Data collection instruments and procedures

A questionnaire (Appendix A) was administered to all mathematics lecturers in 13 private and public TTCs of Malawi. A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts used for the purpose of gathering information from the respondents (Creswell, 2012). It comprised open- ended and closed ended questions (Creswell, 2008). A questionnaire is easy to score, allows many participants to answer questions at the same time, provides time for participants to think about responses and is efficient. For this reason, the perceptions of lecturers in this study were gathered using a standardised

questionnaire formulated by me, which allowed lecturers to provide responses on their perception of computer (see Appendix A).

I developed this instrument to measure the perceptions and attitudes of female and male lecturers. It was subdivided into two sections: A and B. Section A gathered the demographic information and Section B the attitudes. In the demographic section, twelve items were used. The purpose of these items was to identify the lecturers’ gender, experience, home language, age, highest qualification, university attended, ICT training attended, perceptions, barriers and others. The instrument was designed and adapted for use with the Malawian population.

The perception inventory section consisted in fifty items. The formulation of these items was based on variables such as barriers and enablers within the institution, school, and student. Each of the variables comprised various items. As such, the variable of institution comprised 20 items of which 17 measured positive attitudes and three measured negative attitudes. The school variable comprised 17 items, where 5 measured negative attitudes and 12 measured positive attitudes. The student variable contained 10 items, where 8 items measured positive attitudes and 2 negative ones.

Lastly, the barrier variable comprised 3 items of which two measured positive attitudes and 1 negative ones. The items were constructed based on a five point Likert scale for the responses.

The instrument was administered in 13 colleges out of 15: six public and seven private colleges. Two public colleges were used for a pilot test, which was conducted for one month during the holiday in public TTCs, while it was first term in private TTCs. I distributed the questionnaires by hand in some of the colleges, while in the other colleges they were sent by Group 4 Services, a security company, which transports school supplies in Malawi. Responses were collected after one week where questionnaires were distributed by hand and after two weeks, where they had been distributed by Group 4 Services. I collected 71% of the data from 11 colleges as two private colleges did not return the data. The total for each attitude was obtained by adding the scores of each variable.

This instrument was tested for reliability and validity in three ways. Firstly, it was pre- tested by my colleagues, who scrutinised the items and made some changes in

section A. Secondly, the supervisor scrutinised the questionnaire and suggested that a pilot test should be conducted. Thirdly, a pilot test was conducted to two public colleges then the results were tested for reliability by using Cronbach reliability coefficient test and the reliability was found to be alpha = 0.9318, which showed that the instrument was reliable.

3.7.2.

Pilot Test

For an initial assessment of the questionnaire, a pilot test was conducted. A pilot test can be defined as the mini-version of a full scale study (also known as “feasibility”, study), which can be a specific pre-testing of a particular research instrument such as a questionnaire or interview schedule (van Teijlingen, Rennie, Hundley, Graham, 2001:1). The pilot test of the questionnaire was administered to ten lecturers from two public TTCs in Malawi. The results indicated that 90% of the participants have positive attitudes/perceptions toward the use of ICT more especially the computer. They also indicated high rating of perception (mean=4.6) and low rating of the item ‘computer saves time’ (mean= 3.6). In addition, 90% of the participants indicated that lack of computers is the major barrier that influences their perception toward the use of computers in the mathematics classroom.

The results of this pilot test suggested that lecturers perceived the use of computer in mathematics instruction to be important. The study also indicated that lecturers perceived the use of computers as important, though they do not use them.

I made some changes in section A of the questionnaire based on the results of the pilot test. The question, which required the respondents to write the cohort number, was deleted because most of the participants did not respond. The question, which asked about the region where the college is situated, was changed because most of the respondents misunderstood the question and wrote religion instead of region. The list of regions, which was not provided before the pilot test, was added to avoid confusion.

The questionnaire was then administered to the entire population and the results will be explained in the data analysis chapter

3.7.3.

Interviews

Interviews (Appendix B and Appendix C) are the most common methods of data collection used in qualitative research (Gill, Stewart, & Treasure, Chadwick, 2008). They can be used to explore the views, experiences, beliefs, and motivation of individual participants. I employed semi-structured face-to-face, phone calls, and focus group interviews to understand the beliefs/perceptions of lecturers and students on their classroom experiences with ICT (Clarke, Keitel, & Shimizu, 2006) (see Appendix B and Appendix C). The interviews were video-recorded to permanently record all statements and avoid bias (Gill, et al, 2008). In these interviews, lecturers were also asked to explain the factors that influence the use of ICT in mathematics college classrooms.

3.7.3.1. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews

The researcher conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews (Appendix B) with three lecturers (one female and two males). According to Gill et al. (2008) semi- structured interviews consist of several key questions, which may help define the areas to be explored and allow the interviewer or interviewee to diverge in order to pursue an idea or response in more detail. These types of interviews are mostly used in education for their flexibility and potential to allow the participants to reveal and clarify the important information, which the researcher may not have thought about. For instance, the interviews indicated that in almost all colleges in Malawi, students have never used a computer for mathematics instruction. They also showed that lecturers are not competent in the use of computer technology in mathematics classrooms. This was discussed by the participants after the video camera was switched off and I recorded in field notes.

Semi-structured interviews provide a deeper understanding of the social phenomena than the questionnaire could provide. They are appropriate where detailed insights are needed from the participants (Gill, et al, 2008). In this study, participants provided insights by expanding on what they wrote on the questionnaire.

The main purpose of the interview is for the researcher to listen carefully to what participants are saying so that he/she may gather more information on the topic under investigation. It was imperative for the study to use interviews because I was interested in expanding the information obtained from the questionnaire.

The interview with one lecturer from a public college was conducted at her home as it was holiday for public colleges, whereas interviews with two lecturers from public and private colleges were conducted at their respective colleges. I also conducted phone call interviews with one participant.

3.7.3.2. Phone call interview

According to Gill et al. (2008), cell phone interviews enable a researcher to gather the information rapidly. Consequently, I used cell phone interviews in order to collect the information rapidly, particularly because the participant was engaged in teaching activities for first year students at the college; while supervising second year students in the field. When conducting phone call interviews, I used the same interview guide as the one used for face-to-face interviews with three participants. In the next section, focus group interviews are discussed on how they were conducted. 3.7.3.3. Focus group interviews

I also conducted video recorded focus group interviews with 12 second year students (students who were doing their teaching practice, see Table 1) from one college. The students were divided into two groups of six each (six females and six males). I used pre-existing groups because it would be easy for participants to formulate and share the same experience and because they would feel comfortable during discussions (Gill et al, 2008). According to Gill et al. focus group interviews are useful because they help to collect data from participants at once (Gill et al., 2008). Gill et al. further state that the focus group interview is important in a multi- method design in order to explore a topic in a detailed manner. I collected data by employing the focus group on the daily use of ICT and explored the lecturers’ perceptions in detail, gathering extensive data to complement the questionnaire data. I also collected data on students and family factors, which may influence the use of ICT.

The interviews lasted between 20 and 35 minutes. I designed an interview schedule, which guided me on how to conduct the interviews (Appendix C). It presented the heading, instructions to follow, main questions and probing questions (Kvale, 2007). Participants were provided with information about the study and given assurance that their information would be kept confidentially before each interview. Interviews may generate outcomes that cannot be fulfilled (Morgan, 1993). For instance, the

present interviews found that the ministry of education should provide funds in order for ICT to be used in TTCs, which may not be fulfilled by the ministry at present.