Neuman reminds social researchers that when conducting their research, two sets of values need to be balanced. These are ‘the pursuit of knowledge’ and ‘the rights of research participants’ (Neuman 2012: 53). To conduct research professionally, the
researcher needs to design and choose techniques properly, and also to take into account the ethical implications of research activities. These issues are mainly concerned with avoiding harm to participants and obtaining informed consent (Bryman 2008; Diener and Crandall 1978).
When conducting research, any harm to participants should be avoided (Neuman 2012). Taking part in research may harm participants physically, or cause harm to their
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development, or place them in a highly stressful situation (Bryman 2001). In fact, physical harm is rare in educational research (Neuman 2012). This study avoided harm to participants’ development by carefully designing the infusion lessons using their
textbook and following the English syllabus and curriculum. Moreover, at the beginning of the study, high levels of stress were avoided by providing enough time for the participants to complete the tests, and they were told they could withdraw from the study whenever they wanted. Participants were also informed that the data would remain anonymous.
To respect the rights of the school, permission was first obtained from the headmaster of the school and the tutor of the class (teacher A, who was also the English teacher who taught the infusion lessons). Next, the purpose of the study and the data collection procedures were explained to the participants and oral consent obtained from the students. The tutor then explained this to the students’ parents at the monthly parent- teacher meeting, and the approval for the students’ participation was also gained from
them. Informed consent forms (see appendix A) were signed by the students the next day.
3.12 Summary
This chapter has shown that the researcher in this study assumed the ontological, epistemological and axiological position of pragmatism to conduct an evaluative exploratory case study, and that a mixed-methods approach was adopted to enhance the validity and reliability of the results. The selection of participants (two classes of students from the same Chinese high school) was described. The methods of collecting
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data from the CCTDI, CCTST, students’ written texts, self-evaluation questionnaires,
semi-structured group interviews and a self-completion questionnaire have also been discussed in this chapter. The collected data were analysed using a variety of measures and in different ways to allow for the triangulation of the findings. Finally, issues of validity, reliability and ethical issues relevant to this study were examined. In the following chapter, the findings will be examined in detail.
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Chapter Four –Findings
4.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter the data collection tools and methods of data analysis used in this study were evaluated. In this chapter the findings of the study are presented according to the research questions, which refer to the impact of infusion lessons on the critical thinking and writing of Chinese high school students and on their attitudes towards and perceptions of these infusion lessons.
As discussed in chapter 3, in this study the quantitative and qualitative data were combined to allow for cross-validation. As shown in Table 3.4 (see chapter 3, section 3.9), the changes in students’ critical thinking were assessed mainly by the CCTDI,
CCTST and an examination of their written texts, while any changes in the students’ writing performance were determined by an examination of their written texts alone. At the same time, the changes in thinking and writing could also be corroborated by data collected from the interviews, self-evaluation questionnaires (SEQ) and post- intervention questionnaires (PIQ), which were mainly used to reveal their attitudes towards and perceptions of infusion lessons.
It is worth pointing out here that the sample number for some of the data collection instruments was reduced, as mentioned in chapter three (see sections 3.9.2 and 3.9.4). There were three reasons for this reduction. Firstly, for ethical reasons, the researcher
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did not force the students to complete or submit their writing. As found in previous studies (see section 1.4), high school students have demonstrated negative attitudes toward English writing, so some of the students might have been unwilling to write in English or to share their writing when it was not required. In the analysis of writing, therefore, in order to minimise the influence of individual differences, only data obtained from those students who submitted both pre- and post-intervention written texts were used (see section 3.9.2 in chapter three). The second reason was related to the timing of the data collection. The post-intervention questionnaire was collected at the beginning of the winter vacation, which was two weeks after the last infusion lesson, owing to the final examination. The students might have been tired and wanting to have a good rest, and thus less interested in completing the questionnaire. The other reason is related to the limitations of sending the questionnaire by email. As indicated in chapter three, one limitation of this self-completion questionnaire sent by email is the low response rate (see section 3.8.5). However, since the students were taking their final examinations in the week following the last infusion lessons, the questionnaire was sent by email in the first week of the winter vacation to allow them to prepare for the exam. The reduction in the number of the sample may have influenced the results of this study in some ways: for example, the thinking and writing performance and the attitudes and perceptions of the students who were missed out could not be revealed.