Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article 5 (Jun., 2016) Khajornsak BUARAPHAN The development of qualitative classroom action research workshop for in-service science teachers Previous Contents Next

Methodology

The research methodology was a case study. The participants were 32 in-service science teachers (6 male, 26 female) from Uthai Thani province, Thailand. The participants’ age range was 26 to 55 years old. There were 2, 8, 11, 6, 2, and 3 participants who aged 26-30, 31-35, 36-40, 41-45, 46-50, and 51-55 years old, respectively. There were 22 and 10 participants who graduated in a bachelor degree and master degree, respectively. Two participants taught grades 1-3, 13 participants taught grades 4-6, nine participants taught grades 7-9, one participant taught grades 1-6, and seven participants taught grades 4-9. The teaching experiences of the participants ranged from three to 33 years. There were only four participants who had teaching experience more than 20 years as Table 1.

Table 1. Participants’ teaching experiences

Teaching experience	Number of participant
less than 5 years	6
6-10 years	8
11-15 years	9
16-20 years	6
21-25 years	1
26-30 years	1
More than 30 years	2

Data collection tools and process

The participants were asked to attend the Qualitative Classroom Action Research (QCAR) workshop, which was a three-day workshop aimed to promote the participants’ understanding for conducting QCAR. The activities in the workshop can be illustrated as Table 2.

Table 2. Activities in the QCAR workshop

Day	Objective	Topic	Activity
1 (180 min.)	·      To introduce differences between quantitative and qualitative research ·      To promote participants’ realization of importance of qualitative research paradigm	Research paradigm	·      Pre-survey of attitudes to the CAR ·      Survey of problem concerning CAR ·      Interactive lecture on “Quantitative and qualitative research paradigms” ·      Interactive lecture on “Issues concerning quantitative and qualitative research”
(60 min.)	·      To promote understanding of quantitative and qualitative research questions	Research question	·      Interactive lecture on “Quantitative and qualitative research questions”
(90 min.)	·      To promote understanding of quantitative and qualitative research title and objective	Research title and objective	·      Interactive lecture on “Quantitative and qualitative research titles and objectives”
(30 min.)	·      To summarize learning, answer questions and clarify confusions	Wrap-up	·      Activity 1: Wrap-up of the day
2 (180 min.)	·      To promote understanding ofqualitative data collection and practice collecting qualitative data	Data collection in qualitative research	·      Interactive lecture on “Data collection in qualitative research” ·      Activity 2: Practice of observation ·      Activity 3: Practice of designing interview question ·      Activity 4 : Practice of individual interview
(150 min.)	·      To promote understanding and practice analyzing qualitative data	Data analysis in qualitative research	·      Interactive lecture on “Data analysis in qualitative research” ·      Activity 5: Practice of qualitative data analysis – Constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)
(30 min.)	·      To summarize learning, answer questions and clarify confusions	Wrap-up	·      Activity 6: Wrap-up of the day
3 (180 min.)	·      To practice writing QCAR proposal	Writing QCAR proposal	·      Lecture on “Components of the QCAR proposal” ·      Activity 7: Writing QCAR proposal
(150 min.)	·      To critique for improving QCAR proposal	Presenting  QCAR proposal	·      Activity 8: Presenting QCAR proposal
(30 min.)	·      To summarize overall learning	Whole wrap-up	·      Post-survey of attitudes to the CAR ·      Activity 9: Wrap-up of the workshop and write learning journal

Data analysis

The Shapiro-Wilk W test was used to check the normal distribution of the data and its result showed that the data is normally distributed. The participants’ rating of degree of problems concerning CAR, pre-attitudes and post-attitudes to CAR was analyzed for mean and standard deviation (S.D.). In addition, the paired sample t-test was used to check whether the participants’ pre- and post-attitudes to CAR were significantly different. The thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data of the participants’ reflections on learning from the QCAR workshop, in this study. The process of analysis was consisted of: familiarization with data by intensive reading of the participants’ reflections, generating initial codes, searching for themes among codes, reviewing themes, and defining and naming themes. Member check was used to enhance the validity of qualitative data analysis. That is,  the author asked the participants to check the correctness of transcriptions, then, to check their interpretations. At final, the frequency of each theme of participants’ reflections was counted and reported.