InterViews (An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing) by Steinar Kvale (1996).

Page 145, Box 8.1
Quality Criteria for an Interview
- The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answers from the interviewee.
- The shorter the interviewer's questions and the longer the subjects' answers, the better.
- The degree to which the interviewer follows up and clarifies the meanings of the relevant aspects of the answers.
- The ideal interview is to a large extent interpreted throughout the interview.
- The interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of the subject's answers in the course of the interview.
- The interview is "self-communicating" - it is a story contained in itself that hardly requires much extra descriptions and explanations.

Just some thoughts

"Successive Singaporean governments have made strong commitments to and investments in education. Playing several key roles in Singapore's rapid growth over the past 50 years, education spearheaded its economic development... A good example has been Singapore's promotion of the scientific, technical and business disciplines over the arts and humanities." - James Albright and Anneliese Kramer-Dahl

I remember having varied interests and wishing to pursue them, things like archaeology, and other interesting topics, and searching local University pamphlets for courses that I might take to purse them, and finding myself empty-handed.

Then slowly realising that living on a small island, we only train people to do things that our island needs. This utilitarianism. Very logical to me then. Even if I went overseas to study something I'm passionate in, when I come back, I may not have a job.

I think that was one of those times I turned a bit less idealistic and a bit more realistic.

Now, 5 years on, looking back... I wonder what it would have been like to pursue my dreams, take the paths less traveled, and not follow what the government wants for the city blindly.

I don't know if this would be selfishness (the country needs more engineers, more molecular biologists, more IT people!), it might be punished (not being able to find a job, for example), but looking back, I wish I had the ability to think outside the box and not follow blindly.

Education was meant to be fun and lifelong, enabling one to discover her passions and abilities, not a pursuit of qualifications to feed materialism.

I think many will disagree with me on this.

I think many will want to find a job with a high pay.

It is not surprising to me that a society like ours, that trains its people by conditioning behaviours (laws, fines, rules and regulations), should apply a behavourist approach to education.

Should we try to implement constructivist approaches, we are directly challenging what the society has been built upon. And that is not an easy task.

"But it also requires a spirit of adventure (a willingness to explore new areas), an open attitude that avoids prejudging an idea and tenacity to invest the time and effort even when the going gets tough.

What we are talking about here is resisting the temptation to make prior assumptions about any idea or theory until one is knowledgeable about that idea. This involves the spirit of research: looking for leads to other works cited by the author which have influenced their thinking.

... ability to see possibilities in existing ideas. Making new insights is not merely about being able to synthesize difficult and large amounts of materials, it also involves knowing how to be creative and, perhaps, original. It cannot be overemphasized, however, that to make a new contribution to knowledge you do not have to be a genius. The size of the contribution is not what matters, it is the quality of work that produces the insight." - Chris Hart in "The Literature Review in Research", page 21 and 22.