Interviews in science education research

Large-scale investigations using questionnaires are appropriate when the characteristics of many respondents have to be identified and when responses can be rated objectively. An individual&s;s detailed beliefs, opinions, values, etc, can at least be partly uncovered only by interviews in which the researcher has the chance to inquire about additional information whenever he/she regards it as necessary. Interviews are methods of qualitative research and therefore subject to appropriate quality standards. Among these standards the various aspects of validity are the most important. In this article, an example of content analysis is used to describe the theoretical background of various approaches to interview data and their analysis including quality checks.