Data was collected from classroom observations, field notes, and student learning logs, their interviews, and final inquiry, follow-up questionnaire and from the researcher diaries.
In the pre-intervention phase, the content of the PST- program was agreed upon with the principal of the high school. Initial contact with the participants took place on the day the intervention started and the final interview took place two weeks after our last classroom session (in the beginning of March 2015). Data from the pre-intervention phase included the researcher diary about the planning of the course.
During the intervention the data was collected from the researcher diaries, videotaped lectures, field notes and student learning logs. Researcher kept the researcher diary during the whole six week period intervention period. This diary was written before and after every class and it included evaluation of every classroom session and reflections of the class by a practitioner and expressions of the participants. In addition, every session was videotaped and saved for later analysis.
Data collection from students during the course was conducted through their learning logs but also through questionnaires and in-class tests. Student learning logs were one of the main data sources in this course and those also helped me as a researcher to formulate the post intervention interviews by giving more insight knowledge of each participant. The final inquiry is presented in the APPENDIX 19.
In the post intervention phase, the researcher continued to write down his thoughts in the diary now focusing on self-evaluation. Videotaped material of each class was also extracted and analyzed by making notes from actions and emotions. That gave me as a researcher a chance to go back to the real life events after the course was over and done and see myself as a teacher executing the course. That way I did not have to recall what was actually done in each session. Data collection from the participants after the course was conducted through final interviews and follow-up questionnaires.
Next step to get data was to interview my participants. Interviews were held after the actual PST course. Students were informed about the interviews at the first meeting and they all agreed to participate in this by filling up an informed consent form (APPENDIX 20) which was given out at our first meeting. All interviews were audiotaped and field notes were made during these interviews. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
A general guide to the interview topics included how the students felt about the lessons, what they had learnt, what was good in our lessons and what they would have liked to change about the lesson, if they could. These interviews offered insights into students experience about this course. Interview questions are presented in the APPENDIX 21.
The last method to gather data was a follow-up questionnaire. The questionnaire (APPENDIX 22) was sent to participants two months after the end of the course.
The reason for doing this was to get an idea if the participants had used some of the learned skills in their lives and what were those applied skills.
3.6.1 The researcher diaries
The researcher diaries were written from the planning phase (early November 2014) till the last interview session (executed in March, 2015). Before starting the writing process, it was useful to make a list of questions as a reminder of what I wanted to achieve with this certain project (see e.g. Edwards & Talbot, 2014). That list was completed during the process when I reflected and evaluated my actions.
Here is a list of reflective diary questions from different sources I found beneficial for me when writing my researcher diaries:
What I am trying to achieve?
What actually happened?
What events/conversations/ideas seemed particularly significant?
What went well/ not so well?
How did I feel about the experience?
What did students feel about the experience?
What should I do differently next time?
What actions do I need to take now?
Data from the researcher diaries were collected pre-intervention, during the intervention and post-intervention phases using different types of collection methods. Data included field notes from discussions with the principal and senior students, reflection diaries from the planning phase and implementation phase, audiotaped interviews with participants and students written learning logs.
Videotaped classroom material was used only as a visual recapping method what was done during the classroom sessions.
These diaries formed an inductive, data driven and longitudinal follow- up source to be used in analyzing the data. Data included researcher’s observation and perception, thoughts and feelings, perceived strengths and weaknesses in various areas, as well as evaluation of the process. The diary reflects evaluation in time, from planning to implementation and from implementation to evaluation, how my feelings and thoughts changed or stayed the same during this process.
In this actual and practical phase, the researcher wrote down all thoughts, feelings and perceptions about the whole lesson immediately after each lesson but also before every session. That gave me an opportunity to reflect if the pre- session feelings were met in the class and after it. In addition, the students’ questions and reactions were noted. I wrote my diary every day when I was doing something related to my action research study. Actually, I wrote about my feelings during the whole planning phase and then again in the implementation phase before the class and after classroom sessions. This procedure gave me much data to analyze and it gave a chance to revisit what was written because time and later experiences may modify those initial reactions.
The researcher diary in the planning phase had 6 pages, 2128 words in line spacing of 1.5. The implementation phase included 18 pages, 6652 words and the spacing of 1.5. The evaluation phase included 8 pages, 2839 words, in the spacing of 1.5.
The total amount of researcher diaries consisted of 32 pages and 11 619 words.
Students learning logs included 12 pages, 3561 words in spacing of 1.5. Students’
interviews included 22 pages, 7703 words in spacing of 1.5. Total amount of
participant data contained 24 pages and 11 264 words and information from the final inquiry (2- paged and structured questionnaire).