Classroom Observation

Observation is the process of gathering open-ended, immediate information by observing people and places at a research site (Creswell, 2012), and is categorized into three types: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured observation. Structured observation knows in advance what to look for and has its observation themes worked out in advance, and was not suitable for this study (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011). While, semi-structured observations have an agenda of issues but gathers data to illuminate these issues in a far less predetermined or systematic manner and this observation was suitable and used in this study (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011). On the other hand, unstructured observation is far less clear on what the observer is looking for and therefore the observer has to go into a situation and observe what is taking place before deciding on its significance for the research and was not suitable for this study (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2011). For the purpose of this study, a non-participant observation was used where video recordings happened without becoming involved in the activities of the classroom, unlike in participant observation, where the observer takes part in the activities that they intend to observe (Creswell, 2012). This study used semi-structured non-participant classroom observation because ―the observation of behavior as it occurs yields first hand data without the contamination that may arise from tests, inventories, or other self-report instruments‖ (McMillan, 2012, p. 163).

Thus non-participant observations usually involve the researcher seating silently in the classroom, capturing and/or taking notes as the teaching process progresses (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007). I also stood at the back of the classroom with the video recorder recording silently the teaching practice focusing on the teacher‘s movements, talk, explanations and interactions with the learners, although learners‘ faces were blurred in the video. Additionally, observations have both advantages and disadvantages and the opportunity to record information as it occurs in a setting, study actual teacher‘s behaviour, and study an individual‘s difficulty with verbalizing their ideas (Creswell, 2012). Nevertheless, the researcher‘s presence might have led to some teachers not being vocal because of the stranger (researcher) in their classroom (Creswell, 2012), representing one of the disadvantages because it can negatively influence

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teacher-learner interactions This study however had participant teachers and their non-participant learners behaving normally during classroom observations. In this method of data collection, I observed what EWS were used by physical science teachers and whether they explicitly, implicitly explained or there was no explanation of EWS given.

The video recording helped capture the word-to-word of what science teachers said in class, and how they said it (immediate reactions). The reason for this was to understand what wording was is used in science class, how it was used, hence the importance of understanding teachers' word- to-word in teachers talk. Moreover, video recording was necessary for this study because it captured how the teacher‘s conceptions of science teacher's language might play themselves out during teaching and learning. The strategy of video recording assisted with partialness of the observer‘s view and overcoming the tendency towards recording only the frequently occurring events, since observations tends be selective and objective in nature. If I did not use a video recorder for classroom observation, I might have missed important practices and participation, because of the various activities that were taking place in the classrooms. Thus, video recording enabled viewing and re-viewing of the various practices, interactions, and participation in the classrooms, as part of the analysis process and understanding the different interactions and practices during teaching and learning. The video recorder was always positioned towards the teacher and the recorded lessons differed in lengths, with the recorded lesson of 30 minutes minimum and the maximum of 60 minutes from all recorded lessons. In all the lessons, the video recorder was switched on from the beginning of the lesson until the last second of each lesson. Recording all sections of the lessons was done in order to capture both teacher talk and teacher approaches to EWS (including non-verbal communication). In total there were ten (10) observed lessons and Table 4.1 outlines the observed lessons per teacher and also provides each lesson‘s duration.

It was not possible to observe all teachers teaching similar topics because data collection was done in two sessions and all observed teachers were teaching different topics, Thabo was teaching physics while the other three participants were teaching chemistry sections of physical science, although they were all following the same syllabus

58 Table 4.1 Summary of the observed lessons (Appendix 4 for a sample of an observed lesson)

Teacher Lesson Theme Lesson Topic Number of Observations

Ayanda

Matter and materials Atoms and compounds 2 x 45mins

3 Lessons 1 x 55mins

Chemical change Physical and chemical change

Thandi Matter and Materials Atoms and compounds

2 x 45mins

3 Lessons 1 x 60mins

Thabo

Electricity and Magnetism Magnetic field of permanent magnets

1 x 45mins

2 Lessons 1 x 30mins

Waves, Sound and Light Electromagnetic radiation: Nature of electromagnetic radiation

Simphiwe

Chemical change Atomic mass and the mole

concept (quantitatively) 1 x 55mins

2 Lessons 1 x 60mins

The mole concept / theoretical and actual yield

4.5.1.1 Process of observation: Observation Schedule

I adopted a similar observation structure from the previous research study conducted by Oyoo (2012) on the use of language in science classrooms. The following were the specific concerns during classroom observations and its design was influenced by the research questions and the objectives of the study:

 What are EWS used by the teacher? Does the teacher explain (explicitly or implicitly) or provide

the contextual meanings of these words or not? If so, then is there a clear approach in doing this?

 In sharing the contextual meanings of non-technical words used during teaching, does the

teacher explore the other possible meanings of these words? Any other approaches used?

 Is there any approach to science teachers‟ language including EWS used by the teacher? If yes, what is the used approach? Oyoo (2012, pp.861-862)

When observing the teacher‘s classroom interactions, special attention was made to the manner of word usage. Notice was made on teacher‘s attempts to differentiate or integrate the word meanings, especially for the EWS, teacher‘s explicit and implicit explanation of the contextual meanings of EWS, and also how teachers addressed the difficulties of science content that appeared to be originating from lack of word understanding.

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