Key Learnings

Through this stage of the Digital Dialogue: Wales we continue to see impacts from the programme that play an important part in helping us to develop our general understanding of political contact, democratic education and youth engagement. 

Below we have outlined the key learnings.

1. Asking Questions

Our data shows Digital Dialogue: Wales has a more profound impact for learners that asked a question during a Dialogue session. 

Learners were 22% more likely to feel that a “politician cared about their views” if they asked a question and were 27% more likely to say that they found the session interesting. 

They were also 38% more likely to feel comfortable asking a question if they asked a question. This may of course be due to the fact that learners who felt comfortable asking questions were more likely to volunteer to ask questions, but it may also indicate that there was some positive impact from asking a question itself. 

There may be several reasons for this. Learners who asked a question were more likely to have completed all of the preparatory work with their teachers, where we encouraged each learner to come up with a question to ask in the session. It may also be a reflection of the impact of group size (see below) as it is easier to ask questions in smaller groups. 

However, it does also suggest that learners are more engaged in sessions where they have the opportunity to actively participate, and it shows the positive impact of learner-led engagements where learners are able to talk about issues that matter to them.

2. Group Size

Mid-sized groups saw greater impacts in knowledge, confidence and trust:

We found that mid-sized groups (groups of 21 to 40 participants) demonstrated a more consistent positive impact across a wide range of factors and indicators compared to small groups (groups of less than 20) or large groups (groups of 41 or more). 

Learners in mid-sized groups saw a higher increase in their political knowledge and understanding, confidence to engage in politics and trust in the democratic system than learners in small or large groups. For example, in response to “I understand how the Welsh political system works”, learners who participated in mid-sized groups showed a positive 23% point change in understanding. By contrast, learners in large groups showed a 9% point positive change, and small groups showed a positive 17% point change.

Small groups are best at encouraging democratic participation:

Small groups showed the highest positive change in areas related to democratic participation, suggesting their increased likelihood to engage in democracy beyond the sessions. They were more likely to sign petitions, know how to register to vote and vote, and be more interested in politics. The numbers of learners in small groups who are interested in social and political issues increased by 21% points compared to a 2% point increase for mid-sized groups and an 8% point fall for large groups.

Large groups have a smaller impact across most indicators:

While large groups may increase the number of learners who can meet and hear from their politician, and lead to those learners improving their political knowledge and skills, we found that trust and confidence for the majority of learners in these groups actually decreased after taking part, with the number of learners reporting that they felt confident sharing their views with politicians falling by 7% points and the numbers reporting that politicians cared what they think falling by 2% points.

We believe this is due to fewer opportunities for participants to engage and ask questions. This highlights a key trade-off between the quantity and quality of impact in these sessions.

For Year 7 to 11 learners, the positive increase was smaller, with a change of 14% points. The positive increase drops again for Year 12 and 13 learners, rising by 7% points.

43% of the teachers who took part in the programme were from primary schools. This shows that not only do primary learners benefit from Digital Dialogue: Wales, but there is a real appetite for the programme and democratic education in primary schools. 

4. Multiple Engagements

Though the majority of learners took part in one or two Dialogue sessions, around 5% of the learners we worked with took part in three or more sessions. Though there were small positive changes across several indicators for taking part in three or more sessions, the biggest impact is on learner confidence.

In response to the statement “I am confident in sharing views with politicians” the confidence of learners who participated in one session increased by 9%, compared to learners who participated in three or more sessions where their confidence increased by 14%.

This trend is mirrored when learners respond to the statement “I feel confident talking about issues I care about”. Learners who participated in one session saw a 4% point increase in confidence, compared to learners who participated in three or more sessions where it was 16%.

For most indicators there seems to be a cap on how much more they will improve by taking part in multiple Dialogues, with little difference between those that look part in 2 or 3+ sessions, but confidence indicators keep increasing with more sessions. The exposure to different politicians, the experience of coming up with more questions and answering multiple questions from politicians clearly improves learner confidence.