Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Blog #16 Methods


Methods

            To begin this study I decided to conduct my research through a series of interviews on current teachers. I had access to a school in an urban district of New Jersey where I am currently completing my junior field experience. I decided that two interviews would be sufficient for the length and time frame allotted for this project. The school has a total of forty-four teachers, most of which I have not had one on one interaction. Therefore I requested the advice of my cooperating teacher in suggesting two teachers who she thought might be willing and able to sit down with me for the interviews. She suggested two teachers; a third grade teacher and a fifth grade teacher. I approached each teacher in person, introduced myself, and introduced my research project. I gave each teacher a copy of the interview questions for them to read before deciding whether they wanted to participate or not. After review the questions, they each agreed to participate in the study. Meetings were then scheduled at mutually convenient times. The questions were designed to fit a range of easy, medium, and more intense/open ended questions. I wanted to start with easy and medium type questions to open the discussion, but these sections only had four questions each. The more intense and open-ended questions had a total of sixteen questions and were the basis of the interviews. The first interview was with participant A, a fifth grade teacher, with thirteen years of teaching experience. This interview took a total of twenty-nine minutes and fifty-two seconds. The second interview was with participant B, a third grade teacher, with seventeen years of teaching experience. This interview took a total of sixteen minutes and forty seconds. Both interviews were recorded and transcribed at a later time. 


Limitations of Study
·      Only 2 teachers interviewed
·      One school
·      Not your average urban school (a lottery school and current contender to IB)

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