LA EJECUCIÓN DE LOS PROYECTOS SIGUIENDO EL MARCO LÓGICO

This section will reflect on the data collected during the observations made in classroom visits assigned to the active participants of the research. Classroom observations were necessary to get a general understanding towards teachers’ performance, lesson atmospheres, students’ response towards teachers, and types of classroom interaction (student-student, teacher-student, student-teacher), in addition to other characteristics signified in the observation checklist. Lesson observations also provided further opportunity for the researcher to reflect on the data collected through the needs assessment questionnaires and the interviews. It brought further attention to how teachers put their concepts into practice.

Lesson Observation Summary

Classroom visits were done in collaboration with a Ministry of Education representative, which gave me official access to schools and classrooms. This arrangement facilitated my scheduled visits and access to schools at a time of convenience required for my research. Data collected was noted on the observation checklist in an objective and direct manner.

Classroom visits were scheduled three times a week, attending and observing two lessons a day for the same teacher. Scheduled visits were conducted in two phases, before and after the intervention. The first set of classroom visits was arranged during the reconnaissance phase of the research and after distributing the needs assessment questionnaires. This was done in order to collect the necessary data about the teachers’ actual performance in the classroom in addition to further understanding the classroom and school environment that teachers work within. The second set of classroom observations was done after having implemented the intervention. In order to assess the applicability of what was covered during workshops and discussions, it was necessary to attend and observe lessons of the participating teachers.

It therefore can be concluded that each stage in this project required two different phases of classroom observations, which were also crucial for developing the following phase of intervention. Table 4.2 below further clarifies the stages in which the lesson observations were conducted.

Table 4.2: Research Project Phases

Month A R Stage Tool

Jan 07 Reconnaissance Distribution of Questionnaire

Feb 07 Reconnaissance Classroom Observations/Interviews

Mar 07 Reconnaissance Classroom Observations/Interviews

Apr 07 Intervention Development

Development of Plan for interventions, workshops, discussion forums and demonstration classes.

May 07 Intervention 1 Workshops/Discussion Sessions

Jun 07 Summer Break

Jul 07 Summer Break

Aug 07 Monitoring/Evaluation Classroom Observations/Interviews

Sep 07 Monitoring/Evaluation Classroom Observations/Interviews

Oct 07 Monitoring/Evaluation Classroom Observations/Interviews

Nov 07 Intervention 2 Workshops/Discussion Sessions

Classroom Setting

Two main settings existed in the schools managed by the ministry of education, public and model school classrooms. Public school classrooms accommodate an average of 25 students, who are individually seated at their desks. The teacher usually stands in front of the class, with the whiteboard in the back. Teachers always begin the lesson standing in front of the class, greeting them and thereafter telling them what they will be covering during the lesson. The lesson is rather systematic as the teacher appears to be there to deliver the lesson only regardless if students have an engaging learning opportunity or not. In the majority of the lessons, the lesson content is mainly derived from the textbook, with limited extra-curricular material being used. The majority of teachers rarely walk in between students during a lesson and remain in the front of the class. It appears to be a preference for the majority of teachers, to stay in the front of the class rather than walk in between students sitting at their desks. The majority of teachers cannot be considered as in being fluent speakers of English, as several weaknesses in pronunciation and spelling, as well as writing, were noticed.

On the other hand, model schools have an average of 15 students per class. The majority of teachers appear more confident and willing during the lesson. Students are seated differently: some students are seated in groups of four with their desks facing one another; other students are seated in pairs. Teachers remained at the front of the class while using a PowerPoint presentation to display the page students are on during the lesson. The slide show is a continuous reference point during the lesson.

Noted Observations

The following listed observations were made based on classroom visits. Listing of the findings is based on the sequence the notes appear in the observation forms:

Lesson Introductory

The majority of the classes attended did not have a clear set of objectives, neither myself or attending students had an understanding of what would be covered during the lesson.

Teachers in general would introduce the topic or unit of the lesson orally after greeting the students.

Lesson introductions and areas of focus would be topic oriented with a key emphasis on Grammar. In other words, teachers would start the lesson by telling the students what the lesson was going to be about, demanding limited deduction skills from the students while using similar introductions to the following:

‘Today we will talk about the Reported Speech....’

‘Our lesson today is about describing things that happened in the past...’ ‘Today we will read about the Solar System...’

Lesson Performance

The majority of teachers did not appear to have the skills required to relate students’ experiences and interests to the lesson. The majority of the teachers appeared to be unaware of methods to generate student interest and involvement towards the topic of the lesson, which made the majority of the lesson introductions limited in terms of inter- activities.

The majority of teachers appeared to be more comfortable and in control of the flow of the lesson when teaching Grammar rather than other language skills; Listening, Speaking and Reading.

The majority of the teachers had poor time management and dedicated more time than required in particular areas that did not address necessary language skills, such as translating meanings into Arabic and working on areas irrelevant to the lesson objectives.

The majority of teacher language communication skills were rather weak and below generally required expectations. It was later noted by the assessment and evaluation department head at the Ministry of Education headquarters, that over half the teachers employed at the Ministry of Education scored between 3.5-4.5 on the IELTS conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2009 (Interview, 17-05-07). Teachers had issues with pronunciation, spelling and conveying ideas to students in the English language. As a result, several teachers would resort to using the mother tongue in the classroom.

The majority of the students attending did not appear to be fully engaged in the lesson and were rather passive participants. Students sitting in the front rows of the class were

the most active. Students did not appear to be fully engaged in the majority of lessons attended, particularly in public schools.

The majority of teacher resources were restricted to the student book and workbook. There was a limited number of additional resources used other than printed material. Teachers did not appear to put effort into using a variety of resources to help engage students in the lessons. Lesson introductions appeared to be minimally engaging based on student responses in the classroom.

All lessons were more teacher-centred rather than student-centred. Teacher talking time was more than 90% in all lessons observed. The majority of student involvement was in response to teacher prompts and queries. There was limited opportunity for students to actively involve themselves in the lessons.

Although a few teachers managed to have students seated in pairs or groups there was limited if any use of seating arrangements. Students worked individually although seated among others. Students mostly worked on tasks individually with limited opportunity to discuss and interact with their peers or the teacher.

It seems that all teachers were more concerned with disciplinary issues and teaching rather than any actual learning taking place. Seating arrangements, discussions and tasks were arranged so as to give minimal opportunity for students to interact with one another and share ideas.

Lesson Conclusion

Only a few teachers managed to finish the lesson on time in order to assign homework or further evaluate the expected learning outcomes of the lessons. The majority of teachers would continue working to the last minute of the lesson, leaving no time to assign homework or further evaluate the covered learning objectives.

A general impression noted based on lesson observations made was that teachers were more focused on completing content areas rather than developing learning skills. Teachers seemed to be urged to complete a number of pages during a lesson, rather than define general sub-skills they wanted to develop in their students while using the

available resources they had. For example, when teaching Reading, the main focus was on teaching the meaning of a passage rather than the sub-skills required for students to become effective readers (e.g. reading for specific information, reading for meaning and extracting meaning from context). When teaching grammar, teachers were concerned with having students know the syntactic rule, but not actually using structures in meaningful contexts. For example, students learning the reported speech or the simple present tense would study syntactic structures in isolation rather than in context, resulting in an unproductive learning experience as they would not be able to effectively apply these rules in authentic settings.