PRIMARY RESEARCH: QUESTIONNAIRES

What is primary research?

• Academic research completed by someone else

• Academic research that you complete personally

• Academic research focused on primary schools

• Acaddemic research focused on primates

Answer explanation

Primary research is research that you complete personally . For example, this can be in the form of a questionnaire or interview.

Is the following an OPEN or CLOSED question?

What is your name?

Is the following an OPEN or CLOSED question?

What is your opinion on wearing coats in school?

Is the following an OPEN or CLOSED question?

Do you take the bus to school?

Is the following an OPEN or CLOSED question?

Who do you think will win the World Cup and why?

Academically, what is the MAIN reason why we complete primary research?

• To develop our understanding of a question we are trying to investigate

• To learn how to create a questionnaire on Google Forms

• To improve our own academic research skills

• To make our research more detailed

Answer explanation

Completing primary research improves our research and digital skills, but the main reason is to learn more about the topic we are studying.

Ideally, at GCSE level what is the minimum number of participants needed for a primary research questionnaire?

• 10

• 25

• 15

• 20

Answer explanation

To make your data more reliable and fair, you should have 25 people taking your questionnaire at GCSE level.

What is wrong with this multiple choice question?

What is your age?

- 11-17

- 18-25

- 26-40

- 40+

• There are not enough options

• The ages exclude anyone below 10

• The ages exclude a lot of older people

• 40 is in two options

Answer explanation

It is important that no one feels excluded in your questionnaire and that there are no errors - if there are errors, people are less likely to complete it.

What is wrong with this multiple choice question?

what year group are you in

- year 7

- year8

-year 9

- Year 10

-Year 11

• It is not an open question

• It does not have sixth form as an option

• It has grammatical errors & typos

• It is too personal

Answer explanation

Any errors in a questionnaire you want filled out will make it look unprofessional and ureliable - people will not feel like they can trust or respect your questionnaire

What is wrong with this multiple choice question?

Do you suffer with mental health or anxiety?

YES

NO

• It is not an open question

• There are grammatical errors & typos

• It doesn't have enough options

• It is too personal

Answer explanation

Always check whether a question is too personal - ask yourself, would you be comfortable answering this question.