Tash 6b

Critical Reflection on the 4 tools i carried out.....

Observation
The obsrvation i carried out was on the teacher and a child. I found the observation to not be very useful to me at this time as i was not specific with it enough. Reasons being as i just done it observing day to day activities in the nursery. I feel that if i were to use this tool in the future i need to look more closely at something specific for example 'a childs behaviour during activities or how long a child stays at something'. The kind of observation i carried out would be more useful to analize rather than use as a solid piece of literature.

Interview
I found the interview a really useful tool overall. The implications with this tool is that it can be time consuming and actually getting round to doing it during school time is hard. Part of me felt i was using someones time up when they could be doing something within the classroom. However what i got from it has been really useful to me. It was very informal and felt more like a conversation between two professionals. The teacher was able to give me an insight into to her views on the question in hand and what she has descussed with other professionals in meetings regarding this matter. This helped me to gather knowledge on who else would be a realable source to gather information from.

Survey
The survey was one of my most successful. I feel this is because people dont feel presured into filling them in and can take there own time. Also i think that when they are written anonomusly you get peoples real views on certain subjects. Working in a school environment can lead people to not expressing there own feelings because they are worried about being judged. I left the Questions in the staffroom with a heading of who i was, where i worked and what they were for. I think its important for people to feel comfortable in why these questions are being asked and what for. The answers dip into different areas that are also effect by the question in hand. This has helped me to look at a wider view. Plus it gives me an oppotunity to get answers from people i dont work with on a day to day basic and different professions.

Focus Group
This is the hardest type of tool to conduct. However you get some great research material from it. Trying to gather a number of individuals that are all working to different time scales and deadlines is such a hard task. Again i felt like i was presurising people to take part when they didnt really want to. I think using this tool for things like interviews is a great tool as you get to notice people who are confident in the knowledge that they have and shine as leaders. However this can cause conflict between individuals and create a fosty atmosphere especially when we are all professionals in the same area but have different views. The positives is that it creates a small debate that lots of information and view points are thrown into. If i were to do it again i would conduct it with different groups of people ie all school teachers, all T.A's and compart the two notes i gather.

Carring out all these different tools has got me excited about my research laying ahead. It has helped me to identify what works best in certain situations and what doesnt, what information and knowledge i get best from and so forth. Its also helped towards my inquiry plan and how i plan on carring it out.