Creating a questionnaire for a scientific study

Abstract

Using questionnaires has become a permanent part of collecting data in scientific studies within the sphere of human sciences as well as other disciplines. It has been utilized already for nearly a century in collecting data. The first questionnaires were carried out on paper but nowadays there are e-questionnaires alongside it which can be carried out through e-mail or published on a social media platform (for example, Facebook). An often used method is also a survey which is carried out with a research project's own web page, association or company etc. A questionnaire has been considered as an actual scientific method of data collection since 1930s. However, it was already used a little earlier in research after the utilization of statistical methods in the analysis of research results became common in 1920s. In human sciences, such as pedagogics, the use of the questionnaire during the last few decades has been lesser than in the field of natural science, technology and economics where it is a more prevalent way to conduct a research study. In pedagogics the qualitative study and so-called softer methods have dominated the field of research. At the moment we in Finland, as in the wider world, lack adequate knowledge for the thesis supervisors so that the problems in research would be directed according to the purpose towards the writing of the quantitative thesis and to solving of research problems.