CAMBIOS DEGENERATIVOS DISCALES

A focus group was conducted in each research school with students from each year group representing upper, middle and lower abilities and where appropriate gender. The size of the focus group, with six students in each group, was decided to allow for diversity of views and enable all students to able to contribute and express ideas freely.

In each school, to explore the responses from the student questionnaire in greater depth, focus group interviews were set up with a selection of students from the two year groups being surveyed, initially when they were in Year 7 and Year 9

The aim of the focus group interviews was to investigate the nature and quality of developments in PSHE over a two-year period and to examine personal development in that time within a school context. The focus group interviews were to be repeated after an interval of two years in order to give a longitudinal perspective and discover whether student perceptions had changed over time. It also provided an opportunity to see if any patterns that could be detected.

Each focus group was made up of students in the same year group and therefore they were similar in age. The group comprised, as Kreuger (1994:14) suggests, a group of students with common interests rather than being a diverse group. Each group was invited to share ideas and explore topics in an informal setting. Every group participated and interacted together which helped me gain insights into their

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views and opinions. The groups were encouraged to relax. Prior planning of the format of the interview encouraged the maximisation of information gathered. Each group was conducted on school premises that were familiar to students which helped them to feel at ease. The topics raised had been carefully planned in order to follow a logical progression. Groups were made up of students from various tutor groups in the year group and it was important to ensure that all students had a chance to express their views and were not dominated by one or two members of the group. I had to take into account the management of the groups in order to allow a balance of contributions (Bloor et al.2001).

The focus group interview schedule (Appendix 3) began with a question which asked them to elaborate on the purpose of PSHE. Follow-up questions were designed to encourage more in-depth discussion and reflection on PSHE including whether they enjoyed PSHE and found it useful. Questions then focused on personal

development. They were asked if there were any subjects that helped them improve their self-esteem or if other people could help them feel good about themselves, developing the theme of how self-esteem could be enhanced and when or where this could occur. The questions then concentrated on how the school celebrated

individual achievement, and how students perceived their personal development in the context of school ethos. Other questions centred on ascertaining students’ understanding of the impact of PSHE on their personal development.

The questions used during the focus group interviews were designed to interrogate data derived from the questionnaires and to explore their findings in greater depth. The first set of questions focused on student views about PSHE and whether or not it was useful in life. This related to the purpose of PSHE as researched by Mead (2004). Students were asked what they enjoyed and what they would improve about the subject. I felt this would provide an insight into ways of enhancing delivery. The

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next topic that questions focused on was self-esteem; discussion centred round ways of building and developing self-esteem as a way of understanding the enhancement of personal development. I felt this element of the topic was important because Brandon (1988) says self-esteem is ‘the key to success or failure’. As a way of examining self-esteem, I discussed with students recognition of achievement in general by looking at how the achievements were celebrated (Palladino, 1989).

I used prompts and probes by asking after each question whether there was anything that students wanted to add to what had been said or if anyone wanted to make any further comments relating to the issues. Another way I prompted students in the focus group in a non-verbal way was to nod my head. I also reflected on what had been said and repeated it back to the group to ensure everyone had understood and I encouraged others to debate a point further. I used the phrase ‘what do you mean’ as a way of encouraging students to go into greater detail about a point. However, this had to be said in a positive tone so as not to sound negative but as to be seen as encouragement. Another way I used prompts was to summarise what had been discussed as a way of stimulating further debate.

The questions were designed to establish students’ thoughts about the PSHE programme that they were experiencing, how students felt about themselves, in which areas they felt good about themselves, how and when they received positive feedback and where and when they received praise. The focus group questions were drawn from areas identified in the literature review. This gave an indication of how they perceived their personal development might be enhanced. A copy of the questions is included in the appendix (see Appendix 3).

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