Page 58 - The SpeakTeach method - Esther de Vrind

Chapter 3. Perspective of the teachers - practicality
The first part of the analysis aimed to answer the research questions about the application of the three design principles of the SpeakTeach teaching method in the teachers’ lessons and the reasons behind their decisions. First, the teachers’ choices as indicated in the questionnaires and the visual presentations in building blocks that they had produced of the lesson series were recorded. Next these data were combined to determine how far the design principles had been applied and whether the essence of the adaptive teaching method had been retained. Their considerations in making these choices were coded. How this was done is described below.
Extent to which the design principles were applied
All three principles were scored on a scale of 0 (not applied) to 3 (fully applied).
To determine how far design principle 1 had been applied, the researchers looked at the place given to the self-evaluations in the visual presentations of the lesson series. They also checked whether the visual presentations of the lesson series corresponded with the answers to the closed questions in the questionnaire about number of speaking activities, which type of speaking activity self-evaluation was used for (guided, free or final speaking activity) and type of development if any (none, from guided to free, or final speaking activity first). The author and an assessor assigned scores as described in Table 3.1, third column
(Cohen’s κ = 0.85).
To determine how far design principle 2 had been applied, a score was given to the
answers to the three closed questions in the questionnaire about the steering: who had decided on which improvement activities, in what order and using which types of work. There were three possible answers to all three questions: score 1: the teacher decided and all students did the same improvement activities, in the same order and working format; score 2: the student had some measure of choice; score 3: the student decided. The rounded average of the three scores was taken as the score for design principle 2 (Cohen’s κ = 1.0) (see Table 3.2, third column).
The extent to which design principle 3 had been applied was determined by the data from the questionnaire about tailoring of focus, level of the feedback repertoire and combining the organisation of that feedback with what we had learned from the analysis of design principles 1 and 2 about the scope of the adaptive learning pathway (degree of
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