Doing Research in Further Education and Training

Susan Wallace

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781446259191, 9781446259184
• eBook ISBN: 9781446293638
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

Research is an essential component of professional practice. Whether it be action research in a specialist subject or a more formal empirical study, research can improve the quality of teaching and and enhance professional development. This text is a guide to a range of approaches written specifically for teachers and trainee teachers in the Further Education and Skills Sector.

The text covers all aspects of research and explores how research through day-to-day investigations can enhance practice. In all chapters, examples and real-life scenarios from the Further Education and Skills Sector are included, helping the reader to link theory and practice. Whether you need to complete a research project for your teaching qualification, or you need to understand how action research can support your professional development, this text will give you the essential, focused guidance you need.

1

Why do it? How doing research can support teaching and learning

The objectives of this chapter

This chapter looks at ways in which research – from very small scale to more ambitious projects – can inform our ideas for teaching and learning, and how we can use the findings to improve the quality of the learning experience. It draws on examples from the context of Further Education and Training to illustrate these uses of research, and it also introduces and explains some key research terminology, including: source; data; reliability; trustworthiness; validity; triangulation; desktop research; secondary sources; empirical research; primary sources; qualitative; quantitative; and mixed methods.

Introduction

Why might we, as teachers, want to carry out research in Further Education (FE) and vocational training? One possible reason, of course, is that some research activity may be required in order to complete an initial teacher training, continuing professional development (CPD) or Masters assignment. But then we still have to ask ourselves why such a requirement would be necessary. And there are two very clear answers to this question. One is that research is an extension of the process of reflection on practice and is therefore an activity which is central to our role as professionals. The other is that research is an essential tool for raising and maintaining the quality of learning and teaching. It can be used as a means of looking for solutions to difficulties or dilemmas we might face in the classroom, such as how to raise levels of learner engagement or deal effectively with lack of punctuality. It allows us to investigate the impact of policy innovations on practices in our own institution. And it also provides a means of keeping up to date with ideas and developments in our own subject area. In this chapter and the ones that follow we’re going to look at all these ways in which research can be used to support our professional skills, knowledge and understanding. To do that, we’ll be looking at some ‘real life’ cases and exploring the purposes, practicalities and applications of practitioner research in FE and vocational training.

TASK

Read the account of Sara’s dilemma below and consider the following questions:

1. Can we call what Sara does here ‘research’? If so, why? If you think not, what are your reasons?
2. Is Sara using an appropriate source here for the information she is seeking? The source she chooses is the group of latecomers themselves. Are there any other sources of information she could have used, or any alternative ways of obtaining answers from the latecomers?
3. How trustworthy or reliable is the information which Sara gathers in this way? What means could she use to double check whether what the latecomers are telling her is actually the case?
4. Assuming that the information she now has is accurate, how can Sara use it: a) to improve the quality of teaching and learning in this class; and b) to support her own professional development?

You may find it useful to make a note of your answers before going on to read the Discussion which follows.

Sara teaches a level 2 group of 16–17-year-olds. There are 19 students on the register, ten male and nine female. The class is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 11.30 a.m. each Wednesday. However, Sara finds she is losing almost 30 minutes from each class because of some students turning up late, in ones and twos, throughout the first half hour. At first she chose to recap and repeat lesson content for each latecomer, on the basis that they would be unable to benefit from the rest of the lesson unless they had a clear idea of what had gone before. But now she finds she is running out of time to cover the required curriculum content, and so she decides that something must be done. But what will be the most effective way to deal with this problem? She has left herself no time for a trial and error approach, and so she comes to the conclusion that the first step to a fast and effective solution must be to discover the learners’ reasons for arriving late. The following Wednesday she makes a note of the names of the latecomers. There are six of them, all girls, and they are the usual suspects. She asks them to stay for a moment after the class and she asks them, as a group, to explain to her why they are habitually late. It’s clear at first that they assume this is a ‘telling off’, and they don’t have much constructive to say. But Sara perseveres. She tries changing her question and asks them instead, ‘What would make you arrive in time for the start of the lesson?’ Their answers take her by surprise. They tell her that they would turn up on time if they thought she would notice, but that she only takes notice of the boys, so what’s the point? Shocked, she asks them to explain. ‘The boys get all your attention,’ one girl tells her, ‘and you always spend the first bit of the lesson making sure they’ve remembered stuff from last time. So it’s boring.’

Whatever response Sara was expecting, it certainly wasn’t this. She’ll need to go away and think about this carefully.

Discussion

Let’s look at the questions now and answer each of them as fully as we can.

1. Can we call what Sara does here ‘research’? If so, why? If you think not, what are your reasons?

Although what Sara does here is spontaneous and informal, we can still call it research. The clue is in that phrase: ‘to discover why’. Sara sets out to discover why some learners are habitually late for that class. She decides what she considers to be the best source for this information – the latecomers themselves. She frames a research question: ‘Why are you habitually late?’ And then, finding this unproductive, she re-frames it: ‘What would make you arrive in time for the start of the lesson?’ And she obtains her information, which – in research terminology – we may call her data. So what we see here is recognisably a research model. Of course, it is a very rough and ready one. If Sara were to write this up as a formal research project she would find it open to criticism on several points, as we shall see as we go through the rest of the questions. Nevertheless, she shows us here at a basic level how an FE teacher can take on the role of researcher as an integral part of her professional practice.

2. Is Sara using an appropriate source here for the information she is seeking? The source she chooses is the group of latecomers themselves. Are there any other sources of information she could have used, or any alternative ways of obtaining answers from the latecomers?

Let’s be clear, first of all, about what information Sara is seeking. She wants to know why some learners habitually turn up late for her class. It’s clear, then, that the learners themselves are an appropriate place to start looking for answers. The extent to which Sara can trust their answers will be discussed in the next question; but for her to attempt to solve this puzzle without asking them at all would not really make much sense. In research terms, therefore, we can describe the data she gets from them as valid. That is, it is from an appropriate and relevant source in the context of her research question. If she were to ask, let’s say, her newsagent on her way home why he thought this group of students was always late, his response might be interesting, but it wouldn’t constitute valid data because he wouldn’t be in a position to know anything about their circumstances or motivation.

She could, however, have considered other sources in addition to asking the learners themselves. For example, she could have asked other teachers whether those particular students were usually late for their sessions too. Or she could have asked her section head – or the learners’ personal tutor, if they have one – whether there are any circumstances in the learners’ lives which could be causing them to arrive late. Making use of these additional sources of information would also allow her to compare what she discovered there with what the learners themselves are telling her. This cross checking between one data source and another is known as triangulation, and we’ll be discussing its uses further in the next question. Before we do, let’s just consider some of the alternative methods Sara could have used to obtain answers from the unpunctual learners. She could, for example, have taken a more formal approach and designed a questionnaire to be completed by every learner in the class who arrived after the start of the lesson. Or, if she had the time to spare, she could interview each of the latecomers individually. Or she could have posed her question by convening the latecomers more formally as a focus group. If she had been carrying out this research as part of an initial teaching qualification, CPD or MA assignment, she would probably have used one of these more structured methods of collecting her data, and would be expected to give clear reasons justifying her choice (see Close Focus below).

3. How trustworthy or reliable is the information which Sara gathers in this way? What means could she use to double check whether what the latecomers are telling her is actually the case?

Sara will need to consider to what extent she can trust the data she has collected. Is the learners’ account of the situation ‘true’? Would an objective observer see it in the same way? In other words, is Sara really giving most of her attention to the boys in the class and so making the girls feel left out; or are these girls exaggerating in order to give themselves an excuse for being late? How reliable is their response as data? If someone else – not their teacher – asked them why they were always late, would they give the same answer? And, even if they really do believe that Sara is paying insufficient attention to the girls in the class, might this simply be their perception – a very subjective view – which an objective observation would show to be untrue? These questions about the reliability and trustworthiness of data are important ones that must be addressed in any research. It would be wise, therefore, for Sara to double-check her findings. She might, for example, arrange to have her next couple of sessions with this group recorded to camera; or she might ask a colleague, mentor or tutor to sit in and observe her. She would then be able to compare those results with what these learners have told her, and see whether the two are consistent. This triangulation of methods would be a way of adding weight to the conclusions she is drawing from her research, and would be particularly useful if she were writing this up as a formal research project.

4. Assuming that the information she now has is accurate, how can Sara use it: a) to improve the quality of teaching and learning in this class; and b) to support her own professional development?

So let’s imagine that Sara has asked her mentor to observe her next session with this group and to look out particularly for how Sara divides her attention between male and female learners; and let’s assume that her mentor has confirmed what the unpunctual students said. Now that she is aware of her own tendency to speak more to the boys, Sara can consider ways to address this. It’s likely that she will begin at once to monitor patterns of teacher–learner interactions in all her classes, and will look carefully at her lesson planning to devise teaching strategies and learning activities that engage all learners equally. She will probably ask the learners more regularly now for evaluative feedback, particularly on the issue of inclusion; and she will monitor punctuality in order to see whether all these measures are having the required effect. The research and its aftermath, in alerting her to the importance of inclusive practice, will have been valuable to her professional development. She may decide to make this issue a focus of her reflective journal, which will help her to maintain vigilance about inclusion in all the classes she teaches. And she may decide to do more research, this time in the form of some reading, perhaps, to discover what other teachers and researchers have to say about inclusion in relation to gender. We would call this last activity desktop research using secondary sources; while getting out there and asking questions as Sara did to start with is empirical research using primary sources.

CLOSE FOCUS

Let’s look more closely here at what was said, in response to question 2, about the possible use of questionnaires or interviews. Sara might have decided to use either or both of these methods to collect her data, and it was mentioned that a more formal approach such as this would have been an advantage if she had been conducting the research as part of a project or assignment. Why do you think that would be so? Take some time to consider your answers to the following questions:

• What might be the advantages of giving individuals a written questionnaire to complete anonymously rather than informal oral questioning of a small group?
• What might be the advantages of conducting individual interviews rather than informally questioning a group?
• Which of these three methods – informal questioning, questionnaire, interview – do you think would be likely to yield the most reliable data, and why?
• What, in your view, might be the main disadvantage of each of these methods, and why?
• You may find it useful to keep a careful note of your answers. We shall be returning to these questions in Chapters 6 and 7, where we look at these methods in more detail.

Terminology

When we discuss things to do with research, even informally, it’s useful to have a customised vocabulary that allows us to think and to talk about the subject accurately and clearly. Like other aspects of our professional role – assessment, teaching, lesson planning – research has its own specialised terms. So let’s look again at the research terminology we’ve encountered so far and set out some working definitions:

• Data: The information that you collect during your research. It’s worth noting here that data is the plural noun, like children or fungi. (The singular form, rarely used, is datum.) You’ll therefore see it in sentences like this: ‘The data were collected by questionnaire’. However, not everyone remembers this all the time, and so it can be a little confusing!
• Reliability: Data are considered re...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Author
• Chapter 1 Why do it? How doing research can support teaching and learning
• Chapter 2 Research ethics and how we apply them in further education and training
• Chapter 3 Choosing and planning your research project
• Chapter 4 Looking in the mirror: Action Research as reflective practice
• Chapter 5 Getting on the case: case studies and insider research
• Chapter 6 Questions and answers: questionnaires and focus groups
• Chapter 7 Watching and listening: observations and interviews
• Chapter 8 Paper chase: exploring policies and other documents
• Chapter 9 What does it all mean? Analysing your findings
• Chapter 10 Sharing your findings: writing up a project or making a presentation
• Chapter 11 Putting it all together and writing your research assignment
• Index