Questionnaire

To ensure that any bias is minimised from emerging in this study, a structured questionnaire consisting of close-ended types of questions was carefully constructed in this study. The use of a structured questionnaire allow me as a researcher to apply appropriate statist ical tests in evaluating the empirical findings of this study as well as to prompt quick responses from the groups under study. Thus, uniformity and consistency could be maintained throughout the data collection process. Other than that, this study also involved a semi structured questionnaire in which open-ended questions were posed to allow participants to provide responses based on their own words. In this regards, participants were given freedom to express themselves through written words. Participants’ responses in the semi-structured questionnaire were explored further in interview (more discussion in Section 5.6.2). Generally, there are several advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires that have to be taken into consideration. The advantages and disadvantages are presented in Table 5.13.

Table 5.13: Advantages and disadvantages of questionnaire

Advantages Disadvantages

Good for measuring attitudes and eliciting other content from research participants

Inexpensive or economical

Can administer to probability samples or groups Perceived anonymity by respondents possibly high

Moderately high measurement validity for well - constructed and well -testes questionnaires Low dross rate for closed-ended questionnaire Ease of data analysis for closed-ended items Increase anonymity

Need validation Must be kept short Might have missing data Possible reactive effects Non response to selective items

Response rate possibly low for mail questionnaire Open-ended items possibly resulting in vague answers

Open-ended items possibly reflecting differences in verbal ability, obscuring the issues of interest Data analysis sometime time-consuming for open- ended items

Too low percentage of returns (Sources: Cohen et al., 2000, p. 129; Johnson and Turner, 2003, p. 306)

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5.5.1.1 Structured questionnaire

The items were chosen, developed and structured based on theories (psycholo gy and education theories) and research findings from psychological literature. In general, the models or theories of giftedness could be categorised into educational (e.g. Renzulli, 1978; Gagné, 2004); and psychological based (e.g.Gardner, 1993; Sternberg and Zhang, 1995) that serve as main references in developing several items in the questionnaire ( further details of the models or theories of giftedness are discussed in Chapter 2). Some items are based on research findings especially on specific aspects of the conceptions of gifted and talented such as the role of significant others such as mentors in talent development of gifted and talented (see Appendix 13 for details).

For example, item 6 (Giftedness is hereditary) is developed from proposition by Galton (1869). Even though, this proposition is not refuted at present time, yet researchers lik e Vernon (1992), Wainwright (2005) and van Leeuwen et al. (2008) have attempted to find the links between genetics and individual performance and achievement. One of the common findings in those studies is genetics to certain extent influence individual performance and achievement yet the links could be concluded as inconclusive because there are various factors such as mentors that might influence the lives of gifted and talented individuals as found in a study by Pleiss and Feldhusen (1995)114. Present theorists like Gagné (2010) and Heller (2010) do not directly state ‘genetics’ aspect in their models of giftedness, yet the terms used in their models do indicate their agreement on the influence of inheritance on giftedness. Gagné (2010) used the term ‘genotypic foundations’ to referred to genetics component in this talent development model (see Chapter 2 – Section 2.5 for details). In this vein, item 6 is included in the research tool (structured questionnaire) as it reflects the proposition which could be referred to proposition in psychological literature.

In summary, the validity and reliability of instrument in a study are determined based in part on how the instrument is developed. Therefore, in this study in developing the questionnaire, there are two main aspects that are taken into consideration: measurement

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In their review of various studies on mentorship, Pleiss and Feldhusen (1995) found that interac tive relationship that gifted individuals have with their mentors, role models or heroes to certain extent influence gifted individuals in terms of their aspirations, motivations as well as behavioural traits that they imitate from their mentors, role models or heroes.

134 and scaling. Measurement and scaling are important in ensuring the validity and reliability of the questionnaire used in a study. Reliability refers to the consistency of responses from participants from repeated occasions (de Vaus, 2007). To increase reliability, de Vaus (2007) suggested several ways: to use multiple-item indicators, choose careful question wording, and work out methods of coding (p. 53). Validity is obtained when an instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

5.5.1.2 Semi structured questionnaire

In this study, the semi structured questionnaire comprises of 13 open-ended questions. The participants are given the opportunity to respond according to their own words and preferences. According to Johnson and Turner (2003) the order of responses of open-ended question might be depended on what item participants prefer to answer first although normally many might opt to start with the first item and respond according to the order of the items. In this case, participants are given a freedom to respond based on their preferences and in a less structured manner. This might provide insights of new ideas or awareness to the study that are worthwhile.

However, it might be time consuming for the participants to answer because they might have to write down their responses instead of to choose predetermined responses in a scale such as Likert scale, for instance. Also, Johnson and Turner (2003) state that the participants could choose not to answer any of the questions in the open ended questionnaire, but they are informed that they would be asked about the responses that they have written as well as any part that they leave unanswered. If they leave any question unanswered, it could mean that they might not know the answer, or refuse to answer the questions and this would be probed in the interview further on. In this study, I asked participants questions in the interview following the open-ended questionnaire to examine in more detail each response that they wrote or left unanswered.