Bearing in mind that good tools help to do a good job, the instruments which were used to generate data for this study were: an author-designed semi-structured interview schedule and two author-designed classroom observation checklists. I generated data through the use of one on one interviews with all the participants and direct observation of the learning environment and four lessons from each of four teachers. These two methods were selected because they no attempt to separate “make the researcher from the researched in order to 2003, maintain objectivity” (Greenbank p. 793). Both the interview schedule and the two checklists were piloted prior to use. A description and results of the pilot are provided later in this chapter. Interviews The semi-structured interviews (Stake, 2010; Yin, 2009) of approximately forty-five minutes to an hour in length were conducted with the eight teachers at a time that was convenient to both me and the participants. Questions relating to the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and perceptions about learner centred instruction as recommended in the ECE curriculum were included in the interviews. This basic method of generating data was used as it was aimed at and detailed answers to the attaining “rich research (Yilmaz 2008, p.40). An interview schedule (Appendix G) with questions” the research questions and the related guiding items based on each research question was used in the interviews. All interviews were audio-taped. This method of acquiring the actual quotations of the participants was employed since I share the belief that “no matter how carefully one words interview questions, it all comes to naught if the interviewer fails to capture the actual words of the person being interviewed” (Patton 1990, p. 347). In order to avoid influencing the views of the respondents, the interview questions were structured in a broad way. For example, in order to obtain the participants’ beliefs about learner centred instruction in the context of ECE, they were asked ‘What With do you perceive your role to be in a learner centred instruction environment?’ regards to generating information on contextual factors affecting the participants in the implementation of learner centred instruction in the ECE curriculum, they were asked: you experienced any challenges in implementing learner centred ‘Have
Bearing in mind that good tools help to do a good job, the instruments which were used to generate data for this study were: an author-designed semi-structured interview schedule and two author-designed classroom observation checklists. I generated data through the use of one on one interviews with all the participants and direct observation of the learning environment and four lessons from each of four teachers. These two methods were selected because they “make no attempt to separate the researcher from the researched in order to maintain objectivity” (Greenbank 2003, p. 793). Both the interview schedule and the two checklists were piloted prior to use. A description and results of the pilot are provided later in this chapter. Interviews The semi-structured interviews (Stake, 2010; Yin, 2009) of approximately forty-five minutes to an hour in length were conducted with the eight teachers at a time that was convenient to both me and the participants. Questions relating to the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and perceptions about learner centred instruction as recommended in the ECE curriculum were included in the interviews. This basic method of generating data was used as it was aimed at attaining “rich and detailed answers to the research questions” (Yilmaz 2008, p.40). An interview schedule (Appendix G) with the research questions and the related guiding items based on each research question was used in the interviews. All interviews were audio-taped. This method of acquiring the actual quotations of the participants was employed since I share the belief that “no matter how carefully one words interview questions, it all comes to naught if the interviewer fails to capture the actual words of the person being interviewed” (Patton 1990, p. 347). In order to avoid influencing the views of the respondents, the interview questions were structured in a broad way. For example, in order to obtain the participants’ beliefs about learner centred instruction in the context of ECE, they were asked ‘What do you perceive your role to be in a learner centred instruction environment?’ With regards to generating information on contextual factors affecting the participants in the implementation of learner centred instruction in the ECE curriculum, they were asked: ‘Have you experienced any challenges in implementing learner centred
FINAL%20DISSERTATION%20-%20MARCH%202017.docx