Teaching Research Methods - Sampling techniques
Sampling Sweets! Relevant for GCSE and A-Level When I started teaching, I always thought sampling techniques would be one of the easier parts of Research Methods to teach. Yet students really seem to struggle with them, especially stratified sampling. I've found that they find it really difficult to imagine how you can create a sample that proportionally represents the target population (and what 'proportionally represents' means!). They also struggle with a true definition of 'random' sampling rather than their definitions of random from everyday life. So to help with this, I use a practical strategy that they love - sweet sampling! A few things to note before we get into the strategy: 1. This is a GCSE lesson for the new Edexcel GCSE (teaching from September 2017) Specification so systematic sampling is not included (I'll go through how I do it for A-Level though). 2. My school uses a bronze, silver, gold medal system for differentiation. This