Quantitative Evaluation: Questionnaire


Methodology

At the beginning and end of the project the class were given a simple questionnaire (see below for an example). It was explained to the children that they were not to put their names on the questionnaires and that as a consequence they should feel free to be completely honest. The class was taken through each question together. The results below show how the class responded in percentage terms to each question.


Questionnaire: 12/4/02

Strongly
agree		 Agree     Not sure Disagree Strongly
disagree
1) I understand what it means to live in a way that does not damage the environment
14
37
41
4
4
2) We need to care for
the local environment
63
22
4
11
0
3) We need to care for
the global environment
50
27
11
8
4
4) I understand what it means to live in a way that does not damage the environment
4
8
54
34
0
5) I know of actrions that I could do that would help and protect the environment
27
34
27
8
4
6) I am doing things now that help and protect the environment
15
23
23
31
8



Questionnaire: 23/10/02

 Strongly
agree		 Agree     Not sure Disagree Strongly
disagree
1) I understand what it means to live in a way that does not damage the environment
13
52
35
0
0
2) We need to care for
the local environment
52
48
0
0
0
3) We need to care for
the global environment
48
23
20
6
3
4) I understand what it means to live in a way that does not damage the environment
7
3
77
13
0
5) I know of actrions that I could do that would help and protect the environment
29
29
10
16
16
6) I am doing things now that help and protect the environment
19
19
30
16
16



Discussion

The results attached show how the class responded to each question in percentage terms. Each statement will be looked at in turn:

1) "I understand what it means to live in a way that does not damage the environment"
‘Agreement’ rose by 15% and ‘not sure’ dropped by 6%. This shows a clear positive shift.

2) "We need to care for the local environment"
Strong agreement dropped by 11% but agreement significantly rose by 26%. This positive shift was underscored by none of the last three options (n. sure/disagree/s. disagree) being chosen.

3) "We need to care for the global environment"
In terms of showing a shift these results are more ambivalent. Strongly agree and agree dropped by a few percent whilst not sure rose by 9% and disagree and strongly disagree also dropped by a few percent.

4) "I understand what ‘renewable energy’ is and why it is important"
Whilst there was a rise in ‘not sure’ and a drop in disagree, this does not show a general increase in understanding.

5) "I know of actions that I could do that would help and protect the environment"
This showed a shift towards less understanding and awareness. Less children were ‘not sure’ whilst disagreement and strongly disagreement rose by 8 and 12% respectively.

6) "I am doing things now that help and protect the environment" There was a general positive shift for this question. Strongly agree and agree varied very little (changes of 4%) whilst more children were not sure which led to a reduction in disagree and strongly disagree.


Limitations
  • children may have been influenced by each others responses
  • children may have been aware of the ‘evaluation process’ and wanting to ‘improve’ on the previous questionnaire

Conclusion

Overall it can be argued that children’s responses show a positive shift in children’s understanding and attitudes. This can be seen when taking a broad over-view as well as when interpreting analysis of the individual questions. For each question (except 5), for example, there was a shift in the percentage of children choosing the first three options (s. agree/agree/not sure) from the last two options (disagree/s. disagree).

Clearly, however, an area that would need to change if the project continued, is how children have been presented with, or encouraged to discover, actions they could do to help and protect the environment.

These results, because of limitations highlighted, need to be taken into account with qualitative results to begin to form an overall picture of children’s changing behaviour and attitudes.