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All GSCE enquiries should be supported by secondary data, it is a requirement for all exam boards but often it can feel like a tick box exercise or just something else for them to remember.
The aim of this resource is to highlight the importance of good secondary data and how it can be incorporated into all sections of the route to enquiry to embed its validity and relevance to the whole process.
Introductory activity
Ask students to complete a fact file on the local high street or urban area using the data source: www.streetcheck.co.uk simply add a postcode and they can explore a wealth of information about the houses, people, culture, crime and employment.
Encourage them to think of the most useful and important information, why is this data helpful to them and their possible enquiry question.
Questions:
- How valid is this information?
- Where is the data from?
- How reliable is this information?
Street check has useful explanations embedded to show when and how the data is sourced.
Using secondary sources to underpin fieldwork
Now that you know where you want to look at, and a little about the area, you can use secondary data to decide where, what, why and how to study for an urban enquiry.
It is important to identify that there is something of interest happening, do a Google news search for the area or gather leaflets, extracts from local Facebook groups or community magazines.
http://dclgapps.communities.gov.uk/imd/iod_index.html# can be used to investigate the seven parameters of quality of life that make up deprivation.
The domiciles are viewable as a choropleth map from 2015 and 2019 all over England. These maps can be used to suggest data collection methods that might be interesting.
For example, the map below showing deprivation in environmental quality across Darlington, with darker colours showing higher deprivation ranking, might suggest that students could successfully investigate how environmental quality changes as you move along a transect into the town centre.
Whereas if they wanted to concentrate on housing or services then possible a comparison of the centre and suburbs might be more appropriate.
It is also helpful for students to see that they can use secondary data as a method of data collection as well, for factors such as crime, employment and health, where collecting primary data would be unethical or unsafe.
Lastly the students can use the secondary data sets as an evaluative tool, if their findings do not wholly reflect the secondary data sets, does this mean that they are not useful? Or reliable? Or does it reflect the small sample size we use in primary data collection, the snapshot in time which means that our ‘on the day’ recordings must be reflected upon within a bigger geography picture.
The Geographical Association (GA) has worked closely with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to develop these resources.
