Otras adquisiciones

After careful development of the instruments and obtaining ethics approval, as discussed earlier in this chapter, the data collection commenced in two stages for qualitative and quantitative data. As the study adopted an exploratory mixed methods design, the qualitative data were collected first, followed by the quantitative data.

3.5.2.1 Qualitative Phase

Data collection began with classroom observations. For this purpose, necessary arrangements were made with school administrators and teachers, and permissions were sought. In this stage, the researcher took part, as a nonparticipant, in the eight classrooms randomly chosen in the four identified PLSs, and observed and noted the teachers’ use of technology in their practices. As the focus was on the teachers’ use of technology for facilitating the learning of a new language, which in this case was English, the observations included a predesigned observational protocol (see Appendix 3) to inform the direction and boundary for recording notes. The aim was to take note of teachers’ practices, and later on, compare the results to their responses in the interview phase. This comparison provided the opportunity to associate teachers’ ways of thinking to their class practices. In addition, during

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the observation, the physical setting of the classes was noted, which provided valuable data about the study context.

The observations were conducted during the usual class hours and no modifications to time were required. Prior to the observation, the researcher was introduced to the teachers and students (Creswell, 2007). Prior to each observation, the researcher had a small talk with each teacher and together quickly reviewed the lesson plan for the day. It particularly helped the researcher to identify the topic and structure of the presentations and get an understanding of what was going to happen. As advised by Creswell (2007), it was very important to create a friendly environment for the observation, where all the participants could perform their normal activities, without feeling being under pressure or stress. The observer’s position was carefully selected in each class to minimise the possibility of interrupting the usual class practices. Each observation lasted approximately 90 minutes, equal to the duration of the class. In the end, participants were thanked and informed “of the use of the data and their accessibility to the study” (Creswell, 2007, p.135).

By the completion of the eight classroom observations (total of 12 hours), data collection procedure continued by conducting interviews. Interviews were face-to-face, and teachers were asked open-ended questions (see Appendix 4). Interviews were conducted before or after class hours to avoid any interference with teachers’ work timetable. The average time for the interview was 35 minutes. Prior to the interview, participants were asked to self-assess their knowledge of ICT (information communication technology) by

responding to a short inventory, including ten items (see Appendix 4). The benefit of interviewing at this stage was to gain information about the participants’ historical

information, in addition to the observations conducted in the classroom. Participants were not informed of the research perspectives, as Best and Kahn (2006) point out, the interviewer

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should not let the interviewees be aware of his research perspectives, since their awareness of the perspectives may result in biased responses.

The questions were designed and developed prior to the interview, but the researcher asked further related questions where more probing was needed to gain more data. The interviews were conducted in English, as the participants were proficient speakers of the language. Whenever necessary, however, some clarifications were spoken in the participants’ first language (i.e., Persian). The aim of conducting interviews in English was to eliminate the need for translation, which may result in loss of some meaning during the translation process.

The entire interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed for data analysis purposes. The researcher also took notes during the interviews, which were collected and categorised for inclusion in the data analysis. At the end of the qualitative phase, data garnered from observations and interviews were analysed and interpreted to achieve certain themes and descriptions. Following the exploratory sequential mixed method of this study, the next stage built on the findings from the qualitative research, together with the themes driven from the related literature.

3.5.2.2 Quantitative Phase

The results of the qualitative phase provided themes and descriptions about how teachers, as well as students and administrators, defined their roles and scope of

responsibilities in a CALL context. Based on these data, together with the review of the related literature on CALL teacher education and expert consultations, a questionnaire was developed to examine the generalisability of the findings of the first phase (i.e., qualitative) in a larger population of second language teachers in the Iranian context. After developing the questionnaire, it was piloted with a smaller population, similar to the larger target population.

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Comments received from the participants in the pilot group were collected, analysed and applied to finalise the structure and content of the questionnaire. Next, participants were recruited largely by sending invitations to the potential individuals on LinkedIn

(http://wwww.linkedin.com). Some other teachers were also invited to take part in the study by attending various PLSs.

The survey was conducted online, and the associated items were uploaded to the Qualtrics platform, and participants were provided with the link to the survey. Once a sufficient number of participants responded to the survey, the data were exported from Qualtrics to conduct data analysis on SPSS.