Tag: research methods
-
Personal Documents in social research
Personal documents are those which are intended only to be viewed by oneself or intimate relations, namely friends or family. They generally (but not always) not intended to be seen by a wider public audience. For the purposes of A-level sociology, the two main types of personal document are diaries and personal letters. Today, I’m…
-
Sociological Experiments
This post aims to provide some examples to some of the more unusual and interesting experiments that students can explore and evaluate. I’ve already done a post on ‘seven field experiments‘, that outline seven of the most interesting classic and contemporary experiments which are relevant to various topics within the A-level sociology syllabus, in this…
-
Education and research methods Revision Work Packs and Power Points for Sale
I’ve just released some extensive revision workbooks and Power Points for sale as part of my sociology teaching resources subscription package, available for only £9.99 a month! This teaching resource bundle contains work books and Power Points covering the entire content of education and research methods of the AQA’s A-level sociology specification. The resources should…
-
The limitations of School Exclusion Statistics
The Department for Education publishes an annual report on exclusions, the latest edition published in August 2018 being ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England: 2016 to 2017. The 2018 report shows that the overall rate of permanent exclusions was 0.1 per cent of pupil enrolments in 2016/17. The number of exclusions was 7,720. The report…
-
Methods in Context Questions: A Full Mark Answer from the AQA
An example of a full mark answer to a methods in context question from the AQA.
-
How to Answer Methods in Context Questions: A Model Answer from the AQA
‘Methods in Context’ questions appear on A Level Sociology Paper 1 (Education with Theory and Methods) and AS Sociology Paper 1 (Education with Methods in Context). Methods in Context questions will ask students to evaluate the strengths and limitations of any of the six main research methods for researching a particular topic within the sociology…
-
Research Methods Practice Questions for A-level sociology
AQA A-level sociology Papers 1 and 3 will both contain an ‘outline and explain’ 10 mark (no item) question on sociological theories, and/ or methods. One possible format for this question is what I like to think of as the ‘pure research methods’ format (‘classic’ might be a better word than ‘pure’) in which students are…
-
Outline and explain two practical problems of using documents in social research (10)
There are a lot of documents available and it can be time consuming to analyse them qualitatively Taking news for example, there are thousands of news items published every day. You also need to distinguish between ‘real and ‘fake news’. Also, in the postmodern age where fewer people get their news from mainstream news it…
-
Outline and explain two practical advantages of using official statistics
Official Statistics are a quick and cheap means of accessing data relevant to an entire population in a country. They are cheap for researchers to use because they are collected by governments, who often make them available online for free—for example, the UK Census. Marxists might point out that the fact they are free enables…
-
Outline and explain two practical problems which may affect social research (10)
One practical problem may be gaining access Analysis/ development – Deviant and criminal groups may be unwilling to allow researchers to gain access because they may fear prosecution if the authorities find out about them. Analysis/ development – some groups may be unwilling to take part in research because of social stigma. Analysis/ development –…
