Small group composition in mainstream lessons

The initiative to institute small group work as a feature of mainstream classrooms and as a means of including all pupils was implemented by the school’s management who then directed teaching staff to organize groups

96 within their curriculum areas. To place pupils in groups, teachers are instructed to use data made available by the school to compose groups within their mainstream lessons. The data available to teaching and support staff includes KS 2 levels (where available) in English, Mathematics and Science, Special educational needs details (if any) pupils in receipt of Free School Meal, ethnicity, home language and date of birth. Also available are pupils’ reading ages which are measured using “Star Reading” assessment which is an assessment of reading and comprehension skills which gives an initial reading level (Renaissance Learning, 2014). Another set of data is provided through the CAT4 Cognitive Ability Tests results and according to their website:

“CAT4 assesses a pupil’s ability to reason with and manipulate different types of material through a series of Verbal, Non-Verbal, Quantitative and Spatial Ability tasks. Together, these four tests provide teachers with a comprehensive profile of a pupil’s reasoning abilities, and as such the core abilities related to learning.

The resulting data can then be used to identify a pupil’s strengths, weaknesses and learning preferences, providing accurate and reliable information that is essential for personalised learning. The more we know about a pupil, the better position we should be in to offer a learning environment and ways of teaching and learning that allow pupils to maximise their potential. Information about a pupil’s reasoning ability will be key to many decisions and should be considered alongside attainment data and other factors known to impact on learning, such as attendance and attitude.” (GL Assessment, www.gl-assessment.co.uk. 2014)

97 There are several issues of great importance to be gathered from the data that teachers use to compose groups and by which all pupils are judged. Firstly, the school where this research is based has a large intake of post KS 2 pupils who often arrive mid-year with little or no English and no KS 2 results. Secondly, on the morning that pupils begin life at their new school, they are required to sit both the CAT4 and Star Reading. The results of these assessments are then made available to staff so even before mainstream teachers have met these pupils face to face, they are able to form an impression based on a set of data. The data is also used to generate a timetable for pupils.

Lastly and perhaps the most alarming concern is that these tests are evidently administered in English which makes it unsurprising that pupils with little or no English have restricted access to the tests and lack the ability to achieve a score in line with their cognitive ability. Within mainstream lessons, groups in which pupils are placed to work are dependent on each teacher’s perception and interpretation of the data, how teachers decide on and judge the most appropriate way to use available data and to suit the curriculum content and teaching and learning styles. It is not mandatory that pupils work in the same groups in each curriculum subject.

3.6 Research Instruments

The instruments used to obtain data are two parallel questionnaires sent to teachers and TAs, semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers and TAs and focus group discussions. The school’s EAL policy and

98 government documents concerning inclusion and support procedures for EAL pupils were also examined to identify the extent to which staff, through their practices were upholding and adhering to these.

3.6.1 Documentary analysis

Documents can be used to support the analysis of issues in a case study and can shed light on the context and background of the research and the teaching and learning situation of staff and pupils (Simons, 2009). The school’s EAL policy which draws from government documents was examined to add depth to the research context. Moreover, an analysis of this document can be compared with other data sources. To analyse the document, I will identify the statements relevant to inclusion and teaching strategies such as the use of small group work for EAL pupils. I will demonstrate where these are reflected in practice by examining and comparing the data gathered from interviews and questionnaires.

3.6.2 Questionnaires

The questionnaires (Appendices 2 and 3) used were designed by the researcher based on information gathered from the literature review and a questionnaire on a similar theme constructed by Pettit (2008). Pettit’s (2008) questionnaire was used to gather the perceptions of teachers of Mathematics about the inclusion of ELLs in mainstream Mathematics lessons. The questionnaire designed for this research differs from Pettit’s (2008) as it was constructed to gather the perceptions of mainstream teachers of various subject disciplines.

99 The questionnaire is seen as a quick and effective way of gathering information from a group of people and although often viewed as straightforward and easy to construct, one should be careful when writing and compiling questions so as to ensure clarity and to avoid ambiguity (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010). A questionnaire should provide answers that are adequately reliable and valid and with those constructed for a specific research purpose such as the one used in this study, the researcher should take care with the internal consistency of the items.

Internal consistency means that the items of the questionnaire should produce similar results and should correlate with each other which can be done by including both positive and negative items (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010, p.93). To ensure internal consistency of the items, some of the steps taken included making the statements short, clear and unambiguous and reverse scoring the negatively worded items.

I decided to administer a web-based questionnaire to reach the cohort of teachers and TAs at the school because I felt that it would take a shorter turnaround time, the data could be easily imported into data analysis programmes if necessary and also because there would not be a cost involved (Archer, 2008). A web-based questionnaire has its strengths and limitations. One limitation is that not everyone might have online access but this was not the case in this research as all teachers and TAs have a school-based email.

100 The email addresses are standardized with the first name and surname of every member of staff. Still, the decision not to respond may be made rather quicker than with a paper questionnaire. In other words, it might be easier to quickly dismiss a web-based questionnaire (Archer, 2008). An advantage to using an online questionnaire is that reminders and follow-ups are straightforward (Dörnyei and Taguchi, 2010).

3.6.2.1 Questionnaire design

In order to construct the questionnaire, I began by noting items from the literature review and by examining other questionnaires on similar topics (Pettit, 2008; Reeves, 2006; Karabenick and Noda, 2004). It was a challenge to narrow the focus of the questionnaire items so that they would reflect the research focus. I went through a process of examining the research ideas and questions and considering the context of the participants and then writing and re-writing the questionnaire items.

Some of the questionnaire items, in particular, section one, were influenced by discussions I had with mainstream teachers before formal data collection began. To encourage the target audience to respond, I tried to ensure that the questionnaire was not too long and that the items could be easily read and understood as suggested by Dörnyei and Taguchi (2010) and Cohen and Manion (2007). The paper versions of the questionnaire were made into electronic ones (Appendices 2 and 3) which were sent by email to all the teachers and TAs employed at the school in April 2013.

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3.6.2.2 Questionnaire items

Both the teacher and TA questionnaires are divided into 5 sections. The purpose of Section A is to collect biographical information about the participants to allow the researcher to group the responses from teachers and TAs by gender, subjects taught and number of years in the role. Section B, elicits information about the perceptions that teachers hold about the inclusion of EAL pupils in mainstream lessons and is relevant in answering the first research question. Section B contains 8 statements which focus on teachers’ perceptions which have been found to influence their self-efficacy in teaching pupils new to English (Reeves, 2006). Section C is specifically about the role and value to EAL pupils of small group work in mainstream lessons and will seek answers to the second and third research questions.

In this section as well, the perceptions of TAs are relevant because they provide support in mainstream lessons and are often required to work with small groups of pupils. Section D looks at the challenges and opportunities faced by pupils during small group work. Section E comprises 3 open questions and I decided to include open questions following the recommendation by Gillham (2008) that by doing so, respondents will see that their views are important. Open questions also give respondents an opportunity to add detail or expand on a point that was not mentioned through the other types of questions (Gillham, 2008).

The statements of the questionnaire were designed to focus on the following points; the perception of the inclusion of EAL learners in mainstream

102 lessons, the role and value of small group work and the role of interaction during small group work. The wording of some statements reflects the role of the respondent, for example, Statement 3 of Section B where teaching assistants and mainstream teachers are used accordingly. To facilitate analysis, the findings from each section of the questionnaire will be categorized and discussed under themes.

3.6.3 Focus group

A focus group discussion is a method of obtaining qualitative information and is used to gather further knowledge about a topic. The participants “share characteristics” relevant to the issues of the research (Marshall and Rossman, 2006, p.114) and interact with each other during the discussion. The issues of this research concern pupils working in small groups within mainstream lessons and the participants of the focus group are all members of small groups in their timetabled subjects.

The strength of using focus groups to gather data lies in the fact that the researcher is able to bring together a specifically chosen group to focus on a particular issue and a noted disadvantage is that focus groups tend to produce less data which may be difficult to analyse and sometimes the participants stray from the topic (Edley and Litosseliti, 2010).

Basit (2010) pointed out that focus groups are useful to generate ideas and equally advises on the need to ensure that all participants are given an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. I chose to gather feedback by using focus groups for the following reasons. Firstly, to encourage

103 participation from pupils who would otherwise be reluctant to express themselves in one-to-one interviews. Secondly, to encourage participation from pupils who feel they have nothing to contribute but would engage in a discussion generated by other group members such as same-age peers.

A disadvantage of using focus groups is the difficulty of “ensuring the neutrality of the interviewer” and the method of doing this is by “eradicating leading or ambiguous questions” as pointed out by Edley and Litosseliti (2010, p.158). Other disadvantages of using focus groups are that firstly, participants may have less time to share their views and secondly, one might be influenced by the opinions of others. Additionally, there is the risk that one or more participants could dominate the discussion (Basit, 2010).

In order to minimize these risks, I discussed the purpose and importance of the focus group with the group of pupils and explained that it was important that I gather the perspectives of different pupils as they were not in the same lessons and would provide different but equally meaningful information. Even considering the disadvantages, if I wanted an impression on whether small group work was providing meaningful opportunities for language development and the types of challenges involved when pupils participate in small group work, then I needed the perceptions of the pupils themselves as they are directly impacted by the strategies and practices that are used in the classroom and for the pupils involved, this was the best method of gathering their perceptions.

104 Barkhuizen (1998) advised that where possible, the perceptions of pupils should be solicited as they offer another perspective on an issue. So, bearing this in mind and with the knowledge that pupils were in an atmosphere where they were expected to interact and collaborate with peers in a small group setting, I considered it important to gather a picture of the view that pupils themselves hold of this experience. I hoped to identify the perceptions that pupils have of small group work, their experiences, the challenges as faced and identified by pupils and the opportunities encountered. The guide questions were developed based on the information from the review of the literature which advocates small group work as one of the ways in which the language development of NAEP can be catered for (Coelho, 2012; Gravelle, 2005).

3.6.4 Interviews

Gathering data by interviewing teachers and TAs was seen as an ideal opportunity for staff to express their perceptions of classroom events and provide a firsthand account of their experiences teaching and supporting NAEP and their perceptions of pupils’ experiences. Conducting interviews is one of the common ways to gather data on participants’ perceptions and in this case, has the potential to uncover staffs’ opinions about classroom activities (Talmy, 2010; McKay, 2006). As Cohen and Manion (2007, p.349) explained, interviews allow participants to “express how they regard situations from their point of view”.

As part of this research, I am seeking the perceptions of staff that, in their daily practice encounters NAEP with little or no English and could provide

105 insight into the learning opportunities, namely small group work that are offered. An interview has a specific purpose and the purpose of the interviews carried out in this research is to discover the perceptions of pupils, teachers and TAs about small group work for NAEP. To summarize, data was collected using two parallel questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and a documentary analysis of key documents. In the following section, I will explain how I intend to ensure that the research, data gathering instruments and the analysis of the findings is valid and reliable.