Posted on 20 June 2018 by Sophie Pilley, Senior Researcher Looking for a career in social research? Here's my advice I was recently invited to join a panel of alumni speakers at the University of Surrey to talk about my career as a social researcher; the event was designed for us to talk about how we got into our current roles, and to offer advice to students within the Sociology department. Read the rest of this entry Tags: jobs, careers, QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, career advice
Posted on 19 June 2018 by Sophie Pilley, Senior Researcher How we tested tools designed to help homeless people with gambling addiction At the National Centre for Social Research, it’s important to us that our work has a positive impact on society – to ensure that social research can really help to improve lives. Read the rest of this entry Tags: QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub
Posted on 13 April 2018 by Catherine Fenton, Researcher Translating personal well-being questions into Sylheti and Urdu Over the past 10 years, well-being has gained increasing traction as a subject for the social sciences – but measuring this complex concept can be difficult. Read the rest of this entry Tags: translation, cognitive testing, ONS, QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, methodology
Posted on 23 December 2016 by Debbie Collins, Senior Research Director, Director of NatCen Learning Questionnaires in the 21st Century What does the future hold for the survey questionnaire? Debbie Collins shares her learnings from the second Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation and Testing conference in Miami, Florida. Read the rest of this entry Tags: QDT, quantitative, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, research design
Posted on 04 November 2016 by Matt Shapley, Intern The Butterfly Effect: How Ballot Paper Designs Could Decide Elections As seen in the 2000 US presidential election, ballot paper design can have an influence on voter behaviour. NatCen's Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub used eye-tracking to find out how voters interact with UK ballot papers. Read the rest of this entry Tags: QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, cognitive interviewing, voting
Posted on 12 December 2014 by Debbie Collins, Senior Research Director, Director of NatCen Learning D’you know what I mean? We have all, at some point, misunderstood what someone was saying, perhaps because they used slang or been confused by colloquial or technical language. Such misunderstandings are common and in our day-to-day life we develop strategies to avoid or deal with them. Read the rest of this entry Tags: QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, cognitive interviewing, gambling, interviewer's perspective, research
Posted on 07 July 2011 Social care reform will rely on good quality data On Monday the Dilnot Commission published its much anticipated report on the future of social care funding in the UK. Here Margaret Blake suggests that findings from our Health Survey for England and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing social care module of questions will give us an invaluable insight into the current state of our social care system. This data could inform implementation of the Commission’s recommendations and in the long term provide a baseline against which the impacts of the reforms are measured. Read the rest of this entry Tags: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Health Survey for England, QDT, Questionnaire Development and Testing Hub, social care