Task 6b

Task 6b

 

A Pilot is done as an experiment before introducing something more widely. A Pilot should advise us on what worked well and what failed, so we know for the future.

 

I will begin with which tool I felt was the most successful. Piloting an interview meant that I got a broad range of responses and I could direct the conversation to concentrate on certain subjects. I could get the answers I wanted from the interviewee without having to completely change my whole interview, I just had to add some extra questions on the spot. The response I got from the interview was much more interesting, as my interviewee covered a lot more detail. The responses had much more depth, than say for example, data from a survey. This will be an important characteristic of interviews that I will use in my inquiry interviews. However, even though I felt this was the most successful tool, interviewing did have it's cons. As an interviewer, I sometimes felt a little awkward when asking questions about teaching, which involved the interviewee having to take a good look at their teaching and critically reflect on their work. I was worried the teacher may think badly of me for asking such personal questions. Luckily, this interviewee was absolutely fine and answered all my questions as honestly as they could. When performing an interview for my inquiry I may have to make sure I word my sentences so they are not too personal. As an insider-researcher, I should develop a sense of feeling for whether the interviewee will mind personal questions or will be put off as I don't want them to call off the interview. Next time, I understand I will need more questions, making the interview longer and more focused. I need to use the time for extra questions to my advantage as this time, I wanted to ask more questions but was limited due to feeling slightly awkward.

 

Surveys, are great for numeral results. SurveyMonkey.com made it easy to see my responses, it gave me percentages and numbers. The longer questions I asked had comment boxes so I could also see these responses clearly. I could use my professional networking and personal social networking to find participants for this survey. I posted the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, my Blog and Twitter. Performing Arts and Academic study teachers responded to my survey, creating a wide variety of  results. However, as participants were only filling in the survey quickly, answers were less detailed than the interview. Comments in the boxes weren't as focused and when looking at the numeral data, I realised that not a lot of it was actually relevant. As an insider-researcher for my inquiry, I understand I may have to do a survey for the students. SurveyMonkey is a great tool to use as it automatically protects participants identity, this then aids the survey to abide by the 'confidentiality' rule. When developing my questions for surveys and interviews, I need to hone in on each question and make sure they cover all areas of my inquiry without making questions too long winded.

 

Piloting an observation was one of the most difficult tools. I gained some good quality information from observing a drama class but found it difficult to watch and write notes at the same time. My observation template worked well, but there was so much information to record that I felt I constantly had my head down. Watching and taking notes on both student and teacher was also hard. When thinking of stratergies to work around these difficulties, I realised I may have to perform more than a few observations to get sufficient data. I may also need to have two seperate columns on my existing template, one for teacher notes and one for students notes. However, I got to see some fantastic examples of teaching and see how certain methods affected the children, which is fundamentally what my inquiry is about. As long as I keep my observation notes form simple to fill out and I conduct more observations, results will be much more sufficient.

 

The focus group was the pilot I was dreading the most. Although it wasn't as bad as I thought, it wasn't great. I sampled this tool on a group of five teachers, all of performing arts (dancing, drama, music, musical theatre etc). Performing artists are known for their big characters and loud mouths so when you put six in a room together, it is slightly hyper. There were a lot of disagreements and sometimes, a little tension. As head of the group, I found it difficult to focus and guide the group in the right direction as some of these people were so opinionated and dominating. Getting information in note form was near impossible as I had to attempt to guide the group with the questions. Saying this, I was very lucky, I understand some focus groups barely say a word so at least mine gave me a variety of answers. Confidentiality wasn't a problem, as I made teachers introduce themselves as Teacher A, B, C etc so I could identify their voices on the tape. As an insider-researcher for my inquiry, I may carry out a focus group on a group of students rather than teachers as I felt sometimes there was a clash of characters. Obviously, there are many more ethics to be considered when interviewing children so this will be something I have to address.

 

When taking these methods out of a University Course and putting them into the workplace, I realised employees are constantly being interviewed and surveyed, just in a different sense. Students question me on things all the time, putting me on the spot. It's just a case of knowing what to say and when to say it. A teacher can be called into the Head's office at any time, on any day. This may not be a formal interview but even if it is to discuss exam results or the upcoming production, questions will be asked.

 

The key principles of how an insider-researcher pilots these aforementioned tools are like ethics of questioning. Word personal questions in a manner that will not offend the interviewee and keeping confidentiality of the group etc, are all general principles for when a researcher is piloting tools but also when piloting ethics too.