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RESEARCH DESIGN
unbiased feedback""" on his performance and create the possibility to check
on his perceptions of the experience. I believe it is hard to tell if the observers
offer an ‘unbiased feedback’, but they certainly saw the lesson from a different
perspective than I did and could also reflect on how differently participants
behaved and interacted with each other in this specific context” compared
to the usual behaviour and group dynamics.
The lessons were all recorded on video, so they could be analysed in detail.
The videos were used to identify critical incidents reflected on by focus group
participants or observers and be analysed further. There is particular value
in video recordings as it makes it possible for the practitioner-researcher to
monitor their own action, language and behaviour?” but also to monitor others
in the situation.’”” This aspect of the recording was used in the data analysis.
I opted for using this method as well because it is a powerful means to investigate
educational experience, especially those of kinetic and spatial orientation." As
the use of space is a central component of drama this aspect was used in the data
analysis as well, where the quality of recording allowed this mode of analysis.
There are also some potential dangers involved in video recording of events,
but extreme care was taken that all ethical aspects related to personality
rights of participants and consent (also parental) to being filmed were handled
correctly.
Reflective Diary
Keeping a reflective diary, documenting the practitioner/researcher’s reflections
on the process, is common practice in action research. McNiff and Whithead
explain that the diary is a particularly valuable source of data as it shows
both the development in action and in thinking. They point out that “you can
document how your own perceptions changed over time, and show how you
used new learning to help make better sense of a situation”’”? Researchers
use different formats to record their insights about their work, McNiff and
Whitehead for example suggest creating four rubrics in the diary,**° but I decided
upon employing a simple diary format, as the aspects reflected on changed in
different situations and with various issues explored in the lessons.
574 Neelands: Re-imaging the Reflective Practitioner, 37.
Mary Simpson - Jennifer Tusson: Using Observations in Small-Scale Research: A Beginner's
Guide, Edinburgh, The Scottish Council for Research in Education, 1995.
Jack Whitehead — Jean McNiff: Action Research: Living Theory, London, Sage, 2006, 67.
577 Ibid., 68.
578 Lesley Gourlay: Multimodality, visual methodologies and higher education, in Maggi Savin¬
Baden — Claire Howell Major (eds.): New Approaches to Qualitative Research: Wisdom and
Uncertainty, London, Routledge, 2010, 86.
McNiff—Whitehead: Action Research, 94.
Ibid., 107
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