4.5. Methods of data collection
4.5.1 Questionnaire
79
Participants Gender Age Mathematics Teaching experience
Portfolio in Mathematics Group
Siza Female 68 years 30 + years teaching
Mathematics at school level. 8 years as the Maths Facilitator of NGO workshops
NGO Facilitator
Hlengiwe Female 35 years 10 years Coordinator and
Maths Lead Teacher
Jabulani Male 31 years 5 years Maths Lead Teacher
Bongani Male 41 years 13 years Maths Lead Teacher
Table 6: Biographical details of Interview Participants from the Mathematics Group
80
asking the respondent to choose an answer from a multiple-choice menu, while open questions do not present a predefined menu or list of options, but allow freedom to choose how to answer. For example “What was the objective or the purpose of the workshop?”
“What did you learn?” (Refer to Appendix C).
The advantages of using the questionnaire in this study were that they can be administered to a large number of people and the information can be easily be captured into the computer programme which counts the responses in each category (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 321). In this study, the computer was used to handle the amount of information that the respondents supplied. The closed questions that were about the nature of collaborative relationships in teacher learning communities were quicker to code and analyse and the open questions provided rich information about the purpose and kind of knowledge that was learnt during the workshops. The advantage of closed questions in this study was that they enabled quick comparisons across the two cases (Commerce Teachers’ Association and Mathematics Group).
However, the questionnaires had some limitations. Firstly, the open questions generated a large amount of data which was difficult and time consuming to code. Secondly, the open questions make it difficult to make comparisons between respondents, as there may be little in common to compare (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 331).
4.5.1. Questionnaire participants
This study used a survey as a data generation tool in order to get the views of all the members in each teacher learning community. Hence the questionnaires were administered in order to get information from more teachers about the kind of knowledge learnt and the nature of and collaborative relationships during the workshops and outside of the workshops. This section will show the biographical data of the questionnaire respondents. These features of respondents came from the biographic section of the questionnaires.
For the Commerce Teachers’ Association, the questionnaire was administered during the election meeting which took place on the 16th October, 2014. I targeted two hundred participants but only 58 questionnaires were returned. The respondents comprised of 33 female teachers and 25 male teachers. The following tables give the biographical details of
81
the respondents according age range, Commerce subject taught, teaching experience, qualifications and duration of membership in the Commerce Teachers’ Association.
Age range (years) Number of participants Percentage
20–30 17 29.3
31–40 29 50.0
41–50 9 15.5
51 and over 3 5.2
Total 58 100.0
Table 7: The age range of the survey respondents from the Commerce Teachers’
Association
Table 7 above, providing the age range of the Commerce participants, shows that 50% of the participants ranged from 31 to 40 years and the lowest percentage (5. 2%) were the participants whose age range was 51 years and over. The rate of questionnaires that were returned was very low which would have threatened the trustworthiness of this study if other research method such as observations and interviews were not used. The next Table 5 arranges the number of participants according to the Commerce subjects taught:
Subject Number of participants Percentage
Accounting 18 31.0
Business studies 20 34.5
Economics 19 32.8
None 1 1.7
Total 58 100.0
Table 8: Number of respondents, according to Commerce subjects taught
Table 8 shows that there were more Business Studies teachers, than Accounting or Economics. However, the variation in the number of participants was not big. There were 20 Business Studies teachers, 19 Economics teachers and 18 Accounting teachers. The next Table 9 shows the teaching experience range of the respondents.
82
Age range (years) Number of respondents Percentage
1–5 years 22 37.9
6–10 years 18 31.0
11– 20 years 14 24.1
21– 30 years 2 3.4
31 years and over 2 3.4
Total 58 100
Table 9: Teaching experience range of the respondents
Table 9 above shows that there were few really highly experienced Commerce teachers, only 3.4% of the participants had more than 30 years teaching experience. The greatest proportion (37.9%) was teachers with one to five years teaching experience. The next Table 10 shows the qualifications of the respondents.
Teaching qualifications Number of respondents Percentage
Professional Diploma e.g. SSTD 18 31.0
B.A or B.Bcom+PGCE 16 27.6
B.Paed or BEd. 15 25.9
BEd Hons 5 8.6
Other 4 6.9
Total 58 100
Table 10: Qualification of the respondents
Table 10 shows that a third of the participants have a Professional Diploma, 27.6% have a three years degree and PGCE a teaching diploma, 53. 5% have professional degrees for teaching and 6.9% did not have teaching qualification. The next Table 11 shows number of years of the respondents in Commerce Teachers’ Association.
83
Number of years Number of the respondents Percentage
Not a member 5 8.6
1 year 14 24.1
2 years 5 8.6
3 years 10 17.2
4 years 17 29.3
5 years 6 10.3
6 years 1 1.7
Total 58 100
Table 11: Number of years in Commerce Teachers’ Association
Table 11 above shows that the survey was administered in the sixth year (2014) of the existence of Commerce Teachers Association. Five of the 58 respondents were not members of Commerce Teachers’ Association. Therefore 91.4% of the respondents are members of Commerce Teachers’ Association.
In the Mathematics Group, the questionnaires were administered in the last moderation meeting held on 22nd of October 2014.The questionnaires were administered by the Mathematics Subject Advisor. There were 40 questionnaires that were issued and 19 participants responded to the questionnaires, which is 50% response rate. These 19 participants comprised of four female and 15 male teachers. The was a high rate of the return of the questionnaires when compared to the number of the Mathematics teachers (14 teachers) that were in the two NGO workshops that were observed and video tapped. The following tables show the biographical details of the respondents from the Mathematics Group.
84
Age range (years) Number of participants Percentage
20–30 4 21.1
31–40 5 26.3
41–50 9 47.4
51 and above 1 5.3
Total 19 100
Table 12: Age range of the respondents
Table 12 above provides the age range of the Mathematics participants, showing that 50% of the participants range from 31 to 40 years and the lowest percentage of 5.2% was the participants whose age range was 51years and above.
Age range (years) Number of respondents Percentage
1–5 years 5 26.3
6–10 years 4 21.1
11–20 years 6 31.6
21–30 years 3 15.8
31 and over 1 5.3
Total 19 100
Table 13: The range teaching experience of the respondents
Table 13 shows that there is a high percentage of teachers whose teaching experience ranges from 11 to 20 years and the lowest percentage (5.3%) was for the teachers whose teaching experience ranges from 31 and plus years. The teachers were also asked about the grade that they teach. There were 13 teachers teaching grade 10, 16 teachers teaching grade 11 and 17 teachers teaching grade 12. These numbers do not total 19 participants because teachers were double or triple counted.
85
Teaching qualifications Number of respondents Percentage
Professional Diploma e.g. SSTD 6 31.6
B.A or BSc/ BComm+PGCE 2 10.5
B.Paed or Bed 5 26.3
BEd Hons 2 10.5
Other 4 21.1
Total 19 100
Table 14: Qualification of the respondents (Mathematics participants)
In terms of qualifications, Table 14 shows that 31.6 % of the 19 participants have professional Diplomas, 10.5 % are teachers with degrees and teaching diplomas, and 36.8 % of teachers have teachers’ professional degrees.
The above tables have presented the features of the Commerce and the Mathematics participants. Interestingly, a third of teachers in both Commerce and in Mathematics participants have teaching diplomas. Amongst the Commerce participants, there was a high percentage of teachers whose experience is relatively low, only ranging from one to ten years.
Amongst the Mathematics participants, there was a high percentage of teachers whose experience ranges from 21 to 30 years. The next section discusses the methods of data collection.