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A Foundation Student’s Sample Report
David Paul Finfrock, Course Lead for Integrated Core, Foundation Program
The Integrated Core Intermediate (C002) pro-
ject introduces Foundation English students to
research and provides them with an oppor-
tunity to develop their language, critical think-
ing, and analytical skills. First, students are
expected to explore a topic and determine a
specific research question. After reading about
their topic and reflecting, students create an
online survey to help them gather data. Stu-
dents then seek out participants to answer
their survey questions. From the data provided
by the respondents, students then write a re-
port in which they provide the findings of their
survey as well as comment on these findings.
Finally, students share their findings with their
classmates through an in-class presentation.
Below is an example of a report.
Introduction
Typically, the meaning of the word "generation" is a group of people who have the same core values, same notions,
and beliefs. Generations change after almost thirty years. However, lately, we can see these generations are changing every ten
years or maybe less. Why did this leap happen? This leap creates a gap, which is referred to as “the generation gap.” This prob-
lem occurs when the successive generations become very different in their opinions and beliefs. I wondered why. Consequently,
I conducted a survey about the generation gap between parents and children in the Middle East. There were 31 responses. 90%
of them were non-Qatari, 75% were female, the majority of them (71%) were aged 18 to 25 years old, and the rest were between
three groups equally (17 or less, 26-35 and 46 and up/9.7%). In this report, I will discuss the data from my survey in order to
answer my research question that was "Why is there a generation gap between parents and children in the Middle East?"
Survey Findings
In question four, I asked about how much of a difference the respondents think is between parents and children. Num-
ber '1' was for little or no difference and '5' for a huge difference. The majority (15) picked number 3, and 10 of them answered
number 4, but only 1 for number 5, another 1 for number 1 and 4 for number 2. Therefore, if we consider people who gave their
opinion clearly, we can see that people who agreed (11) were more than the people who disagreed (5). It was interesting to know
that they do not feel this problem is sizable, because their opinion did not match the reality of what is happening with my family.
Question 5 on my survey was about the agreement or disagreement with certain statements. There were nine state-
ments. Statement 1 was "children will have an attitude like their parents in the future." Almost three quarters (68%) of the re-
spondents agreed, while 22% disagreed. A few of the respondents (10%) did not have an opinion. Statement 2, I asked about if
the strong connection between parents and children can solve this problem, and more than half of the respondents strongly
agreed (61%), and 16% agreed. On the other hand, 16% strongly disagreed and very few of the respondents (7%) were neutral.
The major finding of the investigation was that they think a strong connection is the solution for this problem. That leads us to
statements 3 and 4 where I tried to know what are the solutions for that gap between parents and children. Statement 3 was
"social media use for parents can positively affect the gap," the majority agreed (58%) while (23%) disagreed and only (19%)
were neutral. Therefore, it can be seen that this might be a solution. For statement 4, I asked if the level of education for parents
can affect the gap and may reduce it, and it had almost balanced answers. 26% agreed, while 26% disagreed. Most people
The Gap between Generations
Asma Abdel-Aziz, Student
David Paul Finfrock: Photo-
graph courtesy of the Foun-
dation Program