In this study, some anthropological concepts - the idea of native vocabulary, understanding and approach to the other - and sociological concepts are triggered as a strategy to reframe the application of questionnaires, considering it as an instance of complex social processes which generate opinion. The analysis of the reactions and actions of the school actors during the application of questionnaires is considered as a possibility for the interpretation of the diversity of characteristics of the materials, individual actions and dispositions, grounding the analysis of the quantitative data beyond the statistical explanations. During the description of this type of activity, it was possible to scale the relation between the exceptions and the behavior regularity, extending the look to the future work of field observation and the mechanisms for identification and interaction with the researchers, and to this step as a space for reflection on aspects of school experiences. As a tool in the expansion to the quantitative approach, it is recommended that the set of views on the use of questionnaires in educational research is accounted in the frequency analysis, being a part of the interpretation of the research results.
research instruments; questionnaire application; quantitative research; educational research