Following the course in Antwerp and my discussion with Markus it became clear that the initial data for my phd would be qualitative data based on teacher observation and interviews/focus groups with students. I thought it would be a good idea to have an observation schedule to use during the sessions. I spent quite awhile the other day looking for other examples of teacher observation schedules in the language classroom to use as a basis for mine. It was very difficult to find anything relevant, though my search is not up. I found this article about observing teachers, which provided some insight.
These are some ideas I jotted down.
I found it extremely difficult to observe students for three reasons basically:
1 - though it would be nice to be the researcher on the outside, I'm actually running the course;
2 - once I'd finally got them all up and running, the time was almost over;
3 - I need an effective observation schedule.
I've got one major doubt about observing: am I supposed to observe them all or choose a few and just observe those in particular? Obviously, the former is more challenging and I can't do the latter until I've gotten to know them better. I've asked Marcello if we can have access to their Skype text chats, but, ....
So here are some ideas on what I came up with before the session based on what I thought during the session. This is what it might be worth observing:
Topic
Sts stayed on topic?
If not, off topic, sts were discussing
Personal experiences
Comparing cultures
Current events
Reinforcing stereotypes
Challenging stereotypes
Local culture content
Target cultural content
Grammar
Technical problems
Other
Level of motivation
high
fairly high
low
Initiative Taken by students to manage difficulties
A lot - never asked for help, always managed alone
Quite a lot - rarely asked the teacher
Some - sometimes asked the teacher for help
None - always asked the teacher for help
Types of online activity in addition to Skype
text chatting with other people
dictionaries/translation sites
wikipedia
college websites
other websites to share information
Use of text chat in Skype with peers
overcome initial shyness anxiety
explain words/expressions
say things sts don't want peers to hear
share urls
support one another
other
Hi Sarah
RispondiEliminaI know very little about observation schedules, and the article you link to refers to observations mainly of the teachers involved - whereas you are looking at a large group of students which is very difficult and I think,as you point out, if you select only a couple of students then you can focus more on some things like content, but if you're observing the whole group that's going to be pretty difficult!
Other things like level of motivation I think are going to be pretty hard to measure when observing - what indicators are you going to use? Some students may not physically demonstrate their motivation, also you may misinterpret some gestures, expressions ...
Initiative - so how would that work - you measure it at end of observing all students? If not, you may need more of a check list - examples of initiatives that you can tick off.
The last two sections related to use of text chat seem easiest to tick off a list!!
Anyway these are just my gut reactions - no knowledge to base them on, just some experience of observing my students!!