Tessie says "Since I am going to use scenarios in my survey, this article by Simon Borg gives me the guideline how to construct scenarios and how to analyse the findings from the scenarios survey which lead to in-depth interviews. It is one way to strengthen the findings from the questionnaire. The research design is pretty close to my research design."
‘Research Engagement in English language teaching’
Simon Borg/ Teaching and Teacher Education 23 (2007).
This paper presented the results of a survey investigating teacher research engagement in ELT. The survey instrument represented the multi-method investigation using scenario ratings at the first stage followed by in-depth interviews. The level of teacher engagement is analysed in relation to two key factors: teacher’s conceptions of research and their perceptions of the institutional research culture.
Method
The survey
In the form of a questionnaire, the cross-sectional survey allows large amount of data to be collected efficiently, economically, and in a standardised manner (Aldridge &Levine 2001; Dornyei, 2002). However, the predesigned statement may limit the respondents' own accounts. Creswell (2003) call a sequential explanatory multi-method strategy. This is a design which is characterised by the collection and analysis of quantitative data followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data (p.215). This survey allows for the initial, more extensive analysis of data but also being means through which a smaller sample of participants will be identified for the subsequent interview phrase of the study.
Scenarios Ratings in Teacher Education
--The use of research scenarios was suggested by the work of Ratcliffe et al. (2004) who used a similar strategy in interviews as part of the study of science education teachers’ views of research. --
----The scenario devised for this aimed to portray a range of activities with different characteristics (method, data, outputs) and which might depend on individual’s definition of research. ---
In order to investigate the research characteristics respondents felt were important in determining the quality of a piece of research, definitions from research methodology literature were cited. Those common characteristics of research referred to issues of research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation and application were listed. These factors were borne in mind as the results to the research questions would be analysed. On institutional factors, the institutional influences suggested by empirical were listed.
How to link scenario findings to interviews --
The findings show that some items are particularly indicative of the diversity which exists among the teachers in terms of their understanding of what counts as research. Exploring these understanding in more detail such as the reason underlying their assessment will be one goal of the follow-up interviews.
How to analyse the data statistically--
The rating of the scenarios were studied (using Spearman’s rank correlation) for associations with teachers’ qualifications and experience. No significant relationships were found between teachers’ rating and their qualifications; experience did relate though to scenario but the strength was weak. Overall, there are no grounds here for concluding that experience is associated with these teachers’ rating of the scenarios.
Discussion on the findings: Limitation of questionnaires and how to fill the gap
The questionnaire responses about conceptions and practices must always be examined in the knowledge that they are respondents’ reported perceptions of the issues under study and that, for a range of reasons, there may be a gap between actual and reported beliefs and practices. Supplementing questionnaire data with in-depth interviews will allow the findings emerging here to be explored in more detail with a sub-set of the original sample of teachers. Without implying that interviews are free of the dangers associated with respondent bias which affect questionnaires, the combination of questionnaire and the interview data can provide a more complete and convincing account of research engagement in ELT than reliance on questionnaire data alone would.
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