Children’s Attitudes to filling in questionnaires
Rupert Tombs aged 11
Research project
I am interested in how sensibly people from years 5 and 6 fill in forms and
questionnaires. I suspect that children do not take most questionnaires seriously,
because lots of children in my class find unused questionnaires and fill them in a silly
manner. I personally fill them in sensibly, because I feel that I am ruining other
people’s results.
I wanted to find out about this subject, because I do not think that other children that I
know feel the same way as I do, on this particular subject. I think that if children filled
in questionnaires more sensibly, then lots of researchers would be using their time
more valuably.
Margaret Donaldson (1978) tells us two things:
1. When adults ask children questions, if the adult makes the question too
complicated, or tries to trick the child, the child will try to work out what the adult
really means and will give the answer that he/she thinks the adult wants rather than
the answer the child thinks is right.
2. If children are sure of their facts and are talking about things that they are very
familiar with then they can't be tricked by an adult into giving wrong answers, saying
things that they don't believe to be true, or giving an answer that they think will be
acceptable to an adult even though it is not what they really think.
Jaqueline Scott (2000) shows that children and young people will tend to answer 'Yes'
to questions in a questionnaire that ask for a Yes or No answer. Children and young
people (and adults) do this when they don't really understand the question (maybe it is
written in difficult language), or when they aren't interested in the question and can't
be bothered to think about it.
Methodology
I decided to use my peer group, because near the beginning of the year, they were
given a questionnaire on preferred learning styles (referred to as “T’s Test). This test
is included in the appendix. I decided I wanted to know, how sensibly children
actually filled in the form, especially since it was set as homework and was probably
un-supervised. Once the questionnaires had been filled in, a class teacher gave me the
results. I then selected 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls randomly, to get a balanced view.
I decided to use a semi-structured interview, to collect my data.
For my questions, I tried to make sure it was ethical, by not asking personal questions,
and not implying that there were right or wrong responses. I tested their honesty of
their response to the questionnaire by repeating some of the same questions, to see if
they gave the same answers. I wondered if they would take the interview situation
more seriously, than just filling in a form. Also I tried not to try not to lead people to
give me the answers that I want.
During the interview I used a diamond test, where my interviewee put cards on a
diamond shaped gird, to show how strongly they felt about what it said on the card.
Findings
For my interviews, I had to only use 5 people, instead of 6, because one person was
away over a long period.
In addition to asking the children to complete a diamond ranking test, I also
interviewed them. This is how the interview was conducted:
If you go into a museum, say, and you pick up a form about them do you fill it in
stupidly to annoy them, and then give it to them?
Do you prefer to play indoors or out?
Do you ever have times when you would like to just sit down and listen to music,
rather than being active?
Do you think of yourself as a good writer?
What is your favourite game?
If you are reading a book, do you like to imagine things in your head?
Do ever ask yourself, why things happen?
To learn, do you prefer to do things, rather than just sit and listen?
Diamond test
What do you do if you don’t know how to answer a question, in a questionnaire?
Do you answer questions from adults, differently than from children?
When filling in forms, how sensibly do you do them?
The main point that came out of my interview was how important it is for children to
work with their friends.
To compare the results of T’s test and my diamond ranking exercise, I needed to give
each category a rank. The most preferred way of working according to T’s test was
labelled 1 and the least favourite 8 with equal results being suitably averaged. In the
diamond ranking test I labelled the top choice 1, each of the two categories in the
second row 2, each in the third row 3 and so on. The scores for reading and writing
were then averaged and the 8 scores ranked as in those for T’s test.
I now had 2 columns (x and y in the spreadsheet below) which I could compare. I
decided that any difference between two ranks for the same category in the two tests
would be significant if it was 2 or more.
The following spreadsheets show how each of the five children’s results compare.
P (male) Y6
Categories
T's
score
◊
score
x = T's
rank
◊ score
(adjusted)
y=◊
rank
bodily/kinaesthetic
visual / spatial
naturalistic
verbal / linguistic
11
6
7
8
2
8
7
4.5
2
5
4
2
5
4
3
2.5
8
6.5
4.5
musical / rhythmic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
mathematical
13
8
8
8
1
4.5
4.5
4.5
36
3
1
4
2
3
1
4
2
4.5
1
6.5
2.5
36
reading
writing
x-y
0.5
0
0.5
0
3.5
3.5
-2
2
0
(x-y)²
0.25
0
0.25
0
12.25
12.25
4
4
33
sqrt 33 =
5.74
5.74/8 = 0.72
3
3
M (male) Y6
Categories
bodily/kinaesthetic
visual / spatial
naturalistic
verbal / linguistic
musical / rhythmic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
mathematical
T's
score
14
9
9
9
9
12
14
9
x = T's
rank
1.5
6
6
6
6
3
1.5
6
reading
writing
◊
score
2
5
3
◊ score
(adjusted)
y=◊
rank
2.5
5
3
3.5
2.5
1
3
4
2
1
3
4
2.5
8
4.5
6
2.5
1
4.5
7
x-y
-1
-2
1.5
0
3.5
2
-3
-1
0
(x-y)²
1
4
2.25
0
12.25
4
9
1
33.5
sqrt 33.5=
5.79
5.79/8 = 0.73
3
4
N (Female) Y5
Categories
bodily/kinaethetic
visual / spatial
T's
score
14
16
x = T's
rank
7.5
2.5
◊
score
2
3
◊ score
(adjusted)
y=◊
rank
2
3
2
4.5
8
3
4.5
1
naturalistic
verbal / linguistic
musical / rhythmic
interpersonal
16
15
14
17
2.5
5
7.5
1
5
3
1
5
2.5
3
1
intrapersonal
15
5
4
4
6.5
mathematical
15
5
36
4
4
6.5
36
reading
writing
2
3
x-y
5.5
-2
5.5
2
3
0
1.5
1.5
0
(x-y)²
30.25
4
30.25
4
9
0
2.25
2.25
82
sqrt 82= 9.05
9.05/8 = 1.1
W (Male) Y5
Categories
bodily/kinaesthetic
visual / spatial
naturalistic
verbal / linguistic
musical / rhythmic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
mathematical
T's
score
13
11
12
16
18
18
13
x = T's
rank
5.5
8
7
4
1.5
1.5
5.5
17
3
36
reading
writing
◊
score
2
5
4
◊ score
(adjusted)
y=◊
rank
2
1
3
2
5
4
3.5
2
1
3
2.5
8
7
6
2.5
1
4.5
3
3
4.5
36
x-y
3
0
0
-2
-1
0.5
1
1.5
0
(x-y)²
9
0
0
4
1
0.25
1
2.25
17.5
sqrt17.5=
4.18
4.18/8= 0.52
4
3
S (Female) Y6
T's
score
18
visual / spatial
naturalistic
verbal / linguistic
musical / rhythmic
interpersonal
18
16
13
14
16
1.5
3.5
7
5.5
3.5
2
4
intrapersonal
mathematical
14
12
5.5
8
36
reading
writing
x = T's
rank
◊
score
3
Categories
bodily/kinaesthetic
1.5
◊ score
(adjusted)
y=◊
rank
3
4.5
4
1
2
4
2.5
4
1
2
6.5
3
6.5
1
5
3
5
3
8
4.5
36
x-y
-3
0.5
-3
4
-1
2.5
2.5
3.5
0
(x-y)²
9
0.25
9
16
1
6.25
6.25
12.25
60
2
3
I decided to graph the rankings in each category for the five children.
The following graphs show the results.
The pale blue column refers to the rank in T’s test and the dark blue to the diamond
ranking.
In each graph the vertical axis shows the ranking (1 most favoured, 8 least favoured)
sqrt60 = 7.75
7.75/8 = 0.52
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
W
S
Bodily /Kinaesthetic
_____________________________________________________________
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
W
S
Visual/Spatial
___________________________________________________________________
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
W
S
Naturalistic
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
Verbal/Linguistic
W
S
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
W
S
Musical/Rhythmic
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
X
Y
0.5
0
P
M
N
Interpersonal
W
S
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
W
S
Intrapersonal
8
7
6
5
X
Y
4
3
2
1
0
P
M
N
Mathematical
W
S
Discussion
When looking at the overall results, I found that there was no statistically significant
difference, between the two tests. However for individuals there were some
considerable differences. My supervisor and I decided that a rank difference of 2 or
more was sufficiently high to investigate. The rank differences for individuals was
especially obvious in the “Interpersonal” category, in the diamond ranking all five
children put it as top.
When I asked N if she would mind being interviewed, she didn’t couldn’t decide
initially whether she would mind, but agreed after a couple of other people had
already been interviewed. During the interview, she took a long time to decide what to
say, and after looking at the results her answers differed most, from the questionnaire
and the diamond ranking. The person who seemed most truthful during the interview
was P. Some of his answers differed largely, and he also admitted to filling in some
questionnaires stupidly. Two of the three boys admitted to filling in questionnaires in
a silly way.
Conclusion
From this small study it seems that when asked by an adult to reflect upon
intelligences children are less inclined to admit that working with friends is most
important to them. From this very limited data I think that teachers should provide as
many opportunities as possible for children to work co-operatively.
If I continued this work, I would analyze more questionnaires and interview quite a
lot more people.
To extend my research, I would look into the possibility that boys are more likely to
answer questionnaires stupidly than girls
References
Donaldson, M. (1978) Children's Minds. Glasgow: Fontana/Colins Publishers
Scott, J. (2000) 'Children as respondents: the challenge for quantitative methods', in P.
Christensen and A. James (Editors), Research with children: Perspectives and
practices, London, Falmer Press.
Appendix
Questionnaire administered by teacher (T’s test)
Why are You Special
Everyone is intelligent in his/her own special way. You are able to find out your
strongest intelligence by completing the survey below and reading the table at the end
of the survey.
Give each statement a score of either1, 2 or 3 using the following guide:
1 - This is not me
2 - This is sort of me
3 - This is definitely me
Make sure that you number each box.
Part One
□ I like acting and role-playing different characters
□ I enjoy sport and physical activity
□ I enjoy expressing myself through movement
□ I learn best by touching (hands on) and moving
□ I have fast reactions
□ I enjoy different craft activities.
Part Two
□ I listen to music for enjoyment
□ I enjoy playing and trying musical instruments
□ I am able to remember the words to songs and different music easily
□ I learn best by making rhythms, melodies and music
□ I am able to keep time to music
□ I enjoy singing and humming to myself.
Part Three
□ I can make friends easily
□ I like to work with others
□ I can understand other people’s feelings
□ I learn best through sharing and cooperating with others
□ I am a good team worker
□ I like to be a leader.
Part Four
□ I can set goals and work towards them
□ I enjoy my own company
□ I like imagining things
□ I learn best when I am working alone or independently
□ I like to express my opinion about things
□ I like keeping a diary and enjoy different hobbies.
Part Five
□ I enjoy completing word puzzles
□ I enjoy reading a lot
□ I am a good writer and can write freely
□ I enjoy telling stories to others
□ I learn best by saying, hearing and seeing words
□ I am good at memorising and retelling jokes.
Part Six
□ I like solving tricky problems
□ I like working with numbers
□ I can learn mew maths skills easily
□ I like experiments and testing things
□ I enjoy games and puzzles
□ I learn best by solving problems and working with numbers.
Part Seven
□ I like drawing and art
□ I often have clear pictures of things in my head
□ I am good at reading maps and giving directions
□ I can communicate through diagrams and drawing
□ I learn best by seeing pictures and visualising
□ I like to use my imagination
Part Eight
□ I think carefully about the environment
□ I enjoy observing, comparing and categorising things
□ I enjoy nature and being outdoors
□ I like to analyse topics
□ I learn best by observing and investigating
□ I like to find out why things are the way they are.
Now add up your scores for each section and record them below:
Part One Bodily/Kinaesthetic Intelligence
Part Two
Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
Part Three Interpersonal Intelligence
Part Four Intrapersonal Intelligence
Part Five Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
Part Six
Mathematical/Logical Intelligence
Part Seven Visual/Spatial Intelligence
Part Eight Naturalist Intelligence
Now order your scores from highest to lowest in the table below:
Score
Intelligence
My strongest intelligence is …………………………………………………………..
My least preferred intelligence is…………………………………………………….