Task 6A- Pilot

This week I will be joining the Skype chat to talk about tools for my professional Inquiry but before that happened I wanted to try one of the tools myself out on someone. I did not try this out on someone who is a 'real' participant as I need to receive ethical approval. The tools that I could pick from included 1. Interview 2. Survey 3. Focus Group 4. Pilot Observation 5. Looking at documents.

I have chosen to pilot the survey that I wrote a few weeks back(with a few tweaks), I have chosen to do a survey as some questions require my participant to think back and remember memories from a teaching experience. Allowing my participant to take their time will enable me to collect valid and reliable data. I feel strongly that if I fired questions at someone during an interview they might not be able to remember or give me an answer. I have also trailed an observation this week. I have done 10 of these before to pass my DDI Modern/Tap qualifications. During these 10 observations I learnt how to judge a situation myself. I have also posted some questions in my SIG group hopefully that will come in soon.

These two tools combined  (survey and observation) could  enable me to compare two types of data. I might also be able to see clear parallels within this data. Piloting this once was not enough for me to see if there are differences in the data or to even begin that then, but this task was about trailing it and seeing IF it could work. I think both these tools would be beneficial to my inquiry. I really enjoyed observing because I could judge the situation myself. Viewing the survey result opened up different paths for me to explore as I could see how my personal views compared. I agreed, disagreed with the participant and one answer actually opened up my thoughts to a completely new way of thinking. My 'FAKE' participant wrote this answer below.

Why do you teach?
I teach because I like people, I am interested in characters. Different characters build our society and learning how to nurture every character is why I love teaching and it is why I teach.

This made me reevaluate why I teach. Is it because of the subject? Do I enjoy working with children? It  has sparked an interest to see other reasons of why people teach. This is incredibly interesting, I am looking forward to collect data with 'REAL' participants.

I have been chatting to my employer about my inquiry, they would like to see my proposal and for me to present my results to the team at a team briefing. This would be great as my inquiry would be helping others in my professional practice. This would help other teachers like me develop their knowledge and understanding of what it takes to be a 'good' teacher and hopefully broaden their understanding of what qualities teacher have. This would also allow others to gain knowledge of what experiences people have had with teachers and whether this shaped their lives today.