The data collected was qualitative in nature which was done in order to understand the purposively selected participants from their own frames of reference (Taylor, 2015). Data was collected through learner’s experiences within their social interactions when learning angles associated with parallel lines in geometry. Data collection process refers to the evidence or information the researcher collected to find answers to the research questions of the research study (Bertram, 2014). In this section, the nature of data and collection methods was described and used to gain full insight of the experiences of Grade 8 learners when learning.
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There are many ways of collecting data which are influenced by the research questions, the research design and the paradigm. In this research study, I used the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS document), questionnaire, worksheet and interviews to obtain information on the challenges experienced by Grade 8 learners when learning angles associated with parallel lines in geometry. The reason for using the four data collection instruments is that according to Bertram and Christiansen (2014) using two or more data collection instrument helps the researcher to obtain an in-depth understanding of the researched situation.
The use of the CAPS document was to determine the concepts that Grade 8 learners needed to know in the learning of angles associated with parallel lines in geometry and looking at the gradual movement of the curriculum from the previous grade in line with the General Education and Training (GET) phase’s syllabus. This assisted this research study to gain in- depth knowledge of learners’ prior knowledge regarding parallel lines in geometry since effective learning is derived from the prior knowledge of the learner that will influence the learner’s new knowledge to be more understandable (Amineh, 2015). This information was also attained through the use of the questionnaire to obtain the profile of the learner. This was achieved through open-ended and closed-ended questions and participants were given a day to complete the questionnaire subsequent to a briefing about the research study and signing of all consent forms.
After obtaining the background of the participants and their prior knowledge regarding the angles associated with parallel lines in geometry, I used different types of teaching strategies to teach the geometric concepts in line with the CAPS document, such as:
The use of technology instead of using paper based diagrams. Learners were introduced to computer programs such as GeoGebra and Sketchpad. I encouraged learners to also download the software’ into their computers at home and cell phones.
Using technology in the learning of geometry empowered learners to discover geometric relationships and ways to solve riders that they would not have discovered through the use of traditional teaching and learning (Skultety, 2017).
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The theoretical lens used for this research study was social constructivism which encouraged learning through social interactions and self-regulated learning was taught to learners.
This helped learners to take control of their learning by doing research at home as part of their homework about the next day’s topic. On the next day learners were given a chance to teach others about what they have learnt and their thinking about that certain topic they were presenting. This strategy helped learners to remember all important information since they did the process of learning on their own by discovering new meaning and understanding (Lai & Hwang, 2016; Fadlelmula, Cakiroglu & Sungur, 2015).
Review and Practice, helped learners to reflect on what they have learnt, asking questions, correcting misconceptions and also practice what they have learnt once a week in order to equip them and improve their understanding of the geometric concepts (Rohrer, 2015).
A worksheet was administered to assess the level of understanding that learners possesses and competence regarding angles associated with parallel lines. This worksheet was a tool that helped to measure how far and deep the geometric concepts that has been transmitted to the learners have been understood, checking if learners were on the right path according to the objectives of the content of angles associated with parallel lines and expected to be achieved (Liljedahl, 2010). The worksheet provided information on learners existing knowledge and challenges they have experienced. This data collection tool assisted to identify regularities occurring from each learner during solving the given riders. After learners completed the worksheet, the researcher communicated the progress of learning to the learners to provide feedback on their performance which helped the researcher to compare the results between the responses from the questionnaire and the worksheet.
Within the qualitative case study, it is easy to view conversation within the interview situation (King, 2018). According to Bertram and Christiansen (2014), and King (2018), an interview is a discussion between the researcher and the willing participant in order to get descriptive and accurate information. This research study adopted semi-structured interviews as one of the data collection instruments.
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The semi-structured interviews provide flexible and useful information from a focused yet two way communication between the researcher and the participant furthermore, participants are given a chance to further explain their views and responses in details (Pathak and Intratat 2016).
In this research study, interviews were conducted after the worksheet’s feedback. This helped the researcher to assess challenges experienced by learners before the research study, through the teaching and learning process until they had to work on the worksheet.
These interviews were recorded using a voice recording device with the permission of the participant for validity and reliability purposes. The reasons to audio record the semi- structured interviews were to make it easy to transcribe and analyse the responses thoroughly without losing any information from the participants.