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Methods in Context: Using observation to investigate education - Coggle…
Methods in Context: Using observation to investigate education
Topics in question usually.
Gender and classroom behaviour
Teacher expectations and labelling
Speech codes in the classroom
Pupil subcultures
Teacher and pupil racism
The hidden curriculum
Structured Observation
Practical Issues
Favoured by positivists
Used to measure pupil-teacher interaction and pupil-pupil interaction quantitatively e.g. pre determined behaviours to record down
Ease of recording data
E.g. Flanders (1970) found that in typical American classroom 68% of time was teacher talking, 20% pupil talk and 12% silence or confusion
Quicker, cheaper and require less training than less structured methods
Reliability
Easily replicated
Generates quantitative data which makes it easy to compare to other studies
Validity
Interpretivist say it lacks validity
Sara Delmont --> counting classroom behaviour and putting it into a pre set box makes the action lose meaning.
Unstructured Observation
Practical issues
Schools are complex places that require more time to observe than many other settings
Eggleson needed 3 months to set up cover for observation (1976)
Easier to observe lessons than it is to gain permission to interview staff and pupils
Fuller --> could observe pupils in lesson withpught patent permission needed but interviews would've needed parent permission
Personal characteristics such as age, gender and ethnicity affect the observation
Wright (1992) not many black teachers, black pupils more likely to be antagonistic towards white teachers but still found that black pupils held her in high esteem and would ask for her support
Limited by restrictions of the school timetable,holidays, control over access, health and legislation and so on