The field experiment

‘Prospective’ and ‘reflective’, according to Cobb et al. (2004) are two faces of experimental design. A primary goal in experimental design is to improve the initial design by testing and revising conjectures as they are informed by ongoing analysis during the field study. Some limitations of experimental study should be carefully considered in advance.

An experimental design is the traditional approach to conducting quantitative research (Creswell, 2005), while Gomm (2004) introduces the term ‘field experiment’ to describe the kind of experiment where the researcher ‘injects’ some control into an otherwise naturally occurring situation. ‘Field experiment’ is an extension of laboratory experiment in social research. Oakley (2000) declares that although ‘experimental’ is usually associated with ‘quantitative’, it is not necessary to stipulate that a design for prospective studies employing experimental and control groups should eliminate ‘qualitative’ methods or data. This design combines quantitative and qualitative research strategies and methods.

Another type of experimental design has different subjects but similar treatment (Gomm, 2004). Group A and group B are selected as different in some aspects, while treated as similarly as possible. (In this research, in-island classes & out-islands classes).

This study was to examine whether Circle Time could work in a Chinese secondary school, with a bigger group of pupils. Why does it work (or not)? Are there any issues which influence Circle Time in a Chinese secondary school? How can it be developed? To achieve the best answers, both quantitative and qualitative data are needed. In this mixed design, firstly experiments are used to examine the questions; pre-test and post-test were applied to compare the effect. Questionnaires were employed to generate students’ opinions about their understanding and feelings of Circle Time. In-depth interviews were used to gather information from the participants.

The experiment in this study attempted to answer the question: Can Circle Time can operate effectively with Chinese secondary children in Chinese school? The experimental group was randomly chosen from a year 7 group within 12 classes. “Schools are natural laboratories” (Oakley, 2000; 165). It is easy to choose samples randomly in school. ‘A representative sample is best gained by using random sampling techniques’(de Vaus, 2001). Usually, in a Chinese school, students in the same year group are divided into several classes; each class has the same proportion of successful students based on their academic results from the previous year’s examination. The purpose of this kind of division is to avoid putting pupils with better academic results into one group. As a result, students with different academic outcomes are in the same group; the average score of each subject of each class of pupils is almost the same. Thus the experimental group and

In this study, year 7 pupils were divided into 12 classes. Apart from one class who were learning German, Japanese and French, four experimental groups were randomly chosen from the other 11 classes, which were all learning English. Two of the four experimental classes were chosen from 3 boarding classes. The students in these classes were from rural areas. They came to this school, which is one of the best in the city, after reaching its high demands in their entrance examination. Their family also needed to pay extra tuition fees for their study, because they were not residents of this region . Although extra tuition fees were required, there was still a huge demand from parents and pupils to struggle for a place at the best school in order to gain a better future.

In these three boarding classes (referred to as out-island classes), pupils stayed in school during the week and went home at weekends. There were boarding staff at school to take care of their sleeping time and their life during the week. The class teacher would look after their emotional feelings if they were lonely or homesick. There were 7 pupils whose homes were too far from the city centre, who might take more than four hours to travel back home, or whose parents were doing business in other parts of China who had to stay at school almost the whole academic term – five months. These students are intelligent in their academic studies; however, as their primary schools did not offer the best facilities of study, they generally do not have the same outcomes as students from other classes. While in other classes, for example, 40% of students have learnt to play the piano, 10% have earned a piano playing Certificate. In the boarding classes, just half the number of students compared with their day peers had had a chance to learn piano and they did not reach such a good standard.

The homes of students in the other classes (called in-island classes), are not far away from the school which is close to the city centre. In China living in the city means they can easily access the best facilities, including school and education5. For most of these students, both their parents are white-collar professionals, who are not only well- educated, but also well paid; therefore, they can offer their child the best education theoretically and physically.

However, the difference between individuals must be considered. The objects of educational research are human beings. Students in each class have different teachers, who will influence students’ daily discipline, ways of learning and relationships with teachers and between peers. These factors cannot be controlled outside laboratories. Each class has been randomly appointed a class teacher. The class teachers are different in gender, age, experience, personalities and ways of teaching, which will influence students in various ways.

After one week of negotiations with different departments in X school, the sessions started in week 2. Within 12 classes in year 7, 4 classes were randomly chosen to be experimental groups (table 4.2.4A). As there were two classes which were boarding classes, the experimental group had to be divided into two groups. Although this resulted in more difficulties in data collection and analysis, the findings revealed significant differences between the two types of students. Class 12 is a special class with both

5

This is another problem of the Chinese education system, which has to be explained. Even compulsory education in China is not totally free. Schools in the cities have the best facilities for study: the best teachers, best classrooms and best opportunities, while rural schools especially western rural schools are as far a part as heaven and earth. There are differences between city schools and rural schools even in most developed cities in the east; the differences of schooling between east China and west China are vast. The school in this study has been equipped with multimedia teaching facilities in each classroom; all teachers have a computer in their desk and are connected with internet. There are music and painting rooms, physical, chemical and biological labs, language teaching rooms, a trapeze room, a library with 55,000 books and other facilities, while in western Chinese rural schools, some students do not even have a

boarders and day pupils. They chose German, French or Japanese as their major foreign language study, so it was considered a special reference group.

Table 4.2.4.A The experiment group arrangement

Year 7

class

Group types

Students types

Shorter

form

1

Control group 1

Boarders

C1

2

Experiment

group 1

Boarders

E1

3

4

Experiment

group 2

Day pupils

E2

5

6

Control group 2

Day pupils

C2

7

8

9

10

11

12

Non-experiment

group

Mixed specialist language

class: Boarders and day pupils

S1

Experimental group 1 (E1) and experimental group 2 (E2) started their Circle Time

sessions from week 2; each session was based on one topic, mainly according to their

daily life. Before the mid-term examination, all topics were decided by the researcher.

Some topics, such as idols, generation gap, boys and girls were decided by students

Table 4.2.4.B Session Plan and content of Circle Time Experiment schedule

Week Time Circle Time Session

1 5thSeptember – 9thSeptember Time arrangement

2 12thSeptember – 16thSeptember Coming to a new place (first session) 3 19thSeptember – 23rdSeptember Hosting National educational conference

for Student-centred Education

4 26thSeptember – 30thSeptember Making friends

5 National Holiday National holiday

6 10thOctober – 14thOctober Holiday and internet friendship

7 17thOctober – 21 October Death and life

8 24thOctober – 28thOctober You are the best

9 31stOctober – 4thNovember How do you feel about examinations

10 7thNovember – 11thNovember School Mid-term examination

11 14th November – 18thNovember Idols

12 21stNovember – 25thNovember Generation gap

13 28thNovember – 2ndDecember Boys and girls

14 5thDecember – 9thDecember Moral conflict

15 12thDecember – 16thDecember Ideals (some groups did not have it as the venue was occupied)

16 19thDecember – 23rdDecember Merry Christmas and Happy New year Party)

17 26thDecember – 30 December Making a tower together without verbal language (whole class session)

18 3rdJanuary – 7thJanuary Conclusion and questionnaires

This mixed study was mainly based on the experimental design – introducing Circle Time to a Chinese secondary school. There was no evidence about any Chinese school using Circle Time for students’ emotional development and communication skills; neither

has research about Circle Time been done before in China. In order to examine these experimental results, apart from pre and post-experimental self-esteem score tests, students’ academic performance was taken into account in dependent value analyses. Year seven students’ entry academic results and their end of term academic results were compared as pre- and post-experiment test elements.

Apart from using questionnaire, semi-structured interview, test and field observation for data collection, and paying attention to experimental groups, the researcher was also open to different data sources and targeted a wide research population. In the next section, attention will be paid to some unexpected groups, who joined the study on their own initiative; however, they made a considerable contribution.

4.2.5 Unexpected participants – year ten students and large sized