RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In our first chapter, we discussed the importance of acknowledging the role of beliefs in teacher education programmes, as they can filter or block out programme-related experiences (Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Wideen et al., 1998). In the second chapter, we first reviewed two professional development models (Altet, 2008; Vanhulle, 2009) that will be used to analyse some of our findings. Then, we presented some of the characteristics of beliefs (Fives & Buehl, 2012) that will also help us understand how pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs affect their formative assessment practices. Finally, we discussed formative assessment models that were consulted in order to identify pre-service ESL teachers’ formative assessment practices (Cowie & Bell, 1999; Torrance & Pryor, 2001; and Wiliam, 2010). In order to clearly explain our research methodology, we have divided this chapter into three main sections. In the first section, we will justify our methodological approach. In the section that follows, we describe our research context and research sample. Finally, in the third section, we will present our data collection tools by discussing some of their advantages and limitations in researching teachers’ beliefs and we will conclude by explaining our data analysis process.

1.1 Methodological Approach

In order to truly understand how fourth year pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs and practices related to formative assessment evolve throughout their last year of teacher education, we opted for a qualitative descriptive study. According to Dörnyei (2007), the characteristics of qualitative research include flexibility in responding to new details or avenues that might appear during the investigation process, a more prolonged contact with the research setting due to the fact that it takes place in a natural environment, and a principal focus on the subjective opinions, experiences and feelings of individuals. In addition, qualitative research is also useful in order to understand complex situations (such as teachers’ beliefs), as it broadens and deepens our comprehension through rich collected data that is based on participants’ experience (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007;

Dörnyei, 2007). In addition, we opted for qualitative research due to its descriptive nature, given that it focuses on conditions or relationships that exist, practices that seem to prevail, beliefs or attitudes that are held by an individual or group, or processes that are going on (Best, 2005).

As discussed in our second chapter, many aspects of teacher education programmes have been found to have little impact on pre-service teachers’ classroom practices (Bullock, 2011; Cochran-Smith, 2003; Kosnik & Beck, 2009). Moreover, researchers claim that this phenomenon is attributable to pre-service teachers’ beliefs, which shape how new knowledge16 _{is acquired.} Thus, by studying the relationship between pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs and their actual practices relating to formative assessment while on practicum, we expect to determine which elements are most relevant in shaping their beliefs and practices with a view to ultimately fostering professional development. In addition, this approach allowed will allow us to identify missing elements in their teacher preparation that could help pre-service teachers better bridge the gap between the theories advocated in their programmes and pre-service teachers’ practices. In the next section, we will describe our research context and research sample.

1.2 Research Context and Research Sample

As previously mentioned, this study took place in the province of Quebec, and more specifically, at the Université de Sherbrooke with BEALS fourth year pre-service ESL teachers. In their fourth year of the programme, which is divided into two semesters (fall and winter), these pre-service teachers first attend classes on campus during the fall semester. In the following semester, they go on practicum. The main difference between their fourth-year practicum and their first three practica is length. On their fourth practicum, pre-service teachers have a total of 60 days to complete in a classroom setting. First, they have 15 non-consecutive practicum days to complete in the fall session, in which they observe their associate teachers’ teaching, perform small teaching tasks, and learn about the school milieu. They subsequently begin their 45-day intensive teaching practicum in the winter semester. Since their fourth-year practicum is their longest, and done

16 _{In this study, (new) knowledge relates to (new) assessment theories and practices. In other words, in order to see} how their beliefs and practices related to formative assessment evolved, we questioned our participants throughout our study what new knowledge related to formative assessment they were able to acquire and apply on practice.

individually, pre-service ESL teachers have the chance to create and implement their own formative assessment practices and evaluation tools, which was one of the main reasons why we decided to focus on fourth year students.

1.2.1 Ethical considerations

Participation in our study was completely voluntary. Participants were invited to be part of our study and were made aware of their right to withdraw from it at any moment. Once participants accepted to be part of our study, their names were replaced by different ones so their identity remains confidential. Since the author was also teaching a fourth-year course (Professional Essay) in collaboration with another lecturer, in order to avoid any possible conflict of interests, the researcher decided not to be responsible for correcting any of the participants’ assignments. Although initially our goal was to select participants that were not being supervised by the author, due to a lack volunteers, we had no choice but to also allow the researcher’s students to be eligible to participate in the study. In order to ensure validity and impartiality, we asked a colleague to collect all the data with the researcher’s students before their grades had been submitted. Furthermore, participants will be granted the right to receive information on the results of my study once these are available. In the next subsection we will describe more information concerning the participants that took part in this study.

1.2.2 Participants

In order to study how pre-service ESL teachers’ beliefs and practices related to formative assessment evolve throughout their last year of the teacher education programme, we conducted our study with 6 participants. There were two male teachers and 4 females teaching ESL at different levels and in different contexts, aged between 20 to 25 years old. The majority of our participants had only experienced teaching and assessing in our programme (previous practica): high school during their second practicum and primary during their third one. However, Carlos reported having taught ESL at the Adult Education level prior to his entry to the programme. The participants that were being supervised by this study’s main researcher were: Mélissa, Claire, Isabelle and Marc-Antoine. The others worked with a different supervisor during the practicum.

Name Context

Annabelle High school (Different groups and grades)

Carlos Primary (1 Intensive grade 6 group)

Mélissa Adult Education (Multilevel groups)

Claire High school (Different groups and levels)

Isabelle Primary (1 Intensive Grade 6)

Marc-Antoine High school (Different groups and levels)

Table 2: Participants and teaching contexts