This research used a triangulation of data collection procedures involving various sources of data that included documentary review, a questionnaire, observations and post-lesson observation probing interviews as principles of Illuminative evaluation to investigate the ‘instructional system’ and the ‘learning milieu’. As indicated earlier, the field work was carried out in five months, from January to May, 2010. The research techniques employed for data collection are discussed in detail below.
a. Official documents review
Study of official documents was the primary means of investigating the ‘Instructional System’ of Expressive Arts. The term ‘official documents’ here refer to curriculum policy documents relating to the Expressive Arts ‘intended’ curriculum with information on the aims, content and pedagogy of the Expressive Arts curriculum such as the ‘Teachers’
Guide and Learners’ textbooks for Standards seven and eight. Apart from official documents, ‘documentary sources’ were also studied to investigate the instructional system. The term ‘documentary sources’ here refers to both official and other relevant written materials obtained from the school, such as teachers’ schemes of work, lesson plans and notes and pupils’ work. The documents have the potential to serve as a rich source of information about the instructional system
The documents mentioned above were therefore scrutinised and analysed, using a selection of techniques for qualitative content analysis described by Denscombe (2003, p.221-223) and Babbie (2004, p.314-322):
• Choosing an appropriate sample of texts. In the case of this study, texts selected
were those that contain information on the aims and content knowledge of Expressive Arts and that could throw light on the pedagogy and assessment inherent in it.
• Examining the text initially to form a "hypothesis" about the essential message it conveys. In this case, the texts were examined to form an impression of the nature of the instructional system of Expressive Arts – the nature of the content knowledge that is envisaged that the learners will learn, the outcomes that it is envisaged that the learners will achieve, and the pedagogical and assessment methods used to assist the learners in achieving these.
• Coding the texts in relation to the content knowledge, pedagogy and assessment inherent in the curriculum. ‘Forms of knowledge in the curriculum’ as postulated by Moore and Muller (2001) and Productive Pedagogies as postulated by Lingard et al. (2001), which have been discussed in detail in section 5.6.3 later, in this chapter, were used as the lens for coding and analyzing the content knowledge and pedagogy and assessment respectively in the enacted curriculum.
b. Teacher questionnaire
In addition to the official documents and other written materials obtained from the school, a questionnaire was also used to investigate the ‘instructional system’ of Expressive Arts. Fetterman (1998) highlights the significance of questionnaires as a tool for data collection. Fetterman (1998) argues that
Questionnaires are an excellent way to tackle questions dealing with representativeness although they may not have the same flexibility as interviews and observation and might not be able to provide data of the same detail, depth or clarity, due to being highly structured and requiring written responses (p.65).
In other words, by being distributed to a larger sample than can be used in interviews and observations, questionnaires can throw light on how representative a particular issue or opinion might be in a certain population. In this study, a questionnaire was used as another source to obtain further information and clarify aspects of the ‘instructional system’. The questionnaire therefore helped to validate data obtained through document review.
The questionnaire contained 15 closed questions and one open question (see Appendix 2). These questions sought to elicit the following information:
Identity of the school.
Teachers’ teaching experience
In-service courses attended by the teacher
Design of the Expressive Arts curriculum
The content of the Expressive Arts curriculum
The teacher’s methodologies of teaching Expressive Arts
The teachers’ opinions on the design, content, teaching and assessment stipulated in the curriculum policy documents for Expressive Arts.
Construction of the questionnaire was guided by the research design itself, Illuminative evaluation concepts of ‘instructional system’ and ‘learning milieu.’ It had therefore to enable collection of information on what was in the ‘plan’ for Expressive Arts in terms of what the documents prescribed about content, pedagogy and assessment in Expressive Arts.
A number of people looked at the questionnaire which helped to ascertain if it would elicit desired information. First was my supervisor, who thought it was appropriate for the task. Next, was the Research Ethics Committee of the Wits School of Education of the University of the Witwatersrand who also looked at the questionnaire when considering the ethics proposal. Finally, before administering it, I piloted the questionnaire on 24 Expressive Arts teachers. The pilot results made me refine the questionnaire. The piloting of the questionnaire is described below.
c. Piloting the questionnaire
The questionnaire was piloted in six schools in the Zomba district. The questionnaire had eight sections as follows; demographic data of the respondents, Expressive Arts curriculum design, planning/designing lessons in Expressive Arts, Expressive Arts teaching methods, Assessment in Expressive Arts, Expressive Arts resources, Teacher- learner ratio in Expressive Arts classes and General comments on Expressive Arts curriculum design, content, teaching and assessment methodologies. The questionnaire sought information on the extent to which Expressive Arts teachers, who have been teaching the learning area in Standards seven and eight understand the principles
underpinning the design of the Expressive Arts curriculum and what their practices are in the teaching and assessment of learners in the learning area.
The piloting of the questionnaire was done between 14th and 20th November, 2009.
In all, 24 teachers participated in responding to the questionnaire. I left the questionnaire with them and collected them after two days.
The responses from the participants were analysed. The analysis was aimed at finding out the extent to which the questionnaire items would yield the intended or appropriate data to answer the research questions of the study. The responses from the teachers showed that three items on the questionnaire did not yield the intended or appropriate data. The following are the items and the data they yielded.
What in your experience are the shortcomings or constraints of successfully teaching
Expressive Arts learning area? What are most difficult aspects to teach?
The hope was that in asking this question, the teachers would explain the most difficult topics to teach in Expressive Arts. From the responses however, it was difficult to establish the topics the teachers find difficult to teach in Expressive Arts. For example, one teacher responded, ‘the difficult aspects to teach in Expressive Arts is when the teacher
fails to explain the content of the topic.’ Another teacher responded, ‘Inadequate training.’
Most teachers did not respond to the question.
What would you identify as positive or encouraging for your future practices of
teaching Expressive Arts more successfully?
The hope was that in asking this question, the teachers would explain some arrangements or structures existing at the school to help them professionally to teach Expressive Arts.
Those who responded to the question gave responses such as, ‘I will help those learners
who are not intelligent but have skills to be able to stand on their own.’ Another teacher
responded, ‘Need more support.’ Most of the teachers did not respond to the question.
What changes has continuous assessment made to your assessing learners?
The hope was that in asking this question, the teachers would explain how they do continuous assessment of the learners.
From the responses, it was difficult to establish the ways in which the teachers conduct continuous assessment. Some of the responses given by the teachers to this question included, ‘Encourage learners to work hard.’ Another teacher responded, ‘Absenteeism of
learners has decreased because they feel if they absentee themselves, they might fail their examinations.’ Another teacher responded, ‘Slow learners are able to do well at the end of
the school year.’
As a result of the above items of the questionnaire not yielding intended appropriate data, I thought of changing the wording of two of the question items and completely deleting one of them which seemed to have been a repetition of another item in the questionnaire, which came before it and this resulted in more or less similar data from two items in the same section of the questionnaire. The following is the way I reviewed the question items.
What in your experience are the shortcomings or constraints of successfully teaching
Expressive Arts learning area? What are most difficult aspects to teach?
In the above item, the words ‘shortcomings,’ ‘constraints’ and ‘aspects’ seemed to have been difficult for the teachers to understand. The above item therefore was rephrased as
What in your experience are the challenges of successfully teaching Expressive Arts learning area? What are most difficult topics to teach?
What would you identify as positive or encouraging for your future practices of
teaching Expressive Arts more successfully?
The above item was deleted from the questionnaire because the item was more or less similar to another item which read:
What has been the most beneficial in assisting you to teach Expressive Arts using
integrated approach?
What changes has continuous assessment made to your assessing learners? The above item was rephrased as:
What changes in the way you used to assess learners have you now made as you do
continuous assessment of your learners?