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in questions and short-answer questions. Both these types of questions were used. Open-ended questionnaires are beneficial because:
a) They can be collected in a relatively short time.
b) They encourage the participants to add elaborate comments because participants have more opportunities to fill in what they want to say rather than fit their responses into predetermined confines of closed-ended items (Allison, 2004).
Due to the drawback aligned with open-ended questionnaires that there is no opportunity to probe further to find out what the participants mean by particular responses (Cohen et al., 2011), two other research instruments were used.
The participants were given ten minutes to read the questionnaire and during this time they could ask for clarification if they did not understand what was required of them. I was present the entire duration so they could ask any time during responding to the questionnaire. There were 79 out of 83 students (95%) who returned the questionnaire.
3.7.2 Visual method
Data was also collected using a technique that is known as the draw-and-write technique. Mair and Kierans (2007, p. 122) describe this technique as one where first, the participants respond to a research prompt (a scenario in this study) with a drawing. Then, the participants are asked to elaborate on their drawing through written or oral explanations to further describe and clarify the content meaning of the picture. Drawing as a research method provides researchers with a window into the lived experiences of the participants and a means to understand how they make meaning of them (Mayaba and Wood, 2015). The drawings would help even those students who cannot express themselves very well in writing. Coad (2007) states that visual research is a beneficial method because it enables participants to have a say in the production of knowledge.
The students become active participants. This method promotes participants’ voices in research (James, 2007).
The participants were given drawing paper and were given the following instructions:
1. If you could plan a reading room, what reading material would you put in it that you enjoy?
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2. For what purposes would these reading materials be used?
Using the paper given, draw a plan of your reading room using drawing as well as words that show all the reading materials that you like to read. You must also include reasons for reading each mentioned material.
For example: Engineering textbooks- School purposes/to pass tests and examinations.
Be specific, for example if you read the newspaper; provide the name of the newspaper and the sections that you read. Also, say why you would have newspapers in your reading room.
Even though I had stated that it was not a “who draws best” activity I found that most of the participants took a lot of time in trying to draw as best as they could. It took them between 30 and 45 minutes to finish the activity.
3.7.3 Focus group interview
The main aims of conducting the focus group discussions were:
To develop an in-depth understanding of the students’ reading habits
To find out about their purposes for reading
Watts and Ebbutt (1987, cited in Cohen et al., 2011) suggest that group interviews or focus groups are advantageous because they allow discussions to develop thus yielding a wide range of responses. They are likely to lead to varied opinions/ideas. Kitzinger (1995) states that focus groups are useful for exploring people’s knowledge and experiences and can be used to examine not only what people think but how they think and why they think that way. Another advantage of focus groups is that they are time-saving compared to individual interviews and therefore were less demanding of the research participants who are students.
Two groups of eight students per group were interviewed. The students volunteered to be part of the group discussion. Most of the participants had never taken part in focus group discussions therefore we did a mock discussion first on a different topic. This seemed to put the participants at ease. The participants indicated that they would be more comfortable talking to me than to a colleague because they were used to me as their lecturer. The discussions were tape-recorded.
Each of the two sessions was 60 minutes.
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Figure 3.2 Number of participants per data collection instrument
3.8 Data analysis
Cohen et al. (2011, p. 537) states that qualitative data analysis involves organising, accounting for and explaining the data, making sense of data in terms of the participants’ definitions of the situation, noting patterns, themes, categories and regularities. The purpose and outcome of data analysis is to reveal to others through fresh insights what we have observed and discovered about the human condition (Saldaña, 2011).
Data from my three research instruments were categorised into the two main themes of this study which were materials that students read and the purposes for which students read. Category construction is an attempt to cluster the most seemingly alike things into seemingly appropriate groups (Saldaña, 2011). Cohen et al. (2011, p.559) state that categories are usually derived from theoretical constructs or areas of interest devised in advance of the analysis rather than developed from the material itself, though these may be modified by reference to the empirical data. I analysed data from each instrument as I gathered them and as I was proceeding through the
Questionnaire 79 Draw and
Write 76
Focus Group
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