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INTRODUCTION TO FOCUS GROUPS. By Lizzette Rojas, PhD and Flordeliz Serpa , PhD Non-Profit Evaluation & Resource Center, Inc. (NPERCI). Lizzette Rojas, PhD.
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INTRODUCTION TOFOCUS GROUPS By Lizzette Rojas, PhD and FlordelizSerpa, PhD Non-Profit Evaluation & Resource Center, Inc. (NPERCI)
Lizzette Rojas, PhD Dr. Rojas has over seventeen years of experience in the area of evaluation research of health, education, and social services programs. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Non-Profit Evaluation & Resource Center, Inc.
FlordelizSerpa, PhD Dr. Serpa is an accomplished researcher and program evaluator. She has applied her skills to organizations in both the public and private sectors. Dr. Serpa is the Chief Executive Officer of Non-Profit Evaluation & Resource Center, Inc.
Learning Objectives • Learn the appropriate reasons for conducting focus groups • Learn to plan, develop, and moderate focus groups • Learn to analyze and report focus groups results
What Are Focus Groups? • Group interviews • Research method • Focused efforts at data gathering • Group discussions
Basic Uses For Focus Groups • Problem identification • Planning • Implementation • Assessment
Avoid Focus Groups When: • Imply commitments you cannot keep • Participants are not comfortable with each other • Topic is not appropriate for the participants • Project requires statistical data
Planning Focus Groups • Planning • Recruiting • Moderating • Analyzing and Reporting
The Questions:Guiding Principles • Conversational • Clear, brief, jargon-free • Seek feedback from professionals • Allow sufficient time • Develop questioning skills
Questioning Techniques • Topic Guide - is a list of topics or issues to be pursued in the focus group. • Questioning Route - is a sequence of questions in complete, conversational sentences.
Moderating Focus Groups: Guiding Principles • Be interested in participants • Be ready to hear unpleasant views • You cannot moderate all groups • Use your unique talents
Before The Focus Group • Prepare yourself mentally • Assemble the equipment • Arrange the room
During The Focus Group • Register participants • Make small talk • Introduce the focus group • Ask questions • Anticipate the flow • Control your reactions
During The Focus Group • Be comfortable with the pause • Probe as needed • Listen • Summarize the discussion • Get the people to leave • Debrief with assistant moderator
Analyzing And Reporting Results • Transcript-Based Analysis • Tape-Based Analysis • Note-Based Analysis • Memory-Based Analysis
Suggested Readings • Developing Focus Group Research by Barbour and Kitzinger, Sage Publications, 1999 • The Handbook for Focus Group Research by Thomas L. Greenbaum, Sage Publications, 1997