The Challenges That Facing Kindergarten's Teachers - Report Example

Methodology Chapter 2. Methodology 2 Introduction The methodology chapter is a key section for both research proposals and research reports. Interested parties in the research process will want assurances that the research question needs asking, as well as that the approach taken will answer the question or address the hypothesis, and deliver the expected outcome (McMillan & Wergin, 2011: p33). The research methodology enables the researcher to achieve results for a specific research problem, while carrying the research process towards answering the research question. The researcher must solve the research problem systematically, failure to which the possibility of getting a final reliable result decreases. Essentially, the use of a correct research methodology effectively resolves majority of the issues faced by researchers in exploring a research question (Lodico et al, 2013: p62). Thus, in exploring the challenges faced in teaching English as a Second Language in kindergartens, the methodology will progress sequentially. The research design will be identified, followed by the research method, sampling procedure, data collection, and data analysis. As with majority of qualitative research studies, ethical considerations are critical and will be discussed in depth. 2.2 Research Design The design refers to the structure of scientific research, which systematizes the research, while also giving it direction with different types of research design possessing different benefits and limitations (Silverman, 2013: p25). The selected method will impact on the results received, as well as how the researcher concludes his/her findings. The researcher can take either of two approaches when solving the research problem, which are qualitative research and quantitative research. Whereas quantitative research will collect and analyse measurable data to generate information in form of numerical data that is convertible to numbers, qualitative research will collect verbal data and analyse it in a subjective, interpretive, or impressionistic manner before generating data that is non-numerical in nature (Ayiro, 2012: p27). This research study will use the qualitative approach, which is designed with the aim of revealing the range of behaviour and attitudes of the target audience, as well as the perceptions that drive these behaviours and attitudes for teachers teaching ESL to kindergarten children. The qualitative research approach is the best fit for answering the research question because the results are expected to describe challenges facing ESL kindergarten teachers, rather than to predict the challenges. According to Check and Schutt (2012: p70), the research design refers to the systematic plan used by the researcher to study and solve a specific research problem as it defines the type of study, for example whether it is correlational, descriptive, experimental, or semi-experimental, as well as the sub-type of the study, for example a descriptive-case study. Identifying and adhering to the research design enables the researcher to elect to integrate various parts of the study in a logical and coherent manner, ensuring that he/she is able to address the research question effectively. Since the research question seeks to investigate whether kindergarten ESL teachers should have competence and functions of the children’s culture where the children do not speak English as a first language, as well as whether bilingualism in the classroom threatens English culture, it will be important for the researcher to immerse themselves into the topic and understand the subject. The main aim of the researcher in such a case will be to see the world from the subject’s point of view, instead of imposing personal views (Cohen et al, 2010: 82). 2.3 Research Method Although this research study will take a qualitative approach, it will use questionnaires for the collection of data, despite questionnaires not being among the most prominent methods for the collection of qualitative research. According to Packer (2011: p33), questionnaires usually require that the participants respond to stimulus, meaning that they will not be acting normally or naturally. However, questionnaires can be designed in a way that enables the researcher to collect qualitative data, especially to collect information from a sample that could be reached using a personal interview but for which this would be too time consuming. Indeed, Saldaña (2011: p49) notes that questionnaires can be used to collect qualitative data where clearly defined opinions or facts have already been identified using a more qualitative method, in which the questionnaire could be used to explore whether the facts and opinions can be generalized. In this case, the questionnaire will be used to confirm and qualify qualitative data collected from the literature review. However, it will be critical to ensure that all participants are interpreting the questionnaire in the same manner. In addition, where the questionnaires will be used to collect qualitative data, it is better if the questions are unstructured, unobtrusive, and open (Saldaña, 2011: p49). In this case, open ended questionnaires will be used to collect data from the participants of the study. Dörnyei (2013: p40) notes that open-ended questionnaires are able to provide an extensive array of qualitative data concerning instruction and are best used to provide details, as a source of additional ideas, and to pinpoint challenges and problems. Since the research problem to be solved in the current study requires the researcher to identify challenges faced by kindergarten teachers of ESL where English is not the children’s first language. Also referred to as unstructured or qualitative questions, these questionnaires have answer categories or response patterns that the respondent provides, rather than the researcher. This is different from close-ended questionnaires, which are also referred to as structured questionnaires that involve a limited number of answer categories presented by the researcher for the respondent to select. As a result, using open-ended questionnaires in this study will aid in solving the research problem as the respondent will identify challenges faced in teaching ESL in kindergarten from their own perspective, rather than from the researcher’s perspective. It will also enable the respondent to clarify and qualify their answers (Gillham, 2011: p29), generating rich data that will then be used to find out whether there is need for the teacher to have functions of the child’s culture and whether using bilingualism affects the English culture. These are issues that will require the researcher to ask questions that reveal the frame of reference, thinking process, and logic of the respondent, while their complexity will require the respondent to give adequate and detailed answers for the researcher to make inferences (Sudman & Bradburn, 2012: p11). However, several precautions will be taken to avoid some of the pitfalls of using open-ended questionnaires, including ensuring that the questions are not too general that the respondent loses direction, that the respondents are not intimidated by the questions, and that enough space is provided in the questionnaire to allow as much detail to be covered as possible. While close-ended questionnaires would present some advantages for the current study, such as being easy and quick to answer and increased ease of comparing different respondents’ answers, it is easy for the respondent to be frustrated where their preferred answer is not part of the choices (Foddy, 2013: p49). This will be a great disadvantage for a study that seeks to understand specific challenges and perceptions of bilingualism in the kindergarten teaching ESL to children who’s L1 is not English. 2.3.1 Construction of the Questionnaire Alvesson and Sandberg (2013: p22) posit that how a questionnaire is designed is dependent on the type of information the researcher wants to collect, i.e. whether the researcher wishes to collect information that is qualitative in nature or whether they want to collect quantitative information to test previously generated hypothesis. Because the information being sought is qualitative in nature, there will be no need for a structured questionnaire. In this case where the research problem requires identifications of specific challenges faced in teaching ESL to kindergarten children, a structured questionnaire may prevent the full exploration of the teacher’s opinions and processes by restricting the discussion. As a result, it is important to prepare open-ended questions that have at least ten significant open-ended questions that possess appropriate prompts/probes underneath each question (Brace, 2010: p42). Because the participant sample is expected to be homogenous in nature, i.e. kindergarten teachers of ESL, there will be better ability and willingness of the participants to respond to the questions in writing. In addition, since the kindergarten teachers are expected to have increased interest in the topic of this research and are obviously literate, open-ended questions will not suppress their responses. In designing the research questionnaire, the intentions of the research will be clearly stated using a brief statement about why the information is being collected, which will make the teachers more willing to answer questions regarding their opinions and themselves. Instructions are also very important where open-ended questionnaires are used to avoid the respondent going too far away from the topic, which will harm the validity of the results. In designing an open-ended questionnaire, Hennink et al (2011: p61) identify the need for a short set of instructions in the introduction, as well as additional instructions for the particular questions asked. However, these instructions will only guide the respondent on how to answer, rather than what to answer. Personal information, for example about race and age, while important to the investigation on the importance of bilingualism in kindergarten teachers of ESL, could be uncomfortable to some respondents. As a result, these questions should be placed at the end of the questionnaire. While the open-ended questionnaire will be seeking detailed information about the effects of bilingualism in the ESL kindergarten and challenges faced in such a classroom, the questions must be concise and short to avoid misunderstanding (Saris & Gallhofer, 2011: p50). Moreover, it will be important to ask a single question at a time and to avoid double-barrelled questions, especially as this has the ability to severely compromise the data results (Willis, 2014: p44). This tides over to next important point in designing the open-ended questionnaire, which is that the questions must be unbiased and do not lead the respondent to answer in a particular manner or to give a particular answer. While the opinions formed by the researcher in the course of conducting the literature review will obviously influence the questionnaire, it is important that the results of the previous literature review study lead the questions and not personal opinions (Behling & Law, 2010: p35). Finally, the questions will be grouped according to subjects, such as whether the teachers feel that being bilingual helps them in connecting better with the children, whether they feel that bilingualism in the classroom prevents the children from integrating into the English culture, and the different challenges faced in bilingual instruction in the classroom. 2.3.2 Questionnaire data analysis Bernhardt (2013: p22) posits that qualitative research, such as the current study, arrives at a juncture where organization of data in a systematic way is needed for analytic purposes, recognizing that all data has multiple perspectives, is procedural, and is fluid and, therefore, requires to be ordered in some way. Since the data from the open ended questionnaire, along with notes from the literature review, contains data on diverse topics, the best way to go around analyzing such data will be through the grounded theory analytical method. To begin with, the data will be combed through and assigned general codes regarding whether it deals with the effects of bilingual teachers and so on. These codes will help to identify anchors, which enable the important points from the collected information to be collected. Following the coding of information, those with similar content will be grouped into concepts, after which the broad groups of concepts will then be further grouped into categories. The different categories identified will be exclusive, which means that they will be on the same analytical level (Falissard, 2012: p36). Finally, the different categories will be further distilled to identify a theory of bilingualism in ESL kindergartens and the challenges that face this form of instruction. 2.3.3 Reliability of the Questionnaire Ideally, the coding of all open-ended questions should be conducted by at least two individuals, after which the reliability of the questionnaire and the coding process is assessed using the Spearman-Brown prediction formula. This formula is used to identify and estimate reliability of multi-item indexes or measures, while also providing an essential foundation for other statistical theories of measurement (Deng, 2013: p44). In addition, it also calculates increases in reliability expected where more indicators pertaining to the same trait are identified and available. Whenever data is coded, it is important to ensure that the resultant categories will be reliable, meaning that two independent coders will be required to code similar responses identically using similar rules. While it is possible to create a valuable group of categories in this case, their value will decrease significantly if they are not applied reliably to the responses (Johnson & Christensen, 2012: p45). 2.4 Research Sample Midgley et al (2013: p41) note that qualitative researchers will typically make sampling choices that allow them to increase their understanding of the phenomenon under study. In this case, because the research problem specifically identifies ESL kindergarten teachers, a non-probability type of sampling will be used. Unlike probability sampling where all items have an equal chance of selection, the assumption made in non-probability sampling is that the characteristics of the population under study are uniformly distributed. This is the reason why it is selected for this study because picking any teacher of ESL in the kindergarten will be representative of the population. The specific type of non-probability sampling method selected for this study will be purposive sampling, which requires that the researcher begins with a particular perspective they wish to examine, followed by identification of participants that cover the entire range of these perspectives (Dawson, 2009: p55). For this study, the researcher is seeking to examine challenges of teaching EWSL in kindergarten and the effects of bilingual teachers in such a classroom, meaning that the purposive sample will include ESL kindergarten teachers with competency in the children’s L1. 2.5 Access Consistent with the qualitative approach, researchers should seek out a broad dynamic of participants in their interaction in personal and/or professional environments. Since this will require he researcher to work with human subjects, it is important for them to understand how to access the required participants (Hartas, 2010: p32). Access, in this case, is the appropriate academic and ethical practices required in gaining entry to specific communities to conduct formal research. The gatekeeper makes access to this group possible and, in this case, it will be the school principal. The known-sponsor model of gaining entry will be used for this study, as a result, in which the school administrators will be approached, particularly those with a positive relationship with the institution of higher learning the supporting the researcher. This is because these administrators value the university’s research conducted by the students and professors, which they use to modify their practices and in decision-making. It is expected that their support will make gaining access straightforward by signing participant letters and giving permission to work with the participants in a naturalistic setting required for administering the questionnaires (Aubrey, 2010: p63). 2.6 Ethics According to Burgess (2010: p57), research ethics primarily deal with how researchers interact with the participants, while professional ethics take additional issues like collaborative relationships, data fabrication, and intellectual property into consideration. This research study will use three core principles as the basis for its research ethics. The first will be respect for participants by ensuring their autonomy and respecting their dignity, which will ensure and assure the participants they are not simply being used for the achievement of the study’s objectives. The second principle will be beneficence, which will require the participants to be assured of the researcher’s commitment to minimize associated social and psychological risks of the study (McNamee & Bridges, 2012: p74), while maximizing benefits for the research participants by identifying challenges of teaching ESL in kindergartens by bilingual teachers. Finally, the principle of justice will be of importance in the study to ensure that the benefits and risks of the study are distributed fairly between the participants and the researcher. In this case, the beneficiaries of the study should be the participants, first and foremost. 2.7 Summary In solving the current research problem and answering the subsequent research question, the qualitative approach has been identified as the best fit for the study because data on challenges and perceptions of bilingualism’s effects on English culture is qualitative in nature. The concepts identified during the research study will be further researched using open-ended questionnaires that will seek clarification and qualification of information from the literature review. Data collected through the literature review and open-ended questionnaires will be analyzed using grounded theory analysis, while its reliability will be checked using the Spearman-Brown prediction formula. References Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2013). Constructing Research Questions: Doing Interesting Research. London: SAGE Publications. Aubrey, C. (2010). Early childhood educational research: Issues in methodology and ethics. London: RoutledgeFalmer Press. Ayiro, L. P. (2012). A functional approach to educational research methods and statistics: A qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press Behling, O., & Law, K. S. (2010). Translating questionnaires and other research instruments: Problems and solutions. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Bernhardt, V. (2013). Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Brace, I. (2010). Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. London: Kogan Page. Burgess, R. G. (2010). The Ethics of educational research. New York: Falmer Press. Check, J. W., & Schutt, R. K. (2012). Research methods in education. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2013). Research methods in education. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Dawson, C. (2009). Introduction to research methods: A practical guide for anyone undertaking a research project. Oxford: How to Contents. Deng, Z. (2013). Estimating the reliability of the teacher questionnaire used in the Teacher Education and Learning to Teach (TELT) Study. East Lansing, Mich: National Centre for Research on Teacher Learning, Michigan State University. Dörnyei, Z. (2013). Questionnaires in second language research: Construction, administration, and processing. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Falissard, B. (2012). Analysis of questionnaire data with R. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Foddy, W. H. (2013). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires: Theory and practice in social research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Frith, J. (2012). Research and project design methods: Epidemiological design, surveys and questionnaire design, qualitative research and focus group design, biostatistics methods, doing a literature search, writing a bibliography, writing a project proposal, list of references. Sydney: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales. Gillham, B. (2011). Developing a questionnaire. New York: Continuum. Goodwin, W. L., & Goodwin, L. D. (2011). Understanding quantitative and qualitative research in early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press. Hartas, D. (2010). Educational research and inquiry: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Continuum. Hennink, M. M., Hutter, I., & Bailey, A. (2011). Qualitative research methods. London: SAGE. Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. B. (2012). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Lodico, M. G., Spaulding, D. T., & Voegtle, K. H. (2013). Methods in educational research: From theory to practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. McNamee, M. J., & Bridges, D. (2012). The ethics of educational research. Oxford: Blackwell. McMillan, J. H., & Wergin, J. F. (2011). Understanding and evaluating educational research. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Midgley, W., Danaher, P. A., & Baguley, M. (2013). The role of participants in education research: Ethics, epistemologies, and methods. New York, NY: Routledge. Packer, M. J. (2011). The science of qualitative research. New York: Cambridge University Press. Saldaña, J. (2011). Fundamentals of qualitative research. New York: Oxford University Press. Saris, W. E., & Gallhofer, I. N. (2011). Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience. Sudman, S., & Bradburn, N. M. (2012). Asking questions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Silverman, D. (2013). Doing qualitative research. London; SAGE Publications Ltd Willis, G. B. (2014). Analysis of the cognitive interview in questionnaire design. Oxford: Oxford University Press Read More