Coding Analysis

To be able to code the text, all the text was collected under one speaker; then each line was coded in general. So all utterances that were spoken by a participant were put together, grouped according to the meeting they had occurred in, and then read so that the patterns could be identified. The language was then coded by the meaning that it was conveying.

The following example of this process, which features Rose in the third enquiry meeting, in Line 162 she is talking about how the students worked in a group; Line 179 is a question; and Line 193 regards student behaviour. Other examples from Rose’s transcript are found in Section 4.11. Following this analysis, the codes were grouped into sections, for example group work, so that patterns of what was talked about and how often emerged.

162 (Rose) ‘How they fight to have a go on the computer, did you see that group, they fought about the project when they finished a sentence’

165 (Rose) ‘Mine are naughty’ 167 (Rose) ‘to say the story’ 176 (Rose) ‘How they enjoy it’

179 (Rose) ‘Did you tell them about the birds?’ 183 (Rose) ‘Ah I see! So the ones inside know’ 185 (Rose) ‘Ah I see, I see’

187 (Rose) ‘But you helped her’ 191 (Rose) ‘I prefer boys’

193 (Rose) ‘Sometimes girls can be spiteful’

196 (Rose) ‘Exactly, if when you tell them something they remain with that sort of grudge against you, the boys no, they love you. You can get angry with them and then after a while he comes and gives you a cuddle.’

The sub-themes that emerged from the enquiry group meetings were then further grouped under the broad areas of: Lesson Preparation, Computers Available, Group Work, Computer Application Problems, Student Difficulties and Questions. In Table 4.5.2 there is a sample of the way the data was put together after it was coded.

Table 4.5.2: Sample of coding spreadsheet

Teacher Initials Code Broad area

Rose ICT – use of application Computer application problems.

Martha Hardware problem,

classroom organisational issue that arose.

Computer application problems.

Greta Students using software

together when completing an activity.

Group work.

4.5.1 The teachers’ logs

The teachers’ logs (Appendix 4) provided another means for the teachers to write about their own development from their perspective, giving some insight into how they viewed their development and the issues they felt were important to their pedagogical practice. The questions in the log were concerned with lesson evaluation, that is, whether they thought that their lesson had been successful or not, and the reasons for this. All the participants completed their teaching logs except Martha, who described her practice in detail in the open-ended interview. She explained to me in the interview that she had a very difficult class that year, and all her energies were taken up with them.

Table 4.6: The themes discussed in the teaching logs

Greta David Rose Marceline Mean Range New Classroom method 3 4 3 5 3.75 Teaching objectives achieved 3 4 5 3 3.75 Lesson timing -- negative 3 2 3 1 2.25 ICT Issues 1 1 0 0 0.5 Student group work – positive 4 4 4 4 4 Students’ interest in subject 3 4 1 4 3 Materials development by student 3 1 3 4 2.75

Below are examples of specific comments made on each of the themes listed above. The first two themes emerged from the questions in the log, while the rest emerged from the free discourse data they were encouraged to include in their logs.

New classroom method

This theme includes the classroom layout, the roles the students took on, and how they built their knowledge:

‘This is not a way I have worked before as the focus is more on group work rather than individual learning. Children are encouraged to share the things they have learned with their classmates. They have become the ‘teacher’.’ (David, Lesson 2)

‘They have looked for information on the Internet, particularly on the brimba site, and now they’re using the knowledge they acquired to construct the newspaper.’ (David, Lessons 4 and 5)

In fact, students in David’s class put together a newspaper directed at the Roma population, featuring news on sports, entertainment and various other items. This was something they had not done before.

Teaching objectives achieved

Here the focus was on the targets that the teachers had set, which were successfully met: ‘yes- although one can never be 100% sure’ (David, Lesson 1).

Lesson timing

‘I would have liked to have the time to go around the children to watch them more carefully to see how they were tackling the task, but we did not have enough time.’ (Marceline, Lesson 4)

‘I was pleased with my final lesson. Again, I would have preferred (needed) the lesson to be longer.’ (Greta, Lesson 5)

ICT Issues

This theme dealt with all the issues related to ICT, these being technical, resourcing and pedagogical issues:

‘The projector was not working and the server had some problems.’ (Greta, Lesson 2)

‘I would have divided the children into more groups if we had more computers because they were crowded and it was rather difficult.’ (Rose, Lesson 1; Rose had 4 computers at the back of her class and her laptop.

‘I could have let them browse first and ask them which parts they were interested in and let them choose their own topic.’ (Marceline, Lesson 1)

Student group work – positive

‘Work was done in groups. So everybody gave a helping hand. If it’s a picture or a line or a background, they did it! ‘(Rose, Lesson 2)

Students’ interest in subject

‘Although it was the first time for some of the children, they were interested especially in reading the Muscha story. They read through some of the material and tried to find out about the Roma’s history, caravans, food and customs.’ (Marceline, Lesson 1)

Material development by students

‘The children worked on sentences, creating ways to make the exercise interesting and worked on spelling.’ (Marceline, Lesson 3)

The teaching logs provided a means for the teachers to start reflecting on their classroom practice (reflection on action). This resulted in the teachers evaluating their lessons in terms of what had worked well and what hadn’t; further discussion appears in the summary of data.