1. MATHEMATICS Questionnaires and Surveys

2. Lesson Objectives The aim of this powerpoint is to help you… to learn how to prepare suitable and unbiased questions for a questionnaire or survey to learn how to prepare suitable response options for each question in a questionnaire or survey

3. Preparations Before collecting data using a questionnaire or survey, you need to have a clear hypothesis that you wish to test out. Your questions and response sections should all link to your hypothesis. Your questions and response sections should also link to any groups (such as gender or age groups) that you wish to compare.

4. Preparing Questions There are 5 main things you need to consider when preparing questions. 1) Use CLOSED questions 2) Avoid making questions TOO personal 3) Be SPECIFIC – don’t use ambiguous words 4) Do NOT influence the answers being given 5) Put your questions in a LOGICAL ORDER

5. Use CLOSED Questions An ‘open’ question is one that allows people to give ANY answer they wish. A closed question limits the number of responses so that the data gleaned can be more easily analysed. You should use CLOSED questions for a survey or questionnaire by setting response options for the reader to choose from.

6. Response Sections With the exception of YES / NO answers, give between 3 and 6 options (maximum) to choose from. Ensure every possible answer is catered for without gaps by using ‘other’ as the last option for categoric data and including ‘or more’ in the last option for numeric data. Do not have any overlaps – whatever the answer, it should only be accessible by ticking ONE option.

7. Example Here is an ‘open’ question… What is your favourite colour? Leaving this as it stands, people’s responses could include vermilion, scarlet, cerise, crimson, cherry etc. (all different shades of red!) – there are hundreds of possibilities! How could we make this a ‘closed’ question? OPEN: What is your favourite colour? …………….. CLOSED: What is your favourite colour? [Tick the option which applies] Red Blue Green Yellow Black Other

8. Don’t make questions TOO personal You may need to ask some personal questions but if they are too personal, people may refuse to answer them or not answer truthfully. Questions that are too personal are usually related to money, age, size and asking about illegal activities. To de-personalise a question, you can give a response section that gives ranges of values to choose from… OR You can use ‘random response’ style questions – see the MyMaths lesson quoted on the last slide or print out the accompanying notes to this powerpoint to find out more about this.

9. Example This question is too personal… How old are you? …… Leaving this as it stands, some people may not wish to answer, or may lie about their specific age. How could we de- personalise the question? TOO PERSONAL: How old are you? …… DE-PERSONALISED: How old are you? [Tick the option which applies] 0-19 20-34 35-49 50-64 65 or more

10. Be SPECIFIC Questions should be clear and unambiguous so that every person reading them understands what they are asking, and cannot interpret them differently. To make them clear be specific with the details. To make them unambiguous avoid words (such as ‘often’ or ‘much’) which can be interpreted by people in different ways. It might help to set a timescale and offer numeric responses to choose from.

11. Example This question is unclear as no timeframe has been specified. It is also ambiguous as different people may interpret ‘much’ differently… Do you read much? Some people may think that an hour a day is ‘much’ but others may feel that an hour a week is ‘much’. How could you make the question unambiguous? AMBIGUOUS: Do you read much? UNAMBIGUOUS: On average, how many hours a week do you spend reading? [Tick the option which applies] 0hrs 1-2hrs 3-4hrs 5hrs or more

12. Do NOT influence the response The way questions are worded should NOT influence what the person is likely to give as their response. Example: Chips are unhealthy for you. Do you eat chips? The first sentence may influence the reader to deny that they eat chips. The first sentence should be omitted. Example: You do like football don’t you? This is a leading question, pushing the reader to say that they DO like football, even if they don’t. It should be completely rephrased and be made more specific. E.g. Do you like watching football? and/or Do you enjoy playing football?

13. Put questions in a LOGICAL Order Once you have mapped out all the questions and their response sections, you should put them in a logical order with linked topics appearing one after the other. Example: You wish to find out about people’s views on various sports to see whether they differ between genders and across age groups. Ask all questions relating to personal information at the start, then ask all questions relating to sports they like to watch and then ask all questions relating to sports they take part in. Do NOT jump around between these things.

14. Instructions for the next slides… For each of the following 5 sample questions and response sections, YOU need to click on the button that indicates what is wrong with the question (including its response section). You will be told whether or not you were correct. You will then need to click on the continue button.

15. Sample Question 1 How much money do you earn per week? £………….. Ambiguous Leading question Too personal

16. Sample Question 1 How much money do you earn per week? £………….. Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Well done! The response section needs to change to something like… £0-299.99 £300-£399.99 £400-£499.99 £500-£599.99 £600 or more

17. Sample Question 1 How much money do you earn per week? £………….. Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Not quite! At the moment it is too personal. The response section needs to change to something like… £0-299.99 £300-£399.99 £400-£499.99 £500-£599.99 £600 or more

18. Sample Question 2 What is your favourite colour? [Tick the option that applies] RedBlueYellow PurpleGreenBlack WhiteOrangeBrownOther Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options

19. Sample Question 2 What is your favourite colour? [Tick the option that applies] RedBlueYellow PurpleGreenBlack WhiteOrangeBrownOther Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options Click here to continue  Well done! The response section needs to change to something like… RedGreen BluePurple YellowOther (i.e. max of 6 options!)

20. Sample Question 2 What is your favourite colour? [Tick the option that applies] RedBlueYellow PurpleGreenBlack WhiteOrangeBrownOther Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options Click here to continue  Oops! There aren’t any gaps (as ‘Other’ appears) or overlaps, but there are too many options at the moment. Max of 6!!! E.g. RedGreen BluePurple YellowOther

21. Sample Question 3 How tall are you? [Tick the option that applies.] up to 1.2m1.2-1.4m 1.4-1.6m1.6m or more Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options

22. Sample Question 3 How tall are you? [Tick the option that applies.] up to 1.2m1.2-1.4m 1.4-1.6m1.6m or more Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options Click here to continue  Well done! If you are 1.4m or 1.6m tall which box do you tick? There should only be one so the options need to change to something like: 0 ≤ H < 1.20m 1.20 ≤ H < 1.40m 1.40 ≤ H < 1.60m 1.60m or more

23. Sample Question 3 How tall are you? [Tick the option that applies.] up to 1.2m1.2-1.4m 1.4-1.6m1.6m or more Gaps in options Overlaps in options Too many options Click here to continue  Oops! If you are exactly 1.4m or 1.6m tall which box do you tick? At the moment there are overlaps so the options could change to: Up to and inc. 1.20m 1.21-1.40m 1.41-1.60m 1.61m or more

24. Sample Question 4 Do you go to the cinema often?YESNO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal

25. Sample Question 4 Do you go to the cinema often?YESNO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Well done! ‘Often’ can mean different things to different people! Be more specific. Q & R should change to: How many times each month do you go to the cinema? 0 times 1 or 2 times 3 or 4 times 5 or more times

26. Sample Question 4 Do you go to the cinema often?YESNO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Oops! ‘Often’ can mean different things to different people so this question is ambiguous at the moment! The Q & R should change to: How many times each month do you go to the cinema? 0 times 1 or 2 times 3 or 4 times 5 or more times

27. Sample Question 5 You don’t smoke do you? YES NO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal

28. Sample Question 5 You don’t smoke do you? YES NO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Well done! The question is pushing for an answer of no even if it should be yes. It should be re-phrased as: Do you smoke? Yes No (NB. Even if someone only smoked occasionally they should still answer ‘yes’ but as the question is in the present tense, if they used to smoke but don’t now, they should answer ‘no’, so yes/no covers all possible responses.)

29. Sample Question 5 You don’t smoke do you? YES NO Ambiguous Leading question Too personal Click here to continue  Oops! The question is leading the person to say no even if it should be yes. The question should be re-phrased as: Do you smoke? Yes No (NB. Even if someone only smoked occasionally they should still answer ‘yes’ but as the question is in the present tense, if they used to smoke but don’t now, they should answer ‘no’, so yes/no covers all possible responses.)

30. Pilot Study Before you pay for 100s of copies of your questionnaire to be printed and before you carry out your survey, you should undertake a ‘pilot study’. This is trying out your questionnaire on a few people to check that they understand the questions and that the information you are getting from them, is the information you need. Once you have feedback from this pilot survey, you can tweak your original questionnaire in order to get the final version which will be used by lots of people.

31. What next? Print out and read through the notes called Data3. Work through the MyMaths lesson called Questionnaires which gives further information on how to get sensitive information from people using ‘random response’ and can be found at: http://app.mymaths.co.uk/345-resource/questionnaires Work through worksheets: HypBias-S1.xlsx and HypAns-S1.xlsx Learn about class boundaries by working through pages 1 to 5 of the MyMaths lesson called Grouping Data which can be found at: http://app.mymaths.co.uk/357-resource/grouping-data Check whether your teacher wishes you to prepare a questionnaire. If not, answer the questions on the Data sheet. Now move on to the Data-4 powerpoint