Chapter 8: Surveys

Test your understanding of each chapter by taking the quiz below. Click anywhere on the question to reveal the answer. Good luck!

1. Choose the most appropriate statement:

  1. A survey generally lies within the interpretivist paradigm
  2. Surveys work best with small groups of participants
  3. Surveys generally use quantitative methodology
  4. All students should choose to conduct a survey because it is very easy to design

Ans: C

2.  Choose the most appropriate statement

  1. Any research study which uses a questionnaire is a survey
  2. For the results of a survey to be generalizable you have to choose participants who are representative of the population being studied
  3. Surveys are often used to obtain in depth information about participant’s attitudes and beliefs
  4. One should never use a sampling plan when designing a survey

Ans: B

3. There are five objectives for educational research: exploration, description, explanation, prediction and influence. Surveys can be used to obtain information for:

  1. Exploration and description
  2. Exploration, explanation and influence
  3. Exploration, prediction and influence
  4. All of these

Ans: D

4. Choose the most appropriate statement. In the first stage in designing a survey you should

  1. Identify the population of the survey
  2. Design the questionnaire
  3. Identify the objectives of the survey
  4. Pilot the questionnaire

The correct answer is C. While descriptive statistics summarise relevant aspects of the sample data, inferential statistics are aimed at generalising these findings to the whole population.

5. Choose the most appropriate statement. Longitudinal prospective cohort studies

  1. Are cheap and easy to design and run
  2. Are only used to find out about children’s health
  3. Can be used to find out what influences children’s health and development
  4. Are unreliable and of no use to policy makers

Ans: C