The Informal Interview
The choice of informal interview as a technique has proved useful. As I was not starting off with a tightly defined research question but rather exploring a situation this seemed the most appropriate method to use. I took the advice of Bob Dick in the Ultraversity Hotseat and used the technique that he describes. This involved getting teachers to talk about the subject generally and then just keeping the conversation going rather than asking probing questions
Teachers have been happier to take part in the research and when asked said they were more comfortable with this open ended approach compared with the semi formal interview that I used last time. All teachers and TAs in school were approached informally and asked to contribute. Those who did so were not pressured in any way and I tried to remain as relaxed as possible - not reacting positively or negatively to what was said.
A camera was used to record sound files. Participants seemed much more relaxed with this than with the small audio recorder I used last time. This may be because the camera did not need to be pointed at them and was just held casually in my hand during the interviews.
Focus Group with Children
The focus groups of children worked well. I trialed this method in the pilot study in my ILM. The children were self-selecting volunteers who gave up time in their break to do this. I found it hard to stay in the role of interviewer with the children and occasionally found myself slipping into a classroom role. I was aware that some of the time they were looking for the 'right' answer but this wore off after a short while at the start of the group.
Two groups of 7 mixed gender children were used. I was unable to find time for the 3rd planned group because of other commitments (theirs not mine).
I could have used individual interviews with children. I did consider this. The idea of 2 longish interviews with individual children who had already been tested and had a preference for visual learning was a possibility. However, I felt that I would get more response if the children were in a group setting where ideas could be explored with less onus on the individual. I also felt that it would be more interesting to see the responses from a group with varied learning style preferences.
Learning Journal
I kept notes in my private learning journal about the aspect of the action enquiry that involved the promotion of the archive and any relevant critical incidents that took place during the school day. This seemed the most useful way of approaching this as this aspect relied solely on my own actions and involved many short cycles as I tried different methods to involve people in the archive.
I also read back through my journal for display related incidents and kept notes on any that occurred in the course of the school day. I then reflected on these and used this data to augment the other data collected.
(see appendix for sample page of learning journal showing use of Gibbs reflective cycle on a late stage loop of promoting the archive on usenet group)
index
The choice of informal interview as a technique has proved useful. As I was not starting off with a tightly defined research question but rather exploring a situation this seemed the most appropriate method to use. I took the advice of Bob Dick in the Ultraversity Hotseat and used the technique that he describes. This involved getting teachers to talk about the subject generally and then just keeping the conversation going rather than asking probing questions
Teachers have been happier to take part in the research and when asked said they were more comfortable with this open ended approach compared with the semi formal interview that I used last time. All teachers and TAs in school were approached informally and asked to contribute. Those who did so were not pressured in any way and I tried to remain as relaxed as possible - not reacting positively or negatively to what was said.
A camera was used to record sound files. Participants seemed much more relaxed with this than with the small audio recorder I used last time. This may be because the camera did not need to be pointed at them and was just held casually in my hand during the interviews.
Focus Group with Children
The focus groups of children worked well. I trialed this method in the pilot study in my ILM. The children were self-selecting volunteers who gave up time in their break to do this. I found it hard to stay in the role of interviewer with the children and occasionally found myself slipping into a classroom role. I was aware that some of the time they were looking for the 'right' answer but this wore off after a short while at the start of the group.
Two groups of 7 mixed gender children were used. I was unable to find time for the 3rd planned group because of other commitments (theirs not mine).
I could have used individual interviews with children. I did consider this. The idea of 2 longish interviews with individual children who had already been tested and had a preference for visual learning was a possibility. However, I felt that I would get more response if the children were in a group setting where ideas could be explored with less onus on the individual. I also felt that it would be more interesting to see the responses from a group with varied learning style preferences.
Learning Journal
I kept notes in my private learning journal about the aspect of the action enquiry that involved the promotion of the archive and any relevant critical incidents that took place during the school day. This seemed the most useful way of approaching this as this aspect relied solely on my own actions and involved many short cycles as I tried different methods to involve people in the archive.
I also read back through my journal for display related incidents and kept notes on any that occurred in the course of the school day. I then reflected on these and used this data to augment the other data collected.
(see appendix for sample page of learning journal showing use of Gibbs reflective cycle on a late stage loop of promoting the archive on usenet group)
index