Page 62 - Empowering pre-service teachers through inquiry - Lidewij van Katwijk

Chapter 3
teachers were 60 minutes in length, and the sessions for teacher educators were 90 minutes in length.
Program descriptions
Survey Focus group
Teacher educators
Focus Survey group
Pre-service teachers
Pre-service teacher inquiry
Why? – How? – Learning outcomes?
Figure 3.2 Design of the multiple methods study
To improve reliability, we asked an additional 58 teacher educators and 329 pre-service students from 11 different institutes to fill out the questionnaire (without participating in the focus groups), using the electronic learning environment of the institutes. The response rate was very low (< 5%), possibly as a result of research fatigue and the workload of pre-service teachers just before graduation. We tested whether the focus group participants deviated from other respondents and found no differences. Therefore, our data provide insights from a broad scope of teacher educators and pre-service teachers. Table 3.2 contains an overview of participants in the survey and focus groups.
In total, 359 pre-service teachers completed the questionnaire about their perceptions of pre-service teacher inquiry; 30 of these students participated in the focus group sessions. Their participation was voluntary; our only requirement was that the students were in the final phase of their studies. All teacher educators who participated in the focus group sessions performed teaching tasks related to development of inquiry competencies or supervised pre-service teacher inquiry. Some teacher educators also played roles in curriculum design. The participants of the survey provided written informed consent and all participants of the focus groups provided verbal informed consent.
60