Interviewing
Here are three ways you can use interviewing as the basis of a classroom activity.
Explain to learners that they will be interviewing their peers to find out their views and ideas concerning the topic.
This activity works best at the start of a unit of work or towards the end.
In the first case, it acts as a primer, eliciting learners’ prior knowledge and experience.
It also helps them to start thinking about it academically – something they may not have done before.
In the second case, it helps learners to reflect on that which they have studied and to draw together all the learning they have done.
Learners are given ten minutes to come up with five to ten questions connected to the topic, which they can ask their peers.
You can scaffold this by providing a couple of questions of your own to get learners started, or by asking more able learners to read out some of their questions.
When all members of the class have created their questions, invite them to move around the room and to interview as many of their peers as they can.
They should make a note of the responses they receive.
You can conclude the activity in one of two ways.
First, you might ask learners to write up their findings. Second, you might ask learners to discuss their findings in groups of three (this should focus on them comparing what information their questions elicited).
Learners work in pairs and one member of each pair is given a character card.
That learner must role-play their character.
The activity works better if it is done midway through a unit of work. This means learners have sufficient knowledge and understanding to make sense of the role they are to play.
The other member of each pair is the interviewer.
Their job is to ask questions of the role-player and to note down their responses.
If there is time, a second set of character cards can be handed out and the members of each pair can swap roles.
You can further develop the activity by having pairs team up and compare the various responses which were elicited during their interviews.
This can then lead onto a discussion about the attitudes, beliefs and values of the character (or characters) who were being role-played.
The class are introduced to the topic and a range of connected categories are displayed on the board.
The teacher divides the class so that the number of groups is equal to the number of categories.
Each group is assigned a category. They have ten minutes to come up with a selection of questions they would like to ask, all of which must be connected to their category.
When the time is up, the teacher asks the groups to order their questions from most to least important and to elect a representative whose job it will be to ask the questions.
The representatives then come to the front of the class in turn. Each has three minutes in which to ask the teacher as many questions as they can from their list. The teacher must try to answer the questions as fully and as accurately as possible (and admit if they do not know the answer).
Before the questioning begins, give learners a handout. This should contain a series of boxes, each of which will be labelled with one of the categories. Learners can use this sheet to make notes.
Focus Groups
Here are two ways to use focus groups as a basis for learning:
Randomly select ten learners from the class. Arrange a series of desks so that they are pushed together with chairs around them. The chosen pupils sit here, with the teacher at the head of the arrangement.
This is the focus group. The rest of the class should seat themselves around the outside.
The teacher explains that members of the focus group will be invited to share their ideas and opinions on a range of questions relevant to the topic.
The learners sat around the outside are each given a sheet. This contains the questions the teacher will ask, along with space in which to write.
The teacher proceeds by asking the first question.
Members of the focus group respond, and a discussion develops. Learners sat around the outside note down what they think are the most important and interesting points arising from the debate.
At the end of the focus group, when all the questions have been asked, those learners who were sat in the middle stand up and join their peers who were sat on the outside making notes.
Groups of two or three are formed. Each should contain one focus group member and one or two note-taking pupils. Discussion then ensues concerning what was observed. Pupils should also reflect on the points raised during the debate.
One way you might like to alter this activity is by having learners come up with the questions for the focus group. This can be done by placing pupils into groups of three or four and asking each one to put forward a question they believe will prove good for discussion.
Divide the class in three (unless you have a small class, in which case either divide it in half or keep it as one).
Ask learners to arrange the tables and chairs so there are three collections of desks around which each third of the class can sit.
Ask each group to work together to produce a set of questions connected to the area of study and which could be used as the basis of a focus group discussion.
When learners have done this, ask them to appoint two members of their group as focus group leaders.
These learners stand up, take their list of questions with them and move to a different group. Discussion follows, based on the lists of questions.
When sufficient time has elapsed, call proceedings to a halt. The focus group leaders should return to their original groups and share the results of the discussion they chaired. Their peers can then share the results of the discussions of which they were a part.
You can end the activity here, or you can add a whole-class reflection in which a comparison is made between the various discussions which developed as a result of the different question sets that were used.
