Reader 6 has proved to me I am now at the stage of finding the most appropriate and effective research tools in order to carry out my inquiry. ‘The main focus of experimenting with the inquiry tools will be to enable you to design your own practitioner research and learn from the experience’ (Reader 6 page 5). I will use the most suitable tools to enable me to gather, analyse and present ‘good quality’ primary data.
I will need clear goals and aims in how I am going to carry out my research and also need to carefully consider how I am going to present my findings and analysis so that it clearly shows the relevant and significant outcomes of my inquiry.
Using the ‘Purposive’ approach ‘choosing people who can answer the questions using defined criteria (qualitative) in order to look at particular or situated phenomena’ will be my most effective approach as I believe it would give me the insight I need to fully explore my inquiry.
Observations
As I said in a previous blog, observation is going to be vital for me when carrying out my research. My plan will be to observe a variety of dance classes of different standards, abilities, age and gender within the education sector. I will watch, record and analyse events of interest.
’What are the different strategies dance teachers use to create motivation?’’
I will be looking at these sub questions when I observe a variety of dance classes:
- What do teachers do to motivate their students?
- Where does the insight lay?
Teachers have the insight in what it is they do to motivate children
- What other strategies do you use and to what extent do they work?
I I will observe the learning strategies teachers use in order to create motivation for the students and how well the students respond to these strategies. I will listen to how the teacher explains a task to the students and how information and instruction is delivered. My observations will be recorded using written notes, taping or videoing. This will allow me to reflect back to the notes when needed. However I will need to be aware of circumstances and confidentiality agreements formalised with consent forms. I will observe whether the students are working independently or in a team and compare the different motivation levels based on team or independent work. Observing how well students engage with the tasks and the progress they have made during the class will give me insight to positive strategies and maybe strategies that don’t seem to work for a particular group.
Preparation will be crucial for me before undertaking my pilot observation. How will I prepare my observation?
- What will be the specific things I focus on?
- How will I record the data in a particular class? And why?
- Will I need to contact the gatekeeper or participants directly?
- What ethical considerations will I have to think about?
My preparations and specific focuses for my observations will slightly change depending on the age group, gender and standard of the class and what I am planning to focus on in that particular observation. I will ensure I have a specific focus before an observation to allow me to gain relevant data and information.
I will also be a ‘participant observer’ whilst conducting my inquiry (Participant observation is a term that describes an activity (or tool) whereby the researcher participates over a long period of time in the community of practice or research setting within which they work). Whilst teaching dance I will be an insider-researcher which means having a dual role as both an employee and a practioner researcher. It states in the reader ‘these relative influences make it crucial that you are reflexive, reflecting back to your own role, in your inquiry’. As a worker researcher I will need to be aware of the issue of roles and gain consent for my inquiry through the consent form provided by the university. Having knowledge about the workplace and how it operates will be an advantage for me when carrying out my inquiry.
Interviews
I will be using the qualitative method ‘interview’ as a main tool whilst carrying out my inquiry. Interviews with a variety teachers will enable me to directly ask the ‘why questions’ to people who have knowledge, experience and perceptions about my topic. I will use it as evidence. As Bell states in reader 6 page 16 ‘’its advantage is that you can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings’’ I believe this will be a very useful method for me to find out about how motivation is created for students in dance classes.
How will I conduct my interview?
The way in which I will go about my interviews will depend on the time scale I have. I will use a structured list of open questions rather than leader questions, giving the participant the freedom to openly answer and offer their interpretation enabling a more in-depth understanding. However I will also use an informal method of interaction by having a general chat about the subject I am researching which will not be as structured as the formal interview. As it states in the reader ‘’semi structured interview which includes set questions or themes with the flexibility of following interesting or useful emerging issues is often most appropriate for the work-based researcher because of its inherent flexibility’’ I understand this will probably be the most suitable for the research I intend to undertake.
· I will need to collect data based on dance teaching strategies in education, looking mainly at the motivational strategies teachers use.
· I intend to interview a wide range of dance teachers.
· The most appropriate place to hold the interview will be at the schools.
· I believe interviewing would be best held at the early stages of my researching process.
· The questions I will ask the participants will be:
- What do you do to motivate your students?
- What effect does this have on the students?
- How do the students respond and react to this?
- Where does the insight lay in you creating motivation?
- Do motivational levels change when students are working independently or in group settings?
- If so, how and why do you think the levels of motivation change?
- How would you respond to the change in levels of motivation?
- Do motivation levels progress as the class progresses? Or do you feel they drop?
- Do you use any theoretical strategies in motivating students? If so what are they and what effect do they have?
- Do you set class rules for the students? Do you involve the students in setting class rules?
- Do you think it’s important to set tasks that are achievable or tasks that are challenging?
- Do you give feedback to your students, positive and negative?
- Do you reward students on their successes? If so how do you reward them?
- Do you set specific learning aims and objectives for students? Do you encourage students to set aims and objectives for themselves?
- How do you create support for students? Allowing them to take risks and not hold back?
I would say these interview questions are semi-structured with my rationale being it will give participants the flexibility to answer. I intend to use the same questions for all interviews although that may change depending on who I am interviewing and what their background knowledge and experience is. The best way to record the interview for me will be to use a voice recorder setting on my phone and transcribe the notes afterwards, however as it is being recorded I will try and write down brief notes as am listening. Considering the data protection act will be very important and I will have to ensure that I comply with ethical and confidentiality issues.
Surveys
I don’t feel surveys will give me the detail and depth I am looking for in my inquiry. However a survey could make up for this in terms of the breadth or range of results achieved. Using closed, basic questions will be more suited for this type of method allowing me to find out basic information for comparison and correlation.
I want to find out answers to the questions above but don’t feel I can use them in a survey, most people do not have the time to go into detail and would much prefer a yes/no survey. Looking at Peter Bryant – preparing your survey http://peterbryant.smegradio.com/?p=42 gave me a clear understanding of how a survey should be structured:
- - The first section of the survey generally introduces the study to the respondent’s.
- - The middle section contains the items and scales to measure the survey topics in a logical sequence.
- - The final section usually has questions to measure the respondent’s demographic characteristics, like age, gender and income, so they can be grouped and compared.
I have put together a rehearsal survey of questions I would like my SIG group to test out. Here is the link to my survey:
Thoughts and feedback on the survey would be great in order for me to test that the questions make sense, are in the correct sequence, and are visually well presented. This will help me develop my survey for the final module.
