Group interviews and focus groups

The types of interviews already described, structured and unstructured, can also lend themselves to work with groups. 'Group interview' is often now used interchangeably with 'focus group' although there are some specific characteristics of focus groups (See Robson, p285 for a brief description). The planning of this type of data collection will need to take account of the number of participants, the mode of recording and the management of the questions and responses by the interviewer.

The interviewer or facilitator will usually present the topic for discussion and will need to plan how to ensure that all participants have a fair opportunity to express their views. In many ways, the same practical challenges arise in focus groups as in discussion groups for teaching and other purposes but the researcher needs to be very cautious in generalising any of the outcomes of the focus group to other settings.