Hard6 marksExtended Response
Active CitizenshipActive CitizenshipCitizenship InvestigationResearch Methods

AQA GCSE · Question 02.3 · Active Citizenship

Summarise the evidence you gathered at the research stage. Evaluate its usefulness in relation to your issue/question.

How to approach this question

Structure your answer into two parts. First, summarise the evidence you collected. Mention both primary (e.g., surveys, interviews) and secondary (e.g., websites, reports) research. Second, evaluate this evidence. For each piece of evidence, explain how useful it was for your investigation. Use evaluative language like 'This was very useful because...' or 'This was less useful because...'. Consider factors like reliability, bias, and relevance.

Full Answer

This question tests your understanding of research methods and evaluation. A strong answer will not just list the research conducted but will critically assess its value. For example, a survey of local people (primary data) is often very useful for a local campaign because it's highly relevant and up-to-date. A newspaper article (secondary data) might be useful for background information but could be biased or out of date. The evaluation should focus on how the evidence helped you to understand the issue or persuade others. You need to explain the strengths and weaknesses of your sources in the context of your specific investigation.

Common mistakes

Describing the research without evaluating it. The command word is 'Evaluate', so you must make judgements about the usefulness, strengths, and weaknesses of the evidence you gathered.

Practice the full AQA GCSE Citizenship Studies Paper 1

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