Enquiry tools.

Whilst I wait for a response to my informal trial tool from other people on the BAPP course, I thought I would move on to 6b. I have looked over reader 6 and it has explained the different methods of collecting data for my enquiry.

I have looked into the pros and cons of each tool and listed the bullet points to help me decide which method would be most suitable for my enquiry.


Interview:

Pros-

• Face to face (in person, Skype, telephone)
• Monitor reactions.
• On the spot questions so more likely to be genuine answers.
• They can respond in more detail.
• Allows me as the researcher to probe a response.
• Can record with permission.
• Can be structured questions or relaxed open interview. 

 Cons-

• May think of responses afterwards.
• Difficult to arrange.
• Be more aware of self conduct.

Survey:

Pros-

• Easy way to ask condensed information.
• Gathering larger quantity of information. quicker.
• Direct questions. 
• They have time to think how they'd like to answer.
• Black and white evidence.
• Easily sent now using technology. 
• Not as much pressure as face to face.

Cons-

• Getting people to actually fill them out.
• Are they honest answers hiding behind pen and paper. 
• Ordering the data collection afterwards.

Documents:

Pros-

• Solid evidence
• Easily comparable.

Cons-

• Gaining permission or access to important documents.
• Need to consider data protection. 

Observation:

Pros-

• Experience first hand.
• Alows you to reflect and compare.

Cons-

• Harder to arrange.
• Time consuming.
• Picking out relevant points could be harder to spot as it's not on paper.
• Not actually speaking to anyone for an opinion.
• Based on your own opinion/thoughts. 

After reflecting on each enquiry tool I feel that interviews and documents would be perfect for my line of enquiry. I have also considered observation and survey as they would both be relevant and easily done for my enquiry however this will become more clear once I start my enquiry plan. As reader 6 says, don't use too many enquiry tools due to work load so I will narrow this down.

I have a list of sources I would like to interview and a couple of documents which are also great evidence so I have a good starting point.

Review of literature

First book - Teachers under pressure by Cheryl Travers and Cary Coop

Very helpful and relevant as it was about teacher stress in the school enviroment. There were details of what may cause stress right through to ways of preventing it. A data collection enquiry was carried out gathering information from 5000 teachers nation wide across the UK with help from a leading educational company allowing access to other evidence. There were examples of questionnaires that were used to carry out the research and also showed the outcome. For me this was great as I can use this as evidence when writting about my enquiry even though this was on a much bigger scale. The examples of data collection with in the book helps as this is apart of the module later on so it may help me with ideas on perhaps questions to ask or even how to lay out my questionaire.

Book 2. Dance and age inclusive practice by Ruth Pethybridge

This book was helpful but not as much as the first one. They concentrated a lot on adults taking community dance classes where as my enquiry is based on the younger generation. Although, I took away things I havnt considered before related to teaching in the community and the importance it can have with the outcomes and the affect it can have on the kids. Again useful for my enquiry because these are things that I can compare to a school setting as they may have different points of intergrated importance compared to community teaching. Reflection on your own teaching becomes easier when you consider the these points that relate to teaching in different enviroments.

This book is also apart of a series of books part of 'a foundation for community dance' it would be interesting to read more books in the cluster.