RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

GRID TECHNIQUE AND AUDIO/VIDEO LESSON RECORDING 445
pairs. The analysis of the data in the research
report derives from a series of computer printouts
accompanied by detailed student commentaries,
together with field notes made by the researchers
and two sets of taped discussions.
From a scrutiny of all diploma student grids
and commentaries, Fisher et al. (1991)drewthe
following conclusions about students’ changing
reactions to their studies as the course progressed:
The overriding student concerns were to do
with anxiety and stress connected with the
completion of assignments; such concerns,
moreover, linked directly to the role of
assessors.
Extrinsic factors took over from intrinsic ones,
that is to say, finishing the course became more
important than its intrinsic value.
Tutorial support was seen to provide a cushion
against excessive stress and fear of failure.
There was some evidence that tutors had
not been particularly successful at defusing
problems to do with external gradings.
The researchers were satisfied with the potential
of ‘Flexigrid’ as a tool for course evaluation.
Particularly pleasing was the high level of internal
validity shown by the congruence of results from
the focused grids and the content analysis of
students’ commentaries.
In the third example Jones (1999) used repertory
grids alongside interviews and participant observation
to elicit headteachers’ views of their roles
and agenda in changing times. While the study
found an increase in their management activities
(one construct), it also found that not only did
their changing role not lead to their deprofessionalization
but also their core values were rooted
in their values in, and views of, education (a
second construct). The superordinate constructs
for the primary headteachers were child-centred
and management, in that order, i.e. the management
systems were there to serve the child-centred
values and vision. Constructs elicited included,
for example: child-centred problem-solving, implementation
policy, evaluation, involving other
agencies, problem-solving and paperwork.
For further examples of repertory grid technique
we refer the reader to: Harré andRosser’s(1975)
account of ethogenically-oriented research into
the rules governing disorderly behaviour among
secondary school leavers, which parallels both
the spirit and the approach of an extension of
Repertory Grid described by Ravenette (1977); a
study of student teachers’ perceptions of
the teaching practice situation (Osborne 1977)
which uses 13 × 13 matrices to elicit elements
(significant role incumbents) and provides an
example of Smith’s and Leach’s (1972) use
of hierarchical structures in repertory grids;
Fournier’s (1997) account of patterns of career
development in graduates; Ewens et al.’s (2000)
account of evaluating interprofessional education;
and McLoughlin’s (2002) study of students’
conceptual frameworks in science.
Grid technique and audio/video lesson
recording
Parsons et al. (1983) show how grid technique
and audio/video recordings of teachers’ work in
classrooms can be used to make explicit the
‘implicit models’ that teachers have of how
children learn.
Fourteen children were randomly selected and,
on the basis of individual photographs, triadic
comparisons were made to elicit constructs
concerning one teacher’s ideas about the
similarities and differences in the manner in which
these children learned. In addition, extensive
observations of the teacher’s classroom behaviour
were undertaken under naturalistic conditions and
verbatim recordings (audio and video) were made
for future review and discussion between the
teacher and the researchers at the end of each
recording session. Parsons et al. (1983)stressthat
the whole study was carried out in a spirit of mutual
inquiry, the researchers and the teacher joining
together in using the analysis of the repertory grid
as a source of counter or confirmatory accounts in
the gradual identification of her implicit view of
children’s learning.
What very soon became evident in these
ongoing complementary analyses was the clear
Chapter 20