientific approach to focus groups
• Ethical issues, technical issues, defining the purpose of research
• Relationship between focus groups, surveys, and other methods
• Limitations and generalizability
10:30-10:45 a.m. Break
10:45-11:30 a.m.
Research Design Issues
• Survey first or focus groups first?
• Breaks and number of groups
• Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous groups
• Sample size and types
• Maximum/minimum size of the groups
• Duration and timing
• Recruitment and screening of participants
11:30-12:30 noon
Teams Develop Research Design for DAY II Mock Focus Groups
Tasks: 1. Select a key research question
2. Create an appropriate research design to answer the question
3. Decide on population, sample, recruitment, and number of groups
4. Write a screener
12:30-1:30 p.m. Lunch and Critique of Research Designs
1:30-2:00 p.m.
Development of the Moderator's Guide (Protocol)
• Refining the research question (outcomes/hypotheses)
• Mapping the flow of questions
• Designing productive questions
• Idea generation versus debate generation
• Probes and elicitation techniques
• Building in flexibility and reliability
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Teams Develop Moderator's Guide
3:00-3:15 p.m. Break and Trainer Critique of Team I Moderator's Guide
3:15-4:30 p.m.
Moderation Theory and Techniques
• Ice-breaking procedures
• Facilitating toward even participation
• Controlling dominants and dealing with difficult participants
• Keeping on task and ensuring even coverage of questions
• What to do when a question has been answered in a previous question
• Coping with complex questions
• Deflecting questions about "facts"
• Avoiding politicization of the process
• Termination procedures
Communication Theory
• One-way versus two-way communication
• Listening for meaning
• Modes of listening
8:00-8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast and Critique of Moderator's Guides
8:30-9:00 a.m.
Logistical Issues
• Working with community-based groups; working in different and multiple languages
• Using interpreters, simultaneous translation
• Informed consent agreements
• Single vs. co-moderators
• Note taking, audio vs. video-taping; GroupWare; Using laptops in the field
9:00-9:50 a.m.
FOCUS GROUP: TEAM I (2 moderators @ 25 minutes each)
• 9:50-10:20 a.m. . Processing Focus Group I
10:20-10:35 a.m. Break
10:35-11:00 a.m.
Working with Qualitative Data I
• Debriefing sessions
• Using transcripts
• The place of quantitative data in focus groups
• Structuring, coding, blocking, reorganizing data
• Using the word processor in qualitative data analysis
• Types of computerized text data analyzers
11:00-11:50 a.m.
FOCUS GROUP: TEAM II (2 moderators @ 25 minutes each)
• 11:50-12:30 p.m. . Processing Focus Group II
12:30-1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30-2:20 p.m.
FOCUS GROUP: TEAM III (2 moderators @ 25 minutes each)
• 2:20-2:50 p.m. Processing Focus Group III
2:50-3:00 p.m. Break
3:00-4:00 p.m. Report Writing and Presentation
• Structuring the report
• Executive summaries vs. in-depth reports
• Highlights and recommendations/implications
4:00-4:15 p.m. Wrap Up Focus Group and Workshop Evaluation
Saturday's clinic day schedule to be determined in consultation with those participants who will attend.