Research Methods in the Social Sciences

Professor Valentina Zuin

In this project, students collaborated with Habitat for Humanity to design a survey to be used by the organisation to evaluate the impact of their programme Homeworks. This program focuses on the elderly, who live alone or with little support of their families, in a number of rental flats. Some of the elderly live in very poor conditions, and this project helps them in upgrading their flat, getting rid of pest infestation, and organising their belongings so that the space is more liveable and clean. Before designing a survey, and piloting it, students engaged with elderly on a number of occasions, volunteering to clean their house and interviewing them about the program and their living conditions. The project outcome was to deliver, in English and Mandarin, the survey instrument and instructions on the meaning of each question.