Section 4 - Research techniques and methods for collecting data

The starting point of this research is the beginning of September when I planned the modules under investigation (Appendix 5) with the teachers of the subjects involved. During the first three weeks of February the research was carried out by using the materials described in this section.

The language used in collecting data is English, except for some open questions to students and the first questionnaire addressed to the content teachers, as their English mastery is limited. All the questionnaires and inventories for the students were anonymously answered so that they could be free to express their real feelings and consequently data can be considered valid.[4] All the materials devised to collect data are in Appendix 2.

My personal diary

I have always written fuzzy impressions and observations in my personal diary, even when I did not know it could be considered a useful practice for teachers. I thought I did it because I am incredibly “non-systematic”, but I have noticed that the information contained in my diary has always been extremely useful for deducing further ideas to develop. Their limit as a tool for gathering data stands in the completely subjective vision they convey, “These procedures are by their nature private rather than collaborative…” (Wallace 1998, p. 46),  but at the same time “ The notes are quick observations of something that is happening now, and so they have a liveliness and authenticity that is pleasing.” (Macintyre 2000, p.62).

Questionnaires, Inventories and structured interviews

A questionnaire was addressed to a class who had just completed a module of English / History and to two classes that were starting new modules of English / History, and English / Electronic Systems. The aim was to know the students’ opinions about English learning at school and their impressions/evaluations about the modules. I have chosen closed questions because “A large number of individuals can answer the questions simultaneously”,  and because “the impersonal nature of the questionnaire and the possibility of answering anonymously make it easier to be completely honest” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p.113 ). I am aware this method has got disadvantages too; the principal is that “the questionnaire designer has to anticipate all or most of the possible answers, so there may be little unexpected information in the responses.” (Wallace 1998, p. 135).

The questionnaires, anonymous and written in English, were answered when I was not present in the class and preceded by a short explanation to prevent any possible problem of misunderstanding, as “there is no way of ensuring that the questions are understood as intended” and “when questionnaires are not returned anonymously, there may be a tendency for the respondents to confirm the researcher’s expectations…” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p. 114)

To have a clearer and more complete representation of the opinions of the students I also asked the students of a class an open question about the negative and positive aspects of the content-based module they had just completed. They answered in Italian, so that they could feel free to completely express their ideas and could not perceive the questions as a class-work of English. I have decided to use this way for gathering more data because I think the students will be free to underline and stress all the aspects they like, even the ones I have never thought of, as “…questionnaires and inventories…are ways of eliciting other people’s observations and interpretations of situations and events, as well as their attitudes towards them. But again others may have important observations, interpretations, etc. to make which one has not anticipated in designing these instruments” (UEA-Reader MLA72, J. Elliott, p.21).

Contemporaneously I interviewed the subject matter teachers involved in order to know their evaluation about the experience, with a special concern about content acquisition through English. Immediately after acting the two lessons I gave the students an inventory about some relevant points related to their degree of participation and their perception of what had been going on. “An inventory is a list of statements about a situation which others may agree or not… an inventory is quite a good way of discovering the extent to which others agree or disagree with one’s observations and interpretations.” (UEA-Reader MLA72, J. Elliott, p.22).

A structured interview to the subject matter teachers completed the acquisition of data from the protagonists of the lessons.

All the structured interviews to the teachers were done orally and data recorded following the notes taken. “ A basic criticism of interviewing as a technique is that what people say they do is not always the same as what they do, or what they intend to do (either consciously or unconsciously)….. Misinformation can be reduced by confronting interview data with other data,… or by comparing accounts given by different people.” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p.109), for this reason I decided to interview the three teachers individually in order to compare their answers and then triangulate data from their interviews with the data provided by students and my personal impressions.

Observation grid

 An observation grid was filled by an outside observer during the two lessons. Structured observation schedules “… can be used in different ways, to record aspects of both teaching and learning. The recordings can tell ‘when’ and ‘where’ as well as ‘how often’ and so provide a rich source of information for reflection and evaluation.” (Macintyre 2000, p. 66). However, they must lead the observer to concentrate only in the precise aspects the teacher wants to analyse, otherwise the observation can result only in a superficial overview of the lesson. For this reason the the observation schedules “...must be carefully designed. The key words are appropriateness, clarity and brevity.” (Macintyre 2000, p. 66).

My observer is a teacher of English, who is an American native speaker and teaches in afternoon courses in my school. We have already collaborated in organizing the afternoon courses and often exchanged ideas about activities and materials. She is quite familiar with the classes involved because she has had many of my students in her afternoon lessons. This experienced collaboration is very important as the observer is aware of the purpose of the research and what is being researched and it has been easy for us to “...set some grouds rules so that each understands the other’s remit and doesn’t inadvertently hamper or intrude” (Macintyre 2000, p. 67).   The observation was aimed at making a description of the students’ behaviours and responses in the different phases of the lesson and in the different activities presented. The observer never interacted with the other participants and limited her task to observe quietly what was going on.

Documents

These are the documents I present in Appendix 5:

-         the activity sheets devised for the two lessons, which show the framework of the lessons, the types

          of activities, the skills involved, the materials used

-         the first part of a module’s plan, which does not include the units in details

-         some written texts produced by the students in previous content based modules.

All these documents can clarify the purposes of such experiences, the way they have been carried out, their possible results. “Documents can provide information which is relevant to the issues and the problems under investigation.” (UEA-Reader MLA72, J. Elliott p.17). They are “existing data” and using them “... has some advantages over data collected through a contrived process ... because it is independent of the teacher’s research activities” but also disadvantages because “... it contains much more information than necessary ... there will have been other influences which often can no longer be recontructed in sufficient detail ... documents also contain mistakes, omissions and prejudices, and can even deliberately misleading ... for these reasons it is important to combine this method with other methods of data collection.” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p. 83). I present them as an enrichment of the experience background.

Tape recordings of the lessons

The lessons were  recorded so that I could better evaluate the exchanges produced, the points in which the students had more difficulties, and the type of communication produced. The students did not feel embarrassed or unnatural for the introduction of the cassette recorder as it is one of the teaching aid used in the English classes and the presence of this device on the teacher desk is considered normal. “This approach is more intrusive than real-time observation, but it is often the case that after ten or fifteen minutes learners forget the presence of the tape recorder, and interact normally and unselfconsciously. In certain lessons, the taped interaction may be exploited for teaching purposes (e.g. by playing it back and asking the group to spot any errors that they have made).” (Wallace 1998, p.107) Being the transcription of the whole recordings too time consuming, I have simply listened to them to better evaluate “in tranquillity” what had happened during the lessons and I have been using them as materials for the successive steps.

Triangulation of the data

The data gathered in the different phases and from different sources were triangulated in order to produce an analysis of what had gone on, evaluate the results of the action, establish its weaknesses and its points of strength, and plan corrections and improvements. “Triangulation … is not so much a technique for monitoring, as a more general method for bringing different kinds of evidence into some relationship with each other, so that they can be compared and contrasted” (UEA-Reader MLA72, J. Elliott, p.22). An evident advantage of this method is that “ It gives a more detailed and balanced picture of the situation. – The contradictions which are often hidden become visible, enabling a more profound interpretation.” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p.117), while a possible problem can be represented by the fear of the teacher to feel herself under investigation in case her vision is not confirmed by the other sources:

“Many teachers see it as threatening. It obviously demands a high degree of self-confidence to confront your own perception of a situation for which you feel responsible…with other people’s perceptions…” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p.117).

Research ethics

Ethical issues are inevitably present also in a piece of classroom action research carried out by a teacher in her classes, inside her school environment, since “research interferes in a social situation: many research methods are “reactive” (i.e. they make people do things they would not otherwise have done); and people involved in the situation learn things as a result of the research process. Thus, when we carry out action research,  it is very important that our activities abide by ethical quality criteria.” (Altrichter, Posch, and Somekh 1993, p.77).