A group of eleven Year 13 students  undertook  research into whether or not the United Kingdom should become part of the Single European Currency.  Following some formal teaching on :

the students undertook a very basic investigation where they sampled 1000 opinions on whether or not the United Kingdom should be part of the Single European Currency.  The results were 20% for Euro membership and 80% against.  Whilst it is difficult to say that the sample was representative, it did provide the students with an indication of public opinion.

Research Investigation

Following this initial survey students were then asked to undertake their own investigation into UK entry into European Monetary Union.  As a part of their A Level assessment students are required to undertake at least six pieces of investigative work (Euro Survey 1, Euro Survey 2, Euro Survey 3).  Therefore, this research was going to count towards their final A Level grade.

The students were able to set their own titles and hypotheses.  Examples of titles were as follows:

The students then devised their own research methodology.  Most conducted another survey.  All collected newspaper articles.  Some found relevant web sites.  More enterprising students contacted a variety of companies to consider the corporate stance (Interviews with businesses).

Conclusions

I was disappointed by the general academic rigour employed by the students.  However, they are not the most able group.  They found it very difficult to remain objective.  Despite most students discovering that UK business is, on the whole, persuaded that there will be commercial benefits, the students found it very hard to use this information in weighing up their results.  It does need to be stated that whilst  the students were undertaking this research there was much negative opinion about the Euro in the popular media.  Also as pound sterling appreciated against both the dollar and the euro it was difficult for the students to remain objective.