Professional Documents
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Focus Group Discussion Writeup
Focus Group Discussion Writeup
Focus Group Discussion Writeup
The researcher/facilitator uses a discussion guide that lists all the key
themes/questions to keep the session on track and prevent the participants from
deviating from the topic. The number of questions/topics/probes is kept to a
minimum to prevent the participants from getting confused or worn out by a long
discussion. The questions should focus only on relevant issues and move from
general to specific.
3. Recruiting participants
a. Participants are recruited usually on the basis of their involvement in
the research topic. The researcher/facilitator is interested in hearing
the opinions and concerns of only this group of participants. In CIs
case, it could be youth or parents/caregivers of 6 year old children or
parents/caregivers of children enrolled in our nutrition program.
b. In a situation where we do not have relevant details of participants,
snowball method is quite effective. For example, we may not know how
many 6 year old children in our population are suffering from diarrhea
or how many caregivers are suffering from tuberculosis at present. In
such scenarios, snowball technique works best.
5. No. of FGDs
a. The no. of FGDs to be conducted depends upon the purpose and scale
of research as well as the heterogeneity of the group.
b. To determine the no. of sessions to be conducted it is best to observe
the concept of saturation i.e. to continue conducting focus group
sessions until there is no new information that is being shared.
7. Role of moderator
a. Ideally two people are required to conduct focus group discussions
one as a moderator and the other as note taker.
b. Focus group moderators are session leaders. Their responsibility is not
only to ensure that the discussions are going along the desired path
but also to maintain the decorum of the group.
c. When some participants try to dominate the session, it is the duty of
the moderator to address questions to the participants who are
reluctant to talk.
d. The note takers duty is to capture as accurately as possible what the
participants say.
e. Non-verbal expressions should also be noted.
f. A sketch of the seating arrangement is ideally required i.e. which
participant was sitting at which place during the discussion.
8. Conduction of sessions
a. The FGD should begin with a welcome.
b. The moderator then introduces himself/herself and the note taker.
c. The moderator then sets the ground rules for participation and gives a
brief overview of what they are going to discuss and duration of the
discussion.
d. Convey the expectation from the discussion and from each participant.
e. The moderator then asks the participants to introduce themselves. To
maintain confidentiality, the moderator may ask the participants to use
a pseudonym for themselves.
f. Assure the participants that all their opinions are valuable and
confidentiality will be maintained.
g. Emphasize that there are no correct or wrong answers and the
participants are free to share their opinions.
h. Use clarifying questions and probe questions in tandem.
i. It is important for the moderator to summarize the discussion on a
particular topic before moving on to another topic and get the
summary validated from the participants.