Tiêu đề (PPNC) Pretesting and Pilot Testing ✅

104 SECTION II: QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN Experts are important not only for cross-checking the substantive aspects of the survey but for improving the overall style of the instrument as well. With their finer knowledge of the breadth of the given field, experts can tell you if all questions in the survey are relevant and necessary, or if some may be cut to shorten the ques- tionnaire length and reduce respondent burden. They can also help decide if the survey flows seamlessly from one question to the next, thus following a logical and intuitive layout that again reduces respondent burden and improves the quality of your data (Olson 2010). Finally, whether you have access to experts in the relevant field(s) or not, you can familiarize yourself with some of the extant expert research in the field, as well as with previous surveys on the same topic, to compare your newly designed measures to those in the established literature. Respondent-Driven Pretests Administration of the pretest survey to friends and colleagues is encouraged. However, the most useful pretesting is often done on a small subsample of the sample population, so that your pretesters fit the cultural and demographic profile of the larger sample to be surveyed later (Ferketich, Phillips, and Verran 1993). At the same time, you want your pretest group to encompass some variation within the broader profile, to ensure enough variety to notice any potential issues across the entire range of your questionnaire. For example, if you plan to survey fundamentalist Christians, make sure to test individuals within different subgroups of that population. Fundamentalist Christians belong to different social classes and have varying ages and levels of education. If the terminology used in the questionnaire is widely understood only to younger popula- tions, this oversight will be salient in the pretest of older individuals. Thus, a researcher will know to edit this terminology in the full-scale survey. If possible, pretest the study on multiple people within the various important subgroups of your sample too, so that their views can be confirmed by others in their subgroup. Finally, when you administer the pretest, include an additional introduction to the questionnaire that once again thanks your participants and highlights the special importance of the pretesting process. For example, an introduction might read as follows: In an effort to collect high-quality data on residential mobility patterns in the United States, we are developing a questionnaire to assess rates of and experiences with residential relocation. We greatly appreciate your willingness to participate in a preliminary assessment of this survey. After you have finished filling out the ques- tionnaire, we will ask you to provide feedback on your understanding of the individ- ual items in the survey. We would like to thank you in advance for this assistance. Copyright ©2016 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Do not copy, post, or distribute