Method in Context- Participant and non participant observation

Question 1

Structured observation

Answer 1

• Positivists prefer these methods- enable identify & quantitative measurement of behaviour patterns
• Method are non-participant

Question 2

Practical issues- strengths

Answer 2

• Structured observation- positivist
  FIAC- Flanders Interaction analysis
• Measures pupil-pupil- teacher interaction quantitatively
• Observers use standard chat to record interaction
• Observation converted- quantitative data by counting no of time each type of behaviour occur
• Flanders (1970)- American class 68% is teacher talk, 30% pupil talk,12% silence or confusion
• FIAC- quicker, cheaper & less training/less structured methods
• Quicker and cheaper- structured observations is quicker and cheaper requires less training than unstructured observational methods. This is because when using structured observations the observer use pre defined observational schedule. This can be easily converted into quantitative data form and analysed statistically to see whether there is a relationship between the two variables of interest.

Question 3

theoretical issues and ethical- strengths

Answer 3

Reliability:
- FIAC easily replicated
-FIAC uses 10 categories of class interaction- easy for other researchers to apply in standardised way
- Generate quantitative data- easy to compare with other studies
No ethical issues- If structured observations used in school setting teachers and student would be aware of it and so no real ethical issues involved. As long as the purpose is known and confidentiality is maintained, the research study should be ethical.

Question 4

Unstructured observation

Answer 4

• Interpretivist favour- less structured,more flexible, qualitative observational methods
• Gain access to meaning teachers & pupils give to situations by immersing themselves in those situations
• Structured method- does not make assumptions in advance about what key research issues are .
• Sociologists use observational methods more than structured

Question 5

Practical issues- limitations

Answer 5

• Time consuming: Observational issue can be time consuming as they will need to consider the school timetable, holiday, control over access and health and safety legislation.This makes observational research expensive.
• Lacey took 2 months, while Eggleston (1976) took 3 to set up cover role
• Maybe it will be easier to gain permission to observe lesson
• Age/gender/ethnicity affect the process of observation
• Wright (1992)- research on a few black teachers and found her African caribbean ethnicity produce antagonistic reaction from white teachers
• Many black people had high self esteem and asked her for support
• Hammersley found - staff room conversation done covertly in once case on back of newspaper

Question 6

Ethical issues

Answer 6

• covert approach not appropriate to study pupils due to their vulnerability and limited ability to give informed consent
• Great vulnerability & limited ability give informed consent meaning observation has to be overt
• Delmot- observer hears or sees things can get pupils in trouble
• “Guilty knowledge” - Both ethical & practical problem
• Ethically argued- researcher obliged to report wrong doing
• Delamont- Harm that can be done to pupil teachers/ school care should be taken to protect their identity
• The marketised education system is an issues, good public image important for success of school

Question 7

Validity

Answer 7

• Give authentic understanding of world- view social actors
• Important research issues like classroom interaction or labelling
• False image when observed by adult researchers, undermining validity of research.
• Another factor limiting validity- teachers skilled at disguising their feelings & altering behaviour when observed
• Data from classroom observation lack validity
• language of the pupil may be different from the researcher
• make it hard for researchers to understand pupil meaning.

Question 8

Hawthorne effect

Answer 8

• Few cover roles the researcher can adopt and because he or she stands out as being much older than pupil
• Most classroom observation has to be overt. Difficult to avoid Hawthorne effect- researchers influence the behaviour of those being observed
  -Ball (1993)- children awareness of king presence changed normal behaviour & undermined validity of observation

Question 9

Representativeness

Answer 9

• Education system vast
• Observational studies focus on a small number of pupils as a single school
• Willis (1997)- studied core group of 12 boys
  small scale- took time to become familiar, with setting, trust pupils and teachers
  -limited scale of typical observational study and sheet size of education system- school interaction is unlikely to produce representative data

Question 10

Reliability

Answer 10

• Po study of education- lack of reliability, data recording unsystematic / hard replicate
• Hammersley wrote notes on the back of the newspaper, he was observing staffroom conversation covertly
• Personal characteristics of different observers evolve differing responses

Question 11

Longitudinal studies

Answer 11

• Follow the same sample or group over extended period of time
• PO studies are longitudinal- questionnaire, interview, document
• Examples
• Lacey four- year participant observation study of highbrown grammar school
• Leon Feinstein (2003)- group born in 1970 to study class difference in educational achievement

Question 12

Advantages

Answer 12

• Trace development over time, then taking a one- off ‘snapshot’ of one moment
• Making comparison over time, identify causes
• Douglas feinstein uses longitudinal studies to discover the cause of class difference in achievement

Question 13

Observational methods have been used to investigate a number of educational issues such as:

Answer 13

-Pupil subcultures (behaviour of pupil in subcultures)
-Labelling (teacher/pupil interaction such as racism/stereotyping)
-Language (different speech style of middle class and working class used in the classroom)
-Gender (seeing how boys and girls behave differently in classroom setting)