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O-Level Geographical Methods (Topic 1.3)

designing and carrying out geographical inquiry and fieldwork

What the syllabus expects

• Designing fieldwork starts by drawing a thesis or topic from websites, news articles and textbooks, then framing a narrowly scoped question with a measurable hypothesis covering one or two variables.
  Scope: How to design a piece of fieldwork
• The data-collection order may run quantitative first and then qualitative to probe patterns and trends, or qualitative first and then quantitative to confirm what was observed.
  Scope: How to design a piece of fieldwork
• Researchers adjust the aim, study area, sample size and timeframe to the resources they have, and put measures in place to avoid harming themselves, other people or nature.
  Scope: How to design a piece of fieldwork
• Sampling can use non-probability methods such as convenience and quota sampling, or probability methods such as simple random sampling and stratified random sampling.
  Scope: How to gather primary data
• Closed-ended questionnaire surveys set pre-defined answers confined to numbers, single words or short phrases, and steer responses with rating scales such as the frequency scale, ranking scale and Likert scale.
  Scope: How to gather primary data
• Mental maps let people visualise their experiences by sketching features and labels onto a study area's base map, followed by semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions about those features and labels.
  Scope: How to gather primary data
• Questionnaire responses can be read through frequency measures such as counts and percentages, and through central-tendency measures such as mean, mode and median.
  Scope: How to process and analyse the data collected
• Analysing mental maps involves judging how faithfully they mirror reality and how features and labels were drawn, and examining how memories are shown on the maps and described in the interviews.
  Scope: How to process and analyse the data collected
• Relationships and patterns are explored by plotting positive and negative correlations with scatter plots and best-fit lines, and by spotting geometric shapes, clusters and repetition.
  Scope: How to process and analyse the data collected
• Maps present spatial information using dots, lines and polygons and should include a scale, legend, orientation, title, date, author and source(s).
  Scope: How to present the findings of an inquiry
• Bar graphs and pie charts convey distributions, while line graphs show trends and the relationship between two variables.
  Scope: How to present the findings of an inquiry
• Satellite and aerial imagery display spatial information, and colour-coded quotations together with word clouds represent qualitative analyses.
  Scope: How to present the findings of an inquiry

How it's examined

About 26% of the past-paper style questions in Rae's bank for this subject sit in this topic.

More O-Level Geography topics

Thinking Geographically (Topic 1.1) · Sustainable Development (Topic 1.2) · Tourism Activity (Topic 2.1) · Tourism Development (Topic 2.2) · Sustainable Tourism Development (Topic 2.3) · Weather and Climate (Topic 3.1) · all of O-Level Geography