what do you know about the e.u...final report v.1

8/12/2019 What Do You Know About the e.u...FINAL REPORT v.1

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What do you know about European countries analysis

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FINAL REPORT

The questionnaire was presented and answered in the meeting in Romania (Botosani) by a

group of students, representative of the countries that are part of the Comenius Project A

Matter of Choices. The countries are: Romania, Austria, Poland, Scotland (U.K), Belgium,

Denmark and Portugal. Portugal had the task of creating the questionnaire and its

analysis.

The valid questionnaires were 36. They were corrected by the Portuguese teachers and

the statistics software for data insert was SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Summary: very positive results regarding the students European knowledge. Most

questions have 100% correct answers. The students show good general and basicinformation on the European countries, at least the countries that are part of the current

project. We remind that most students had knowledge of this activity and they might have

prepared on basic information, such as the countries capital city, language or flag.

After, during the analysis, we decided to simplify the questions which asked for three

correct options (multiple choice) because we considered it of high difficulty level, so, we

considered correct with only one option, which helped improve the final results.

Misspelled words were considered correct as well as those written in the students native

languages.

The questionnaire had 45 questions, being 5 for each country. The countries were listed in

alphabetical order.

Latvia and Turkey didnt get valid questionnaires, so they are not accounted for. The

percentage of Romanian students is higher because they were the host country on thismeeting.


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We should take into account the possibility of a higher number of students from a certain

nationality leading to a higher percentage of correct answers regarding that country,

although those correlations were not analyzed in the present work.

Austria

The students show some knowledge on basic information such as the capital city, but also

good percentages on cultural knowledge. The type of question they seem to have less

information is about European Union issues. Regarding the Austrian composer, 67%

answered Mozart, which was the most answered. Strauss also got a percentage of 8,3%.

Belgium

Again questions related to more cultural and social issues are more positive than others

related to European Union organizational matters, such as the European institutions that

are located in Belgium. In this question, the most referred were EU Parliament, but also

EU Center, European Council or Court of the Human Rights. Also, some answers such

as Chocolate institutions. In cultural and society issues, the students clearly associated

Hergwith the character Tintin (61%), almost all identified the picture of Manneken Pis

(97%) and the majority associated the economic product chocolate to the country (94%).


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Denmark

Copenhagen was referred by 63,9% of all that answered this question. Other general

information was also very positive, such as the flag identification, in which 86,1% got it

correct. Regarding literature, students have an excellent knowledge of the writer Hans C.Andersen because 75% identified him as mainly a fairy tale writer and knew his

nationality. Regarding Denmark's political organization, the majority (57,1%) indicated

the country as being a constitutional monarchy, although there were many doubts because

42,9% answered it was a republic.The question which had a lower percentage of correct

answers was the one regarding the national currency: only 30,6% stated Denmark was not

in the Eurozone. This could also be explained with the possibility of the students not

knowing the Eurozone concept.

Latvia

The students showed a reasonable knowledge on Latvias geographical position, as near

86% indicated the country as being near the Baltic Sea. Also, almost all students knew the

capital city as well as Latvias national sport. On the first 92% answered Riga was the

capital and 91% indicated hockey as the favorite sport of Latvians. Regarding the

countrys economy, the knowledge is not so accurate as only 57% of students indicated

wood as one of the main economic productions. 37% answered milk and 6,7% plastic.

Probably because of the relatively recent entry in the E.U, more than 79% indicated the

correct year of entry in the European Union.


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Poland

The geographical location, as well as the famous polish personalities, were the mostcorrect ones. 83,3% said that Poland had a border with Germany and 86,1% of students

identified at least one famous polish personality (there were four in total in the multiple

choice item). Regarding the currency 34,4% believed Poland is in the Eurozone, although

the majority (59,4%) answered zloti. The capital city was indicated by the same

percentage as being Warsow, as well as the salt mines of Wieliczka.

Portugal

A good percentage of the students identified Lisbon as being the Portuguese capital city.

Still regarding the geographical position the answers were very positive, since 77,8%stated that the only border the country has is with Spain(on the East) and also identified

theAtlantic Oceanas the one on the West with more than 600 km of coastal area. From the

five options given, 83,3% of the students were able to identify two of the most famous

Portuguese poets (Fernando Pessoa and Luis de Cames). The King D. Afonso Henriques

created the countrys nationality, in the 12thcentury, and 44,4% of the students answered

correctly.


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Scotland

Cultural references as well as Scotlands capital city are relatively well known, as well asthe capital Edinburgh was identified by 83% of the students. Also, the mythical creature

from Scotland was identified as the Loch Ness Monster by 75% of the people. From the six

options, 97,2% marked at least one of the cultural references from Scotland: bagpipes,

haggis or kilts. From the two writers (Robert Burns and Sir Water Scott) 83,3% of the

students identified at least one of them.

Turkey

The knowledge about Turkey can be considered very positive. It is confirmed that, also

among students, Istambul is confused with the countrys capital. The majority chose thiscity as capital and only 41,4% chose Ankara. The cosmopolitan city is also known for

76,7% by its old name of Constantinople. Also, a large percentage knows that Turkey sits in

two different continents: Europe and Asia. The students show less information about one

of the major touristic Turkish areas, Capadoccia, (36,7%) and the stone carved fairy

chimneys.

Conclusion:

We can consider, by these results that the knowledge on the European Countries is slowlybeing built in the minds of their citizens. The younger generations already show a broad


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information and knowledge about most countries, even those who became part of the E.U

more recently. Of course, the information spread by the European institutions, as well as

the countries, namely by their curricula in schools are essential. But also, the need of

European based projects, like the one we are all involved in, are fundamental to assume

and create a truly European citizenship, based in knowing our cultures, our similarities

and also our differences, to help us grow together.

Portugal, Vila Verde (February 2014)

what do you know about the e.u...final report v.1

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