- Classroom Observation - Field Notes Sample Clauses

- Classroom Observation - Field Notes. As observer in the classrooms, non-verbal features were revealing, such as student or teacher facial expressions, which may have been relevant and would not have been captured by the audio-recording. An observation schedule was rejected in favour of writing open notes on themes emerging and features of the lesson which stood out, in order to then retrospectively examine these alongside the audio-recordings for emerging patterns. These emerging themes then guided my questioning during interviews and focus groups. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ and Hunston (1992) note that para-linguistic features in interaction are important to include. While not a particular focus of my notetaking, those features that accompanied particularly striking aspects of interactions were recorded, such as when students were hesitant, for example. For this reason, the notes taken during lesson observations in some cases informed my interview questions. The notes of para-linguistic features were useful, since had I just heard and reflected upon the utterances or responses without these additional features, I may have drawn less informed conclusions about what was happening for students affectively during those interactions. ▇▇▇▇, ▇▇▇▇-▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2004) stress the vital role of field notes in recording contextual elements in research. I took note of when students or teachers entered or left the classroom, in case this impacted on the dynamics of participation in the lesson. My field notes during observations were also a place where I could experiment thematically. By this I mean that I could identify patterns as lessons progressed, and check whether they continued to be relevant in subsequent lessons or not. This is in line with ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’s (1996) focus on constant comparison. Sample field notes can be seen in Figure 12. During transcription, possible meanings or explanations for particular interactions were documented, and further questions and general observations were noted about potential links between what was emerging from the audio and what I had actually observed in class (▇▇▇▇▇, 2002, p.77).