Ley 906 de 2004

Data obtained through classroom observation served as a means of comparing observations with participants’ subjective reporting of what they believe and do (Patton, 2002). I argued that classroom observation is useful for gaining an understanding of the physical, social and cultural circumstances in which the participants teach, the relationship among and between colleagues, context, ideas, their behaviour and the activities they apply in their teaching. I wanted to observe what participants do, how frequently and with whom.

Classroom observation in this study served two purposes. Firstly it was used to describe the setting that was observed, the activities that took place and whether learners participated in the activities and the meanings of what was observed before the intervention (workshops) started. Secondly, the observations of the research lessons were documented to determine whether participants’ teaching practice has changed/not changed during the study while research lessons have been implemented.

The shift in classroom teaching practice from before and after the intervention is important because this will point out whether the RME-based PD had any influence on participants’ teaching.

Lesson Study (LS)

LS is a process that involves a small group of participants who meet regularly to plan, design, implement, evaluate and refine lessons for a unit of work (Hurd & Licciardo- Musso, 2005). In this study the lessons will target specific focus areas within a pre- scribed topic. I have decided to include LS in this research because it addresses issues of concern and interest, mainly (but not exclusively) identified by the participants themselves. This will involve a degree of choice to participate in this study.

Structured sharing of experiences during research lessons were planned and conducted. Feedback and discussions between participants and me took place.

Since the main research question of this study was to determine what the experiences of PSMTs were who participated in an RME-based PD, it was important that participants recorded their thoughts and experiences regularly. Prior to the study questions in the study addressed participants’ views and beliefs regarding primary school mathematics teaching.

Participants were regularly asked to reflect on their experience regarding the implementation of the RME principles through the method of LS. Participants had to reflect on the possible benefits of the process of LS, the possible benefits of applying and implementing RME principles as well as obstacles experienced during this study.

The aim of reflection was to enable participants to share their experiences, successes and anxiety with one another.

Interviews

The purpose of including interviews was to find out from the participants those issues that could not be observed. Feelings, thoughts and intentions cannot be observed (Patton, 2002). I argued that the interviews would enable me to get an understanding

of the participants’ perspectives. I used two basic approaches to collect data through interviews, i.e.

 Informal conversations (after classroom observations)

 Questions drafted for interview sessions to gain more information regarding views and beliefs of participants. Some of these questions were posed to individuals and due to the time constraint the interview session later changed to focus-group interviews.

Individual as well as focus group interviews were conducted before the study commenced as well during the study.

The interviews captured how participants view their world. It helped to get to know and to understand their terminology and judgements. The interviews portrayed the complexities of participants’ individual perceptions and experiences.

Workshops

This study’s focus is on the PD of PSMTs. I argued that during workshop session, participants can experience all activities as ‘learners’ which might possibly convince them to implement these activities in their teaching. The participants may have an extensive knowledge base of their learners and learning environment which I as facilitator need to be informed about. The workshop sessions should also preferably change the relationship participants have with me, the researcher, if I treat them during the sessions as partners in the discovery process.

I contend that workshop sessions might enhance team building which might add value to our relationship during this study. Participants would be involved in all stages of this research and this might possibly help them to arrive at concrete findings.

Workshops were designed cognisant of the principles of RME (described in Chapter 3) and mindful of the key role of participants’ views and beliefs in affecting lasting change. The content of the follow-up sessions were specifically based on discussions about what the participants perceived as needs that occurred in the previous sessions. Preparations for classroom practice were done after the first session. Participants were encouraged to try out ideas introduced in each of the workshops and to share ideas and experiences they had during the research lessons (LS).

I provided additional resources in the form of hand-outs, teaching aids (for example number frames, bead strings and worksheets to name a few) and ideas for preparing own useful teaching aids as well as additional relevant textbooks. RME was explicitly mentioned as the framework of the study underpinning the ideas presented in the workshops. Explicit discussions about relevant beliefs were facilitated.

In the next sub-section key definitions and terminology used in this study will shortly be defined in the context it was used in this study.