Collecting data
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering, measuring and analysing information for different reasons. In this mission 1, you will conduct a survey to students at your school to identify the main aspects which could be improved at school.
You will mainly work on your reading, listening and writing skills.
At the end of this mission, you will have:
- revised and learnt new words about school system and education;
- read a webpage about how to improve schools;
- watched a video about how to write survey questions;
- conducted your survey.
LET’S TALK! Discuss with your classmates.
- Have you participated in surveys before?
- How often do you receive invitations to participate in surveys?
- What platforms or methods do you prefer for completing surveys (e.g., online, paper-based, mobile apps)?
- Have you ever skipped or abandoned a survey? If yes, what were the reasons?
- Do you believe that participating in surveys can make a difference? Why or why not?
Reading for inspiration
The purpose of a survey is to get answers to important questions and your aim is to ask students at your school to improve it. To get ideas about what you could change in your school, you are going to read an article from the webpage wikihow and complete the document "Skimming and Scanning" for getting ideas about how to optimize your school (Download editable file / Download pdf file).
Scanning is useful when you look for a specific fact or piece of information without reading everything whereas skimming refers to looking only for the main ideas and works best with non-fiction material.
Individually, scan the article to find out the names of the four methods proposed for turning your school into a place everyone can feel good about. Then, skim the article to get the main ideas from each method. When you finish, share your findings with your classmates and discuss which methods/ideas you would propose to the head teacher of your school and why.
If you still need more help at understanding the difference between scan and skim, you can watch the video skimming and scanning.
These tips will help you understand.
When reading...
- Have a look at the title and the picture/s
- Skim (read quickly) the text to get the gist (general idea)
- Read and scan (read carefully) the text to look for specific information
- Pay attention to and underline key words
- Use context clues to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words
Let's create your survey!
It is the moment for you to create your survey.
If you carry out a survey, you try to find out detailed information about a lot of different people, usually by asking them a series of questions. With that aim, you will watch a video about how to write good questions for an effective survey.
In order to create a successful survey, click on the video and choose the correct answer.
To create your survey, you need to expand and revise vocabulary about school system and education at ieltsliz.com and also at learnenglish.com. The "Rubric to assess a survey" will help you do a great job (Download editable file / Download pdf file). Follow this guide to help you in the process:
Identify the objectives
- You must determine the goals and objectives of your survey. Are you looking to gather information about facilities, technology and innovation, students´motivation, out of school activities, teaching methodologies, students services, students´counselling , general environment...?
Define target audience
- This could include students, teachers, administrators, parents or a combination of all of them?
Select tool
- Options include online platforms like Google forms, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or even paper-based surveys.
Design questions
- Develop clear, concise and short questions that align with your objectives. Consider using open and short questions, as you have learnt from the previous video.
- You should consider demographic questions to understand the characteristics of the respondents, such as grade level and role in the school.
Pilot test
- Before launching the survey, conduct your survey to a small group of participants to identify any issues with the design, questions and responses.
Revise
- Finalize survey.
- Make any necessary revisions based on feedback from the pilot test.
- Establish a deadline for completing the survey to create a sense of urgency and ensure timely responses.
Disseminate
- Determine distribution method: decide how you will distribute the survey to the audience: email, school website, social media or paper copies.
Learning diary
It's time to continue with the portfolio you started in the previous mission. Remember it helps you reflect on what you are learning and, most important, what the best way for learning is.
You will create a new section entitled "Conducting a survey”. You will update it with your work and reflect on your learning using the following questions:
- What did I do?
- When did I do it?
- How did I work, individually, in pairs or in groups?
- How did I feel working in that way?
- How well/badly did it go?
- What did I learn with this task?
- How will I use it in the future?
- What do I have to improve?
- What strategies will I use in the future to improve it?
Remember to update the glossary and grammar section with the new words and grammar structures you have learnt.
The "Rubric to assess a (digital) portfolio" (note) will help you design your learning diary (Download editable file/Download pdf file).
Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.
If you are working on a printed portfolio, the aspect "USE OF DIGITAL TOOL" does not apply.
It is very important for you to reflect and think about the evolution of your project:
- What you are really learning during the project.
- What the difficult aspects are.
- Value how you are working as a group and try to solve the problems you have had until now.
- Please try and clarify everything you did not understand.