Script:
Tutor: So what results did you get?
Jake: Well, basically the responses were extremely positive. The students said that doing the
crossword on a computer helped them really focus on the work in hand and not be
distracted, which is something that commonly happens with other ways of doing of
revision.
Leela: Yeah ... that was really clear. But something that struck me was that ‘having fun’ hardly
featured in their responses ... nor did anything to do with spelling of hard words ... which I thought would be an obvious benefit.
Tutor: No? OK ...
Leela: Respondents also said that doing the crossword hadn’t really increased their general
motivation to study but that it had highlighted the gaps in their memory so they knew what further work was necessary.
Tutor: Right ... So how did your findings tally with those of the original researchers?
Jake: There were lots of similarities but .
Leela: .there were probably two main differences. We found that more males than females
liked the technique, whereas the original study found the reverse.
Jake: Also our respondents said they wouldn’t mind doing a crossword as a final official exam ...
whereas in the original study students said they would hate doing it even if it meant having a shorter test.
Leela: But of course both sets of respondents said they’d be interested in doing more
crosswords for informal purposes, revision and so forth.
Tutor: Right, so let’s have a think about the whole project and what you’ve learned from doing it.
Leela: Well ... it was very time consuming!
Jake: Yeah! And I don’t think we managed that aspect very well.
Leela: It could have been worse ... I mean we didn’t have a lot of data so we didn’t have to spend
ages processing it. And of course, we’d already done a course on numerical data processing so there wasn’t much new there.
Jake: Yeah, that’s true. Anyway, I think we designed our questions well so that they gave us
manageable data.
Leela: Yeah, it really helped having the original study to guide us, as it were ... and that helped
us see what a good research instrument is ...
Jake: what a good questionnaire should be like.
Leela: Absolutely - we got a lot from that. But when we were writing up the project, I’m not sure
whether we’ll know how to acknowledge the work of the original study ... you know, our referencing.
Jake: No ... that’s something we’ll both have to work on in the future.
Leela: Actually that part’s been great ... finding ways to share and support another person.
Jake: That’s the real plus from the project ... learning ways to do that.
Tutor: Well, it’s obviously been very successful ...
Choose TWO answer choices.