Data Collection: Quantitative Methods

The Questionnaire

As this study was the first major investigation into pedagogical practices with infant classes in multigrade settings in the Republic of Ireland, a postal questionnaire survey was devised which was sent to a representative sample of early years practitioners in such schools. The questionnaire was viewed as an efficient means of documenting practices and attitudes of teachers in a way that more generally represented a nation-wide sample. It contained a variety of question types which gave basic information on teachers’ practice and on their views of early childhood pedagogy in multigrade settings.

In order to establish a conceptualisation of the key issues experienced by early years practitioners in multigrade classrooms, an extensive literature search was conducted. The initial questionnaire included questions based on the literature review such as those on teaching strategies, time use, levels of interaction between different age groups and the benefits and challenges of teaching in multigrade schools. The survey comprised a range of items including Likert Scale items, yes/no items and open-ended questions. The questions which made use of the Likert Attitudinal Scale, were designed to measure the attitudes of teachers to various aspects of early childhood pedagogy as practised in multigrade settings, for example play experiences. The respondents were asked to rank statements on a scale of agreement (i.e. 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). This scale is not an exact measurement of attitude; however it is a useful tool to measure the intensity of attitude towards any given issue. In addition to gathering baseline statistical data, there was also space for respondents to reply in greater detail on various issues, yielding valuable opinions and information.

The survey provided quantitative data on early childhood pedagogical practices used in a wide range of multigrade schools which could then be used to enrich the findings of the case studies. There were several opportunities for the respondents to add comments which gave me an opportunity to ascertain their views

on early years pedagogy. These reflections added a qualitative element to the questionnaire and enabled me to further contextualise the findings from the case studies.

Pilot study of questionnaire

A pilot was conducted to determine how effective the first draft questions were in eliciting informative responses from practitioners who would not later be involved in the full questionnaire. From the responses to the initial questionnaire a small number of revisions were made and the final questionnaire was developed. The draft questionnaires were completed by 15 Primary School Teachers not involved in the main study. The revised questionnaire also requested biographical information from all respondents so that it could be ascertained whether responses were influenced by, for example length of service, role or age of respondent (See Appendix 9 for a copy of the Questionnaire Survey and Cover Letter for Teachers).

Sampling and response rate

It was decided to target schools with less than 80 pupils as these schools would most likely have less than four classroom teachers ensuring that there would be multigrade classes within the school. There were approximately 660 such schools and taking into consideration factors such as expense, time for data collection, and time for data entry, it was decided to send the questionnaire to a sample of approximately 250 schools in total in order to access the most representative sample possible from the total population.

The sampling method for administering the questionnaire was a stratified random sampling approach. The sample of the schools in the survey was selected from the most up-to-date list of primary schools available from the Department of Education and Science. A list of school names and addresses was obtained from the Department of Education and Science. The criteria under which the schools were selected were divided by the proportion of the number of schools within the four provinces of Ireland in order to receive a response which would better represent nationwide views. In January 2011, a questionnaire was sent to the 250 schools in the sample. An additional letter for the attention of the teacher of Junior Infants to inform them of the survey gave background information and encouraged the teacher of Junior Infants to complete the survey was also included.

Mangione (1998) advises that the use of follow-up reminders is the single most important technique for high return rates for questionnaires. Therefore, a comprehensive follow-up procedure was planned to ensure a high overall response rate. Each school was telephoned to remind the teachers to complete the questionnaire. Where schools indicated that they had mislaid the questionnaire, a second copy of the questionnaire was sent out. Non-respondents were targeted with further emails and occasionally phone calls. The total response rate was 56% or 141 out of 250 questionnaires posted.

An outline of the field work and a time line is included in Table 4.2 below in order to give an overview of the chronology of the research process. This is followed by Table 4.3 which is a summary of all data gathered in the eight case study schools. This includes frequencies of child observations, interviews with teachers, pupils and parents.

4.8 The fieldwork