Questionnaire

Research generally and the social sciences in particular greatly value the questionnaire. It is especially useful to researchers in management and educational leadership (Muijs 2012, cited in Briggs et al., 2012). The questionnaire is a data collection instrument that can be used on its own or in parallel with another research method. It is used in order to collect information regarding opinions, thoughts, knowledge and behaviour in an unbiased manner. The sample size is the main determinant of how the questionnaire needs to be in structured, semi-structured and unstructured form. In general, larger populations require more structured questionnaires (Cohen et al., 2000). In this example, a questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data. Research participants completed the questionnaires personally, and therefore it is considered to be a self-reporting research instrument (Johnson & Christensen, 2004).

4.5.1.1 Justification for Using the Questionnaire Tool

As previously discussed, this study employed a mixed methods approach involving the use of both quantitative and qualitative instruments. Moreover, the method used is what is known as a sequential explanatory strategy, meaning that it is not just sequential but also developmental aspect, and more in depth qualitative data were gathered – through the interviews conducted– based on the results of the preliminary qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the questionnaire. The aim of the study is to look at several aspects of the programme in order to discover whether or not and to what level the head teachers’ requirements were realised and to ascertain any professional learning, development and support needs. After this, the study wished to investigate the prospect of a new proposed leadership development model. This new developmental model would focus on the needs the research had identified, as well as take into account international trends in the area. It was therefore determined that by employing a questionnaire to collect the quantitative data the method would allow for comprehensive coverage of the research issues, ease of completion by participants, and the necessary statistical analysis.

4.5.1.2 The Strengths and Weaknesses of Questionnaires

Questionnaires are popular forms of data collection because they have many benefits. The questionnaire can be employed to gather information regarding participant perceptions, and the results of questionnaires can easily be generalised. Questionnaires are very replicable and allow for participants to remain anonymous. Finally, a well- constructed questionnaire is able to gather very specific data, allowing for straightforward data analysis (Cohen et al., 2000; Johnson & Christensen, 2004).

However, questionnaires also have their drawbacks. There is no way to ensure that participants answer every question or answer them truthfully. Questionnaires are also limited in length, and evaluating the resulting data can take a good deal of time. Lastly, researchers need to take steps to ensure that questionnaires are both valid and reliable (Cohen et al., 2000; Johnson & Christensen, 2004).

4.5.1.3 Translating the Questionnaire

English is not commonly spoken in Saudi Arabia despite being so popular worldwide. Thus, the target population – Saudi male school head teachers – were not able to answer the English questionnaire. For this reason, a back-translation process was used to convert the questionnaire from English to Arabic (Douglas & Carige, 1983).

Back-translation is a two-part procedure. An interpreter first translates the questionnaire from English to Arabic. Then, a second interpreter translates the new Arabic questionnaire back to English. Both English versions can then be looked at side-by-side to be sure no meaning was lost in translation. This reverse procedure allows for the highest degree of accuracy (both language versions can be found in appendices one and two).

4.5.1.4 Piloting and Practical Issues with the Design and Development of the Questionnaire

The questionnaire must be designed in a manner that guarantees it is both extremely reliable and extremely valid. The goals of the questionnaire are established using the study’s research questions. Because this study uses a sequential explanatory strategy, the results of the questionnaire are used to determine the questions employed as part of the interview segment of the research. In addition, because the questionnaire was semi-structured, the questions were put in statement form and measured using a Likert scale. The Likert scale allows respondents to rank their level of agreement with a statement. In this case, the scale reached from one, “strongly disagree” to five, “strongly agree”.

The first segment of the questionnaire used ten elements to ask about the programme within a university context. The second segment focused on discovering any professional learning, development and support needs, and asked participants to rank these needs in order of necessity. The first draft of the questionnaire was quite long, and the pilot raise a concern with the number of expected responses and the level of reliability. Due to these concerns, I opted to reduce the number of items in the second

draft, from 50 to 38. The initial questionnaire incorporated several demographic questions, such as school level, experience, age and qualifications.

The items on the first part of the questionnaire to gather head teachers’ perceptions regarding the training were as follows:

Stimulating, Useful for my work, Relevant to my work, Good discussion, Flexible structure, Well delivered, Demanding, Well-paced, Good level of practical activities and My objectives achieved.

The items in the second half of the questionnaire focused on identifying professional learning, development and support needs, and fall into the following seven domains.

Domain Title Number of items in each domain

Planning 11

Evaluation 5

Staff development 6

Meeting students’ needs 4

Dealing with local community 4

Administration and school building

6

Communications technology 2

Total 38

Table 6 The main domains and the number of items in the questionnaire

4.5.1.5 Questionnaire Validity and Reliability

In order to ensure the questionnaire had high validity, pilots of the study were conducted first by asking three of the male secondary school head teachers to revise the questionnaire according to its degree of ambiguity and relevance, by suggesting any necessary modifications. After that, the questionnaire was revised by an educational management expert who holds a PhD in educational leadership and management and works in a training centre in Jeddah. Following this, to ensure that the questionnaire was valid, SPSS software was used to calculate the validity of the

questionnaire concerning its internal consistency and Pearson’s correlation coefficient between each individual item and the questionnaire section to which it belonged.

The figures presented in the tables (see Chapter 5 on p. 90-92) and the Pearson’s correlation coefficients indicated that there were positive associations between most of the statements and their respective questionnaire sections, and that these were statistically significant at the (0.01) level of significance. The significance level (0.05) was low for only two statements: No. (5) in the first section and No. (15) in the second. This indicates a high level of consistency between the statements and their respective sections, and reflects the strength of the internal validity. The questionnaire was therefore deemed adequate for the purposes of this research. However, reliability refers to the ability of a research instrument to provide consistently the same results if used more than once on the same people in similar circumstances. This study assessed the reliability of the questionnaire using the coefficient of Cronbach’s alpha.