CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH DESIGN
4.5 METHODS
4.5.3 About observation
became more comfortable with the research process and the requirements of an effective journal writing style, I was able to pen my thoughts and ideas as they occurred to me. I
used a system of writing up points I wanted to describe into a notebook I had especially for this purpose. I would then capture and save this onto my computer in a more
comprehensive fashion. While I did not pay attention to any kind of close editing, issues of language and spelling automatically showed up and were corrected at that point. The writing, to a large extent, became more relaxed and spontaneous as the research process unfolded. This final research report contains several extracts from my journal, and each extract appears in its original form.
the teacher over classroom events (Flanders 1970). Numerous researchers have since critiqued the FIAC. Hammersley (1993:45) summarises these criticisms as follows:
• Systematic observation provides data only about average or typical classrooms, teachers and pupils;
• Ittypically ignores the temporal and spatial context in which data are collected;
• Itis usually only concerned with overt behaviour; and neglects features that are possibly more meaningful;
• Being concerned only with what can be categorised can distort, obscure or ignore qualitative features through crude measurement techniques or by using categories with ill-defined boundaries;
• Itfocuses on small 'bits' of action rather than global concepts. This leads to a lack of potential to generate fresh insights;
• The pre-specification of categories determines what is discovered by the research;
• Placing arbitrary boundaries on continuous phenomena obscures the flux of social interaction.
While the Flanders schedule was able to provide feedback on the extent to which teachers were authoritarian or child-centred, Furlong and Edwards (1993) argue that it does not contribute towards our understanding of classroom research. In fact it produces
'dangerous illusions' that we already understand how classrooms work. Recent research in the field of classroom research seems to share a fundamental orientation that is 'non- behaviourist' (Hammersley 1993). The central aim has been to discover the assumptions, rules and strategies, which underlie and produce classroom interaction. Classroom research in this study adopted a similar orientation.
Two types of observation are suggested by Cohen and Manion (1994), namely, participant observation and non-participant observation. Participant observation is a situation where observers engage in the very activities they set out to observe. Their 'cover' could be so complete that as far as participants are concerned they are simply one of the group. They do however note that cover is not necessarily a prerequisite for
participant observation. Non-participants observers" ... stand aloof from the group activities they are investigating and eschew group membership" (ibid.: 107). The
challenge with collecting observational data is ensuring that your presence does not alter the behaviour of the people in the setting. This is known as the 'Hawthorne Effect', and every effort must be made to prevent this from occurring (Anderson 1999).
My role in teachers' classrooms was that of 'observer as participant' (Merriam 1998).
This was in contrast to my initial role in the workshops, which was that of 'participant as observer'(ibid.). Inthe role of observer as participant, my role was known to everyone and my primary activity was that of observation. Observation took precedence over participation, although I was occasionally drawn into lessons by questions asked of me by teachers (clarification of issues, presenting basic background information, or being asked to judge the 'quality' of 'products' that pupils had made).
Participant observation studies are not without their critics. Cohen and Manion (1994:
107) caution that this type of research is often described as " ... subjective, biased,
impressionistic, idiosyncratic and lacking in the precise quantifiable measures that are the hallmark of survey research and experimentation". This raises the question of internal and external validity. External validity addresses the question of whether the results of the case study are applicable to other situations. Internal validity addresses the question of whether the results of the research are the real thing or the genuine product, or whether 'findings' are clouded by the researcher's closeness to the data.
InSection 4.6.4, I explain the difficulty I had gaining access to certain teachers'
classrooms and the need for me to develop trust and to convince teachers that the purpose of the classroom observations was strictly for research purposes. My intention was not to carry out an appraisal, but to undertake an observation of teachers' EMS practices. This was actually easier said than done. My nine years of commerce teaching experience and my present occupation as a teacher educator preparing trainee commerce teachers demanded that I be conscious of not evaluating the decisions and actions that teachers made during their lessons so as to avoid what Eisner (1991) refers to as the danger of
'connoisseurship'. I realised that my observations and descriptions were in fact affected by my prior knowledge and personal teaching style. Wickham (1998:43) observes, "that observation is neither objective or value-free and ... an observer's vision is skewed by her own subjectivities, ... descriptive language contains evaluative elements and ... it is difficult to divorce the two".
Inorder to establish how teachers taught EMS, I planned to observe teachers' lessons according to a semi-structured observation schedule. I was mindful of the fact that although I had had previous experience of classroom observation for research purposes, every classroom observation was likely to be a new learning experience. For this reason, a semi-structured observation schedule was developed. The work ofWragg (2001), Delamont (2002) and Cohen and Manion (1994, 1997) was particularly useful in shaping my perspective on classroom observations. Wolcott (cited in Delamont 2002: 132) expresses scepticism about whether observational techniques of a reflexive, ethnographic kind can be taught. Research observation skills are best honed and refined during actual observations. The observation schedule was used to guide my observations and to foreground issues arising out of the critical research questions.
During the lesson observations, careful concentration and rapid shorthand enabled me to obtain much valuable information on the content and flow of each lesson so as to create a
"thick description" (Geertz 1973:3). Critical incidents were documented. Of particular importance was the need to immediately compile a report. On this issue, Cohen and Manion (1997: 112) assert that one should:
... never resume your observations until the notes from the preceding observation are complete... Until your observations and impressions from one visit are a matter of record, there is little point in returning to the classroom .. , and reducing the impact of one set of events by superimposing another and more recent set.
Delamont (2002: 138) supports this view by emphasising the importance of immediate reflection on field notes as follows:
Itis not possible to record too much about a person, place or interaction, but it is idiotic to pile up lots of material without reviewing it and beginning to reflect upon it. Ten
minutes of good observation well written up is worth an hour's notes lying forgotten in an unopened notebook.
While it was not always possible to strictly compile every lesson observation report prior to a successive observation, I did however manage to achieve this to a fair extent. The interval between workshop observations (discussed below) was longer than the interval between lesson observations, allowing me to prepare draft reports before the
commencement of subsequent reports.
In order to establish the nature of teacher learning, using Wenger's conceptualisation of learning as participation and changing identities of participants, it was important for me to observe and systematically documentth~processes as they unfolded at each workshop.
An important way to document the formation of intellectual community is to look at the distribution of material resources (books, worksheets, notices, newspaper articles) and the extent to which real sharing begins to take place (Grossman et aI2001).
My role in the initial workshops was that of full participant, leading and facilitating the workshops. As I began to identify potential teacher leaders, I gradually relinquished my central role in this learning community by inviting such teachers to plan and facilitate workshops. Towards the later stages of the project, teachers had complete control of all aspects of their teacher learning curriculum and simply used me as a consultant. As the project proceeded, I began increasingly to position myself as 'researcher' and observer at workshops.
I elected not to video record initial workshops for several reasons. I was working with a relatively new group of teacher learners who had constituted themselves as the result of a need to come to terms with a discipline that was unfamiliar to them. Teachers expressed much anxiety at their level of 'incompetence' in teaching the EMS learning area and were looking for a supportive forum that would not add to their existing anxieties. While teachers may have known each other as result of having met at other forums, they had not developed any 'deep' relationships that could facilitate participation. Video recording
workshop sessions would have proved counterproductive. At a later stage in the project when I did broach the idea of video recordings, while few teachers expressed mild reservations, most teachers agreed to the suggestion.
My role in this learning community was interesting and challenging. I was allowed to enter this learning community of teachers with openness that at times felt like full participation, but I was frequently 'reminded' that I was an outsider. A
'suspicious'/questioning look by a teacher, a reference to a past event that I did not know about, an expression I could not understand, a teacher's anxiety about meeting
examination deadlines, or even a teacher's joy in anticipation of the school vacation (during which time I was writing up research data), acutely placed my assumption of 'full membership' under question.