Description of data collection

prior to data analysis. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method described by Maykut and Morehouse (1994).

The pilot study, broadly speaking, was found to be extremely useful and effective. Four major points should be made concerning this comment. First, in the course of piloting further evidence was collected that the tool for data collection made it possible for the participants to reflect on and articulate their ideas on the topic of interest. As the instrument for the research proved to be reliable, the conclusion was reached that it could be used for further investigations in the area of interest to meet the research targets. Second, and this is related to the above, the findings implied that the data enabled the research questions to be answered. Third, the project helped me finalise the design for the dissertation research. The important concern about how to put more weight on triangulation guided the inclusion of more participants, particularly the in-service teacher colleagues. The key emerging issue related to the initial research design was that the students’ perspective was essential; therefore, this aspect of the project demanded careful consideration in the main research. Fourth, the outcomes indicated that cooperation had a crucial role in both pre-service education and in-service teacher development. Therefore, the main advantage of the pilot work was that it proved that continued research would be feasible and the directions taken plausible.

(1988) four-step model discussed in section 3.2.2. The review of the literature on the main topics concerned was one of the central parts of the study. Examination of the research literature on the topics was seen as essential in order to understand the important issues related to constructing the research instrument for data collection (see section 3.2.2 and section 3.2.3). This was justified by the complexity and broadness of the area of research. The next stage was marked with emphasizing the background of the research in terms of context and personal interest; however, it was not the intention to diminish the importance of other matters. The project involved prolonged engagement, persistent observation, triangulation, and thick description of the collected data (Crookes, 1992; Davis, 1995; Lazaraton, 2003).

Data on the role of cooperation in pre-service teacher education and in-service development were collected mainly through oral semi-structured interviews. This is the traditional one-on-one technique where the researcher asks questions, the respondent answers and discussion is allowed to develop. There is no preparation on the respondent’s part and what the interviewee says is not predetermined. The technique was considered appropriate to elicit respondents’ thinking and feeling about the concept of cooperation and consequently collect qualitative data. Suitable for the purposes of investigation was the view that interviews in qualitative research allow respondents to talk about their opinions on the particular subject, thus “provide a rich source of data”

(De Capua & Wintergerst, 2005, p. 7). A comparison was made between the various types of interview in the literature on the subject (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2000;

De Capua & Wintergerst, 2005; Wallace, 1998). In recognition that unstructured interviews enable participants to disclose their ideas too broadly, in contrast to structured formats which restrict and limit responses, decisions were made in favour of

semi-structured interviews. The choice of the instrument for data collection was based on the view that the flexibility of semi-structured interviews allows communication to operate in both directions and gives opportunities for elaboration of responses, clarifications and explanations. It was also taken into account that semi-structured interviews make it possible to gain control of the discussions and simultaneously provide circumstances for openness and development of issues.

In essence, the semi-structured interviews were guided in a way that a form of an interview guide was prepared beforehand. This was a set of open-ended questions (De Capua & Wintergerst, 2005; Mc Cracken, 1988), also referred to as an interview schedule (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994), which guided the interaction and provided a framework for the interview. With the purpose to capture the respondents’ thinking about the particular topic as much as possible, supporting prompts (Mc Cracken, 1988) were developed to accompany the questions prior the interview. In relation to data collection, I decided on the focus of the interview but the additional questions, which arose naturally during the interview, were also discussed so that that the respondents could express their points of view. In order to ensure reliability and validity of the current research, the qualitative interview schedule was improved in the process of validation (Barócsi, 2005a) which is discussed in section 3.2.2. In addition, a pilot study was carried out in order to learn about the effectiveness of the methods (Barócsi, 2005a;

2006). The latter is described in section 3.2.4 of the present dissertation. To achieve consequential validity a double interview technique was used with the participants in the interviews at the different stages of the research. This meant that the participants could give feedback and reflect on their responses once they had completed the interview.

In order to achieve the projected objectives and support the research findings, triangulation, particularly data triangulation was used (Mc Groarty & Zhu, 1997). This technique, regarded as an essential part of qualitative approach (Lazaraton, 2003; Mc Groarty & Zhu, 1997), was used to examine the dimensions of the research questions in much more detail as well as ensure credibility of the qualitative research. Table 1 below displays the data sources that were utilised in this study in order to answer the research questions.

Table 1Data sources and methods of analysis

Research question Data sources Methods of

analysis 1. What factors interact in

cooperation in pre-service teacher preparation?

o Interviews before Teaching Practice with pre-service teachers from the education programme at CETT

o Interviews after Teaching Practice with pre-service teachers from the education programme at CETT

o Classroom observation field notes

o Recorded planning sessions o Student teachers’ diaries o Students’ feedback and

reflections

o Interviews with in-service teachers from the education programme at CETT

o Qualitative analysis o Thematic

analysis of the text

2. What factors interact in cooperation in the

subsequent in-service teacher development?

o Interviews with in-service teachers from the education programme at CETT

o Interviews with the in-service teachers’ colleagues

o Qualitative analysis o Thematic

analysis of the text 3. What is the influence of

pair or team teaching in the training of teachers on cooperation in their careers?

o Interviews with in-service teachers from the education programme at CETT

o Interviews with the in-service teachers’ colleagues

o Qualitative analysis o Thematic

analysis of the text

With the intention to produce a picture as complete as possible, information from the transcripts of the interviews was triangulated with other sources of data. The interview transcripts were triangulated with the four student teachers’ diaries and observational field notes taken during classroom observation. Samples of the diaries are presented in Appendices O, P, Q and R. My field notes contributed to the better understanding of the processes in the classroom and provided insights about behaviours that could not be readily obtained through other means. As the student teachers kept a record of their experiences, the entries from the student teachers’ diaries were included for the purpose of receiving more reflections to gain as much knowledge as possible about the particular areas of interest. Tape-recorded planning sessions during the period of teaching practice constituted the additional data for the stage of the study as regards pre-service education, a phase which aimed at answering the first research question.

Appendices M and N offer samples of two representative planning sessions and illustrate the flow of thoughts and discussions when planning a lesson.

In order to give a more realistic account of the situation, an attempt was made to consider the students’ perspective as well. As for the data collected from the interviews with in-service teachers, my previous student teachers, triangulation within the research also included interviews with their colleagues who were teachers of English as a foreign language. The data analysis of this stage of the research was expected to provide answers to the second and the third research questions. Table 1 above also shows how the data sources linked with the methods of analysis described in section 3.3.