Stage One – QUESTIONNAIRES
3.7 RESEARCH METHOD ONE – Questionnaires
3.7.3 STAGE THREE: Variables and associated statements selected for the design of the questionnaires
As none of the key questionnaires on the afore-mentioned SDT website were seen to be suitable for the purposes of this research study (see section 4.8.2), there was the need to locate other pre-tested pre-validated questionnaires that:
1. Would measure children’s perceptions of SDT related aspects of their learning experiences within the classroom;
2. Had wording accessible to children aged between 9 and 13 years old, and;
3. Could be used on a number of occasions to harvest snapshot data of perceptions that were evolving between data waves.
As discussed, instruments and constituent statements were needed that would effectively record students’ perceptions of the following SDT / engagement-informing constructs:
1. The perceived quality of their interpersonal relationship with the science teacher (relatedness);
2. If, and how, the students believed the quality of their interpersonal relationship had altered with a change of science teacher in September 2013, by pinpointing;
3. The key teacher behaviours that influenced or undermined their intrinsic motivation for and engagement within learning;
4. The influence of students’ perceived self-attributes (competence, self-efficacy and self-agency / autonomy inclination) in relation to science upon their motivation to engage in learning activities, and;
5. The classroom factors that are more likely to engage the students’ interest, curiosity, enjoyment and value perceptions during science lessons.
Within the next section, each of the five selected questionnaires is outlined. This includes the origins of the questionnaires prior to their adaptation for use within the sampled
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school. The questionnaires were initially adapted prior to the pilot study based upon the researcher’s knowledge of the children within the sample population and groups therein, with adaptations being made throughout the pilot study to form the final wording of the
questionnaire statements (see Appendices 3.15 to 3.19).
3.7.3.1 SQ1 QUESTIONNAIRE: The Factors / Behaviours informing the Quality of the Teacher-Student Relationship
The objective of Student Questionnaire 1 (SQ1) was to investigate the students’ perceptions of the teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) using the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS: Pianta, 2001, Pianta and Steinberg, 1992) and the Amended Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (ASTRS: Koomen et al., 2012). The STRS had been developed by its authors through the merge of three pre-tested questionnaires. The first was a 16-item instrument (Pianta and Nimetz, 1991) which, in turn, had evolved from Q-Set
(Waters and Deane, 1985) and the Teacher-Child Rating Scale (TCRS: Hightower et al., 1986). All three centre upon teacher perceptions of their students’ behavioural, social and competence abilities and problems. This, therefore, presented a limitation in that the original questionnaires were designed to measure teachers’ perceptions of their professional
relationships with individual students, who were selected either by the researcher or the teacher respondent. As a means of addressing this limitation, the SQ1 questionnaire was an adaptation of STRS and ASTRS in order to measure students’ perception of the quality of their relationship with the science teacher, the reactions and behaviours of science teacher as perceived by the student, and the responses of student to teacher’s key interpersonal
behaviours. The statements were as follows:
STRS – 1, 2, 9, 11, 21 (10 on STRS), 20 (28 STRS), 21 (24), 22 ASTRS – 1, 2, 3 (15 ASTRS), 7, 8, 14 (18 ASTRS), 27 (12)
Questions specifically adapted for use within SQ1 – 4, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 (The questions specific to SQ1 have been developed by
adapting statements within STRS and ASTRS).
Following the pilot study, statements 5, 6, 18 and 23 were removed as the children found these to be ambiguous. (See Appendix 3.15)
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3.7.3.2 SQ2 and SQ6 QUESTIONNAIRES: Perceptions of the Classroom Factors enhancing Student Engagement
The objective of Student Questionnaires 2 (SQ2) and 6 (SQ6) was to investigate students’ perceptions of the key factors that they regarded as central to the autonomously supportive science classroom. Velayutham et al. (2011) argue that students’ affective and behavioural engagement with learning is influenced by their motivational beliefs and teacher- afforded ability to be self-regulated learners. These factors are asserted as mediating upon students’ desire to learn and participate in learning activities. Velayutham et al. (2011) developed and validated The Students’ Adaptive Learning Engagement in Science (SALES)
Questionnaire as an instrument that measured students’ perceptions of their motivation and self-regulated learning specifically within science lessons. The SALES questionnaire evolved from the WHIC (What is Happening in Classrooms?) instrument (Aldridge et al., 1999). The WHIC instrument assessed seven dimensions of classroom learning, including teacher support, attitudes towards investigation and student involvement, and orientation towards tasks, was tested and validated in Western Australia and Taiwan. Similar instruments
reviewed were the Learning Environment Inventory (LEI: Walberg, 1979), the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI: Wubbels and Levy, 1993), the Individualized Classroom
Environment Questionnaire (ISEQ: Fraser, 1990) and the Classroom Environment Scale (CES: Moos, 1979).
The limitation of these instruments is that they often overlap in terms of the variables they measure and, in some cases, do not reflect upon what was happening in modern
classrooms (Aldridge et al., 1999, p. 49). However, the WHIC Questionnaire (Fraser et al., 1996) has attempted to reduce this limitation by combining scales from some of the above questionnaires to investigate more of the factors that have been shown to have influence the correlative association between students’ outcomes and what happens within their
classrooms. Therefore, the WHIC questionnaire (Fraser et al., 1996), as adapted by Aldridge et al. (1999), was used as the basis for seven scales within the SQ6 Questionnaire (see Table 3.2).
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Table 3.2 The seven subscales within the SQ6 Questionnaire
Subscale Heading Statement
Numbers Subscale 1 Student Cohesiveness (Student – Peer Relationships) 1 - 6
Subscale 2 Teacher Support 7 - 14
Subscale 3 Involvement (Relatedness / TSIR) 15 - 22
Subscale 4 Investigations 23 – 30
Subscale 5 Task Orientation (Achievement-expectancy) 31 – 37
Subscale 6 Cooperation 38 – 45
Subscale 7 Equity 46 - 53
(See Appendix 3.18)
3.7.3.3 SQ3 and SQ7 QUESTIONNAIRES: Students’ self-attributes as the basis for their motivation for and engagement with science
The objective of Student Questionnaires 3 (SQ3) and 7 (SQ7) was to investigate students’ self-attributes and attitudes to learning within science through the Competence construct of SDT. This includes perceived competence in science lessons, confidence, and the perceived value of making engaged efforts within science lessons. The Trait and Motivation Scales of Christophel (1990) focuses upon the classroom and lesson-based motivational dynamics and conditions central to learning, and, in particular, how students are taught by their teachers and given opportunities to learn for themselves as opposed to an
overconcentration upon curricula and syllabus content. The development of the instrument by Gorham and Christophel (1992) enabled investigation of the relationship between teacher behaviours and student learning outcomes. In particular, the instrument enabled exploration of the specific teacher behaviours that students associate with encouraging them to participate and engage in learning: science teacher characteristics and traits; science teacher
effectiveness; involvement of students by science teachers; student’s science self-confidence; teacher actions, and science investigations (see Appendices 3.17 and 3.19).
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3.7.3.4 SQ7 QUESTIONNAIRE: Motivation factors influencing students’ engagement with science
Further to adaptation of the WHIC instrument (Aldridge et al., 1999), the evolved Students’ Adaptive Learning Engagement in Science (SALES) Questionnaire (Velayutham et al., 2011) was used as the basis for SQ7.
Table 3.3 The four subscales within the SQ7 Questionnaire
Subscale Heading Statement
Numbers Subscale 1 Learning Goal Orientation 1 – 8
Subscale 2 Task Value 9 – 16
Subscale 3 Self-Efficacy 17 – 24
Subscale 4 Self-Regulation 25 - 32
(See Appendix 3.19)
3.7.3.5 THE PILOT STUDY – testing the questionnaires
The first wave of data collection was the pilot study, which was conducted at the beginning of March 2013 with the following objectives in mind:
1. To check that the statements within each questionnaire were unambiguous and clear to students aged between 9 and 13 years old, including ensuring that the statements could be read and understood by all four cohorts;
2. To amend or remove any statements that were too ambiguous or the majority of students were confused by. (N.B. Where statements were removed, the original numbering in the revised questionnaires has been maintained);
3. To gain student feedback regarding statements that they perceived as leading; 4. To gain students’ feedback as to the layout of the questionnaire, including the size
of the response boxes within the Likert scales;
5. To ensure that sufficient time was made available for the questionnaires to be completed in their original and revised forms, and;
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6. To test the SQ2 and SQ3 questionnaires as the basis for the final design of the SQ6 and SQ7 questionnaires.
3.7.3.6 Summary
A review of numerous pre-tested, pre-validated questionnaires relating to students’ engagement with learning led to the final selection and adaptation of questionnaires for the main study. These enabled the successful collection of evidence relating to five key areas (as outlined in section 3.8.3). The sources of statements within the five questionnaires are
summarised within Table 3.4 (below). Three of the questionnaires were adapted following the pilot study, further to feedback from the children: the wording of some of the statements was changed to ensure that the statements could be better understood and were not regarded as ambiguous.
TABLE 3.4 Sources of the questions forming the Teacher and Student Questionnaires;
pre-tested and pre-validated questions (See Appendices 3.15 to 3.19)
QUESTIONNAIRE SOURCES REFERENCES
SQ1
STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIP