Teaching Sequence

15 minutes – Part A: Survey Design and Communication
20 minutes – Part B: Design and Develop a Public Survey
15 minutes – Part C: Conducting a Survey
10 minutes – Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Survey Design and Communication

Step 1.

Introduce the lesson by informing students that they will be examining the features of surveys and questionnaires as tools to collect data in order to better understand a local community issue. Remind them of some of the local community issues that may have been raised and discussed in previous lesson, Examining Local Media to Identify Community Issues from the Aspire Generation 9 & 10 English unit and encourage them to stick to one of the topics/issues they have previously examined for the survey design.

Facilitate a brief class brainstorm, asking students to share their understanding or experiences with public surveys or questionnaires. Frame the brainstorm using the 5 Ws, and list students’ responses on the whiteboard. The following prompts might be useful:

Who conducts surveys? Who can be surveyed? Who might want a survey conducted?
What types of surveys are there? What information might people want to know? What types of questions are included?
Where can surveys take place? Where shouldn’t surveys take place?
When do people get surveyed? When shouldn’t people try survey someone?
Why do people use surveys? Why might people not want to be survey?

Step 2.

Invite students to open the Survey Design and Questioning Strategies Factsheet from their Student Worksheet (or distribute this among the class). Read through the information with students, informing them that they will have this material to prompt them while they are designing and writing their survey in the next part of the lesson.

Part B: Design and Develop a Public Survey

Step 1.

Remind students that a key part of designing a survey is to think through the kind of information they are trying to find about an issue and then target their survey questions to find that information. They should also revisit the information they have generated about the issue from previous lessons. Invite students to use these prompts to help them start thinking about the local community issue and survey design. These are included on the Student Worksheet.

What do I want to find out from the local community about the issue?
What will be the best format to uncover information from this source (the community)? How long will it take?
What questions can I ask to help me get this information?

Step 2.

Give students time to now design and develop their survey. They should develop their own unique survey, though should collaborate or provide peer assistance where appropriate while designing the survey. Encourage students to think about the format their survey will take, especially if using an online application such as www.surveymonkey.com (help guides available on this site).

Remind them to draft and edit their work carefully, paying very close attention to spelling and punctuation. When they have finished their survey, ask students to form pairs and proofread each other’s survey to check for:

Clarity of questions - can they understand them? What is actually being asked?
If multiple choice or scale-type answer options are available, do they make sense?
Grammatical expression and accuracy of punctuation and spelling
Any other tips or suggestions that might help improve the survey or the type of information collected

Part C: Conducting a Survey

Step 1.

Inform students that they will now practise their surveys with each other in order to develop their interpersonal skills for when they conduct their survey with members of the local community. Invite students to form groups of four. Depending on individual survey designs, students might need to print materials or have access to computers and internet to complete the survey.

Remind students that even if their survey is completed on paper by the respondent, they will still need to engage in some face-to-face communication to establish rapport with their respondents and explain the nature of the survey. Point out to students that in these interactions, they need to consider:

Body Language and Non-Verbals: stance, posture, eye-contact, proximity, movement
Verbal Skills: tone, pace, modulation, articulation, pausing, emphasis

Role-play a few different scenarios, inviting volunteers to act out situations where body language and verbal skills would be:

Too intimidating or demanding
Not clear or concise enough
Lacking credibility or confidence
Balanced, confident and supportive

Step 2.

Give students time to practice their surveys and these interactions with each other. While practising, students should note what seems to be working well, could be improved or is not successful in their survey and interpersonal interactions. They will make some reflective points about this in the Reflection stage of the lesson.

Step 3.

After students have practised their surveys, inform them that in order to obtain relevant data about the local community issue, they will need to conduct this survey with members of the local community. They will need to think carefully about:

Location (such as a local shopping centre or main street), relevant permission AND parental supervision/safety considerations
Having the required materials to complete the survey/questionnaire (paper, pens, clipboards, etc.)
Setting a time limit on how long they will survey for, and how many responses they will need to collect
Refining their survey based on the practise they have done in class
Their interpersonal skills, appearance and engagement with members of the community
Remind students that after conducting the survey and collecting the data, they will need to spend some time collating and analysing responses. Inform them that while they should familiarise themselves with this data after doing the survey, there will be a later lesson dedicated to synthesising this material.

Reflection

Invite students to complete the SWOT analysis in their Student Worksheet, focusing on the nature of surveys as a communication and data collection tool. Explain that this will require them to consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with respect to their interview and information it could produce.

Point out to students that a SWOT analysis allows them to evaluate an approach from a variety of angles in order to make a critical assessment of its value.

Facilitate a brief discussion with students, inviting them to share and discuss some of their reflections from their SWOT analysis.

Aspire Generation - Surveying Local People to Identify Community Issues

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