Complete thesis - Murdoch University

year. This removed some inclination on the part of the teacher to make heavy modificationsto the follow-on unit (of course this personal involvement bias could only be minimised, notremoved).The evaluations of this cycle, presented in Chapter 8, focuses on the level of success of theStudio Learning model in relation to its implementation, and on the effect of the interventionon the development of the student cohort - an effect which was examined in terms of shortterm impact (performance of the students in assessable tasks during the intervention unit)and longer term impact (performance of the students in assessable tasks dependant on thelearning objectives of the intervention unit during the subsequent unit).Evaluation of the findings suggest that Studio Learning has merit as a model that addressesthe nature of the discipline of RE, and should be continued. However, reflection on this cyclesuggests further research is required on all aspects of aligning student learning with practitionerpractice. However, the small steps (hopefully in the right direction) made through astudy such as this can be useful to both other educators and practitioners.5.3 InstrumentsAs was discussed in Section 4.2 the emergent nature of the design of an Action Researchproject facilitates an opportunistic use of instruments. The mixed methods approach can beexploited with the aim observing and recording the context of the study using a variety ofdevices. Therefore the methods can also be viewed as emergent – planned on the basis ofdiscoveries in the data, and the reflection that follows.The instruments applied in this study are described the sections below. This description isbased on the categories developed by Kember and Kelly (1993) to encompass observationtechniques common to Action Research, namely diagnostic devices; records; and feedback.Together they provide mechanisms to validate the observations through a process of triangulation.Within the framework described in Section 5.1, interventions focus on the Teaching Toolsand are observed through the Learning and Thinking Tools within a delimited learning environment(ie a specific unit in Requirements Engineering). Table 5.1 maps the instrumentsto the Action Research cycles according to Kember and Kelly (1993)’s categories. Thoseinstruments internal to Murdoch University, or developed as part of this study, are describedmore fully in Appendix B.228