Our Survey says ...

• 63% of male respondents come to school to improve reading and writing to get a better job compared to 40% of female respondents.
• 34% of female respondents want to go on to high school or college, compared to 16% of male respondents.
• 11 % of female respondents want to help their children with schoolwork, but only 5% of male respondents.
• 15-16% of both male and female respondents simply want to improve themselves.

Literacy Objective

The overall objective was that the learners would begin to read and understand the basic concept and terminology of surveys as they encounter them in the news and on the radio, as well as who uses them and why (e.g. advertisers, politicians).

Computer Objective

The objective was for the learner to use the Claris Works spreadsheet to create tables and generate bar charts and graphs to visually display data. (Any similar spreadsheet program which generates charts would work, for example Microsoft Works.)

The students in room 16 (Level 2-3 ) created a twenty- question survey and asked students from the other ABE classes to complete the survey. Sixty-six students responded. The survey project took 3 weeks to complete.

Step One - Exploring the Vocabulary of Surveys: The class discussed surveys and reviewed certain terms used in surveys such as average, percentage and ranking.

Step Two - Developing the Questions: There was a lot of discussion about what kinds of questions would be useful in gathering certain kinds of information. This led to a discussion of closed and open ended questions, and how to word a question to ensure a yes or no answer. Part One of the survey was made up of 10 questions that were answered using numbers. These numbers were used to calculate average scores. The answers to the questions in Part Two of the survey were used to calculate either percentages or rankings.

Step Three - Hypothesizing Results: Once the questions were written, there was a lot of discussion and hypothesizing of answers. For example the class hypothesized that men don't watch soap operas at all. The actual results indicated that 90% of the male respondents list a soap opera as their favourite show.

Step Four - Analysing and Interpreting Results: As the results came back the class created charts to record feedback. This helped them later to perform mathematical calculations with the data. Note: The class was not expected to become proficient at calculating averages and percentages, although some were able to. The objective was to develop a conceptual understanding of how survey results are calculated and what those results mean. The process was very much group oriented.

Step Five - Creating Charts & Tables of Results: This component required a lot of working with structured documents with two variables (2 column charts and tables) and seeing how the same information can be displayed using bar and pie charts.

Based on an interview with the instructor,
Lianne Calvert.