Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Table 8.7: Summary of interaction schedule dataInteractionPercentagesSession 1 Session 2 Session 3Teacher explaining 3.4 13.6 17.2Teacher demonstrating 2.2 4.5 0Teacher questioning 2.2 3.1 5.2Teacher checking 5.5 1.5 9.5Students discussing with teacher 8.8 6 18.1Students working individually 48.3 7.6 23.3Students discussing together 16.5 39.4 4.3Students questioning 4.3 10.6 16.4Students explaining 8.8 10.6 5.2Taking a break 3.1What the interaction schedules indicate is a willingness on the part of the students to varytheir behaviour based on the specific needs of the learning situation, calling on the teacheronly as required. It should be noted that the value of this instrument and the data collectionit enables would be enhanced if the granularity was finer (eg identifying individual groupmembers and their specific interaction patterns). Within the context of this study ethicsapproval did not allow for video capture of any sessions.Activity logStudents were asked to maintain a record of their activities in relation to this Studio (ENG302).This included any task which could be coded against the keys provided (see Table 8.8) atany time (not just during class sessions). Each week the project manager was required tocompile a report drawn from the activity logs, providing a cumulative chart and highlightingany issues identified.The purpose of this task was to provide some empirical data against which to map studentperception of their workload. Interestingly, this issue did not appear during the unit,although, in fact, the workload was set for approximately 20 hours per week. As the cumulativegraph below (see Figure 8.9) shows, most students spent the appropriate time on thisunit. This compares favourably with the data from ENG301 – there, for the same studentsthe range was from an average of 16 hours per week to less than 10 hours. This suggestsseveral interpretations:• students were motivated to spend the time – this could be due to the project beinginteresting (not likely – some students grumbled about the problem domain. Howeverlack of interest did not appear to reduce motivation)371