Explicit teaching process – Learning how to prepare
SURVEYS / QUESTIONNAIRES
1. Preparing the Context
(linking to students prior knowledge- finding out what they already know)
a) Teacher –led discussion with students about:
· Who has had an experience of completing a survey or participating in a questionnaire?;
· Why are surveys/questionnaires used? Who uses them?
· What do they remember were the features of the survey/questionnaire? ;
· Did they know what was the purpose or point of the survey / questionnaire?
b) Teacher introduces some of the technical language associated with surveys /
questionnaires ( See Resource Sheet A)
c) Teacher ensures that students understand that there are two broad types of
surveys- descriptive and explanatory. (see Teacher Notes 1)
2. Developing the Context
(building up the ‘field’ knowledge through the use of a range of materials)
a) Teacher issues the Ice Cream survey (see Resource Sheet B1) and with the students deconstructs it for its features e.g. Title, Aim etc
b) The Students are issued an e-list of surveys - the teacher assigns each group of 4 2 – 3 surveys to investigate for its features and evaluate its effectiveness in achieving its purpose. (need access to the internet, computers/laptops & Resource Sheet B2 )
c) This leads to a class discussion / recording of notes of the features of a good survey e.g.
* Title of the survey
* Purpose
* Instructions - short sentences beginning with a verb.
* Personal information about the person completing the survey
(biographical details)
* Questions for the survey combined with an appropriate
‘answer’ format
* Conclusion to the survey
* Layout and design of the above listed features
c) The teacher at this stage could also direct the students to consider how the data
generated by a survey would be collated and displayed for analysis and evaluation. Use the B1 Resource sheet survey handed out in Step a) of this stage of the cycle to facilitate this discussion.
d) Students are issued Resource Sheet C and using the Ice Cream survey (resource Sheet B1) and one or two of the e-surveys examine and discuss the nature of the questions these surveys used.
3. Modelling
a) Teacher issues to the students a survey which has been cut up into pieces – the students have to reconstruct the survey. (see Resource Sheet D)
b) Class discussion occurs to identify the different features of the survey
4. Teacher-led Construction
a) The teacher leads the class in co-constructing a simple survey based on an area
that their classwork has been examining. This will provide the students with a model to use when designing their own survey in groups.
5. Student-led Construction
a) Students, in pairs, design and create their own surveys. They ’test’ the effectiveness of their survey on their classmates before using it outside the classroom.
‘Testing’ the effectiveness of the survey would include:
v Were the instructions clear or did they require further explanation?
v Were the questions easily understood by the survey respondents or did
some /all of the questions need further explanation?
v Did respondents know where/how to record their answers on the survey or did they need to clarify this?
Provide students with some time to refine their surveys before they issue them to a ‘real’ audience.
NOTE:
Once surveys/questionnaires have been developed and issued the teacher needs to engage the students in discussion about presenting the data that the survey has generated. See ‘Explicit Teaching process for Graphs’ etc.
Once the students have presented their data in graphical form the teacher needs to teach the students the skills of interpreting, analysing and evaluating the data.
Stage 4 and 5 students – Explain the data
Stage 6 students Analyse the data – what does the data tell us?