6b -Critical reflection on the four tools of inquiry

I have read through the reader and looked at the merits of all four tools of inquiry and also looked at their relativity to my inquiry.
The first method, interview, is a good way of obtaining information or data relating to someone's actual activities or their thoughts on a topic. It is interpersonal and can lead to many things being uncovered. It is possibly quite a time consuming method of collecting data but would be very useful if working in a specific environment as you can interview an individual in their workplace and record their answers. However, for my topic I do not think it is necessarily one of the best methods. I would think that on a one to one basis you may not always get an honest answer to your questions as the participant may feel uncomfortable doing so.
I used the second method for my informal trial as I was interested to see if people answered honestly if they were acting anonymously. However, what I have found, is that because it is anonymous I was not getting any answers! I have prompted my SIG to take my survey to see the response and managed to get a little more response. Was this because they felt they had nothing to say on the topic, were my questions not really effective, did the respondents not feel that the questions were not relevant? A survey could be a very useful research tool if the answers are limited or if the content of an answer is relatively succinct, but I suspect that if a person feels that they have a lot to say for an answer that they may not feel that this is the right place to put it.
The third method of a focus group is one that I feel would be useful to my inquiry. If there is a group of people in a room answering questions about my topic then I feel it will encourage people to openly discuss their feelings and their thoughts on the subject. My only concern would be if anyone felt that they did not wish to say something that may offend someone in the room? However, I think that people would speak objectively and I am hoping that if I conduct my Focus Group over Skype then that possible issue may not arise as I find that people speak more freely over Skype.
The fourth method for me is the most important tool for my inquiry as you can physically see if there is a palpable difference in the reactions and responses of the children as they are being taught by different teachers. I can see that for some inquiries it may not be the best method as you need to question people to establish their answers as they may not be any physical demonstration that would be relevant.

Therefore , in conclusion, my two methods will be observation and a focus group.