Methods & Data Collection (Edexcel IGCSE Geography): Revision Note

Primary & secondary data

• Data collected by the student within their fieldwork is primary data

• Examples of primary data can include:

  • questionnaire data

  • river data - width, depth etc.

  • video/audio recordings

  • photographs

  • interview information 

• Data collected by someone else but used by the student in their enquiry is secondary data

• Examples of secondary data can include:

  • census results

  • weather data 

  • old photographs

  • maps

  • newspaper articles

  • websites

Primary data strengths and limitations

Secondary data strengths and limitations

Quantitative & qualitative data

• Data which records quantities is quantitative data

• Examples of quantitative data are:

  • numerical data collected in questionnaires

  • traffic counts

  • environmental quality surveys

  • river data - velocity, discharge

  • weather data

• Data which records descriptive information is qualitative data

• Examples of qualitative data:

  • field sketches and photographs

  • non-numeric questionnaire data

  • interview answers

Questionnaires and Interviews

• When collecting data via questionnaires or interviews several questioning types can be used:

  • Closed questions where answers are limited to single words, numbers or a list of options

  • Statements which use a scale to gauge people's views. For example, strongly agree/agree 

  • Open questions where the respondent can give any answer

• Questionnaires can be used to gather a large sample of data

• Interviews are more in-depth and tend to be used to gather a smaller data sample

Environmental quality surveys

• These are used to collect data about the environmental quality of different sites

• They use the judgement of the person surveying to assess environmental quality against a range of indicators

  • Using a sliding scale (1 -5)  or bipolar scale (-3 to 3)

  • Usually the lower the score the more negative the assessment of the environmental quality

• They are subjective because they are based on the opinion of the person completing them

• This can be reduced by:

  • Completing in small groups to reach a consensus regarding the score

  • Using the mode of EQS completed by several students

• They produce quantitative data

Quantitative data strengths and limitations

Qualitative data strengths and limitations