5. TRAINING TEACHERS AS RESEARCHERS

5.1 Helping teachers to develop competence criteria for evaluating their professional development
5.2 Combining the teaching of research methods with an assessment of project impact

5.1 Helping teachers to develop competence criteria for evaluating their professional development

Alan Peacock
School of Education
University of Exeter

Alan Peacock's paper discusses ways of helping teachers to develop competence criteria for evaluating their professional development. He discusses interventions in South Africa and Sri Lanka in which teachers collaboratively developed competence criteria for evaluating their professional development and improving their performance. He elucidates various stages of the process through which detailed sets of criteria are developed. In the final stage outlined in this paper, he shows how the training is put to practice in their classroom situation. He argues that the reflection underlying this process enabled teachers to become aware of the need to establish levels of achievement in any given skill area. In practice this means that teachers are given the responsibility to develop their own competence, and this has a number of positive spin-offs for teaching practice. The paper includes details about teaching and skills indicators which have been developed by teachers, as well as an observation schedule which is used for monitoring the progress of teaching.

1 Introduction

The paper draws from our experience in three current projects which are supported by the University of Exeter School of Education. These are:

· The Primary Science Programme in Madadeni District, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa¹

· The Sri Pada College of Education Project, in Sri Lanka²

· The Limpopo School Empowerment Project, in the Tshakuma District, Northern Province, South Africa³

In each of the above projects, the primary aim was to enhance the capacity of teachers (or teacher trainers) to evaluate their performance through the development of criteria of effectiveness or competence. The underlying rationale for participation in each of the three projects relates to notions of transfer of responsibility, empowerment, collaboration, relevance and communicative effectiveness (Fullan 1989; Dalin 1994; Shaeffer 1994; Good & Brophy 1995; Showers & Joyce 1996). Over the past seven years, Exeter in partnership with local teachers, developed sets of criteria of teaching competence.

The criteria which we developed collaboratively reflect teachers' competencies in the following areas:

· Planning
· Communicating
· Managing
· Evaluating

Detailed criteria, calibrated into four levels of competencies, were generated for each of the above-mentioned areas. The four levels of competence coincide with the four stages of the initial training of teachers. The following is a summary of The Dimensions of Teaching from the University of Exeter (1997).

The Dimensions of Teaching
Dimension	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Planning
	Plans episodes for a group showing · aims for learning · organisation · relevant subject knowledge · teacher's role · resources.	Plan lessons for a class, showing · clear appropriate aims and expectations for learning · appropriate subject matter knowledge, related to the National Curriculum (N C) programmes of study · means of differentiation · practical organisation for teaching and learning · deployment of resources	Plan a short programme of work for a class, showing: · clear objectives and content which is appropriate to the subject and the pupils · interesting and challenging tasks, including homework where appropriate · clear targets, building on prior attainment (by using assessment data) · clear differentiation, with identification of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) · attention to cross-curricular skills, and pupils' broader development · an appropriate use of the whole class groups and individual teaching · detailed attention to own progress as a teacher.	Plan schemes of work for a class, showing: · a balanced development of children's knowledge, understanding and skills · assessment strategies · imaginative activities and resources · a clear relation to developing class ethos · attention to own developing practice.
Communicating
(a) Demonstration and instruction	· Attract children's interest and attention. · Give clear, audible instructions. · Inform, describe and explain.	· Sustain children's attention. · Demonstrate skills and processes clearly. · Inform, describe & explain with clarity and coherence. · Ask question to focus attention. · Convey interest and enthusiasm. · Adapt instruction to pupils' understanding and engagement.	· Ensure engagement and participation with good pacing of lessons. · Demonstrate with clear commentary. · Show good awareness of audience. Summarise clearly and concisely, emphasising key ideas. · Use effective questioning to ensure participation. · Use appropriate vocabulary.	· Choose concepts and examples strategically (with a deep knowledge of subject matter and children's interests and understanding in mind). · Communication so as to inspire pupils' interest in subject.
(b) Interaction	· Engage in interaction. · Listen and respond sympathetically. · Check understanding via questions.	Interact and question so as to: · listen carefully to pupils · focus pupils' ideas · sustain their thinking · prompt them to check errors · respond to individual differences	Mediate learning through discussion so as to: · help to remedy pupils' misconceptions · stimulate intellectual curiosity · explore ideas, giving attention to pupils' boarder development · prompt reasoning and argument · relate learning to authentic and work related examples.	· Foster democratic procedures and rational discussion. · Chair discussions effectively whilst remaining neutral. · Show sensitivity and judgement about contentious issues. · Defend individuals from unfair peer pressures.
(c) Facilitation	· Monitor practice tasks, checking accuracy and providing help.	Initiate some independent practice and problem-solving. · Provide feedback to support independent learning. · Exploit opportunities to improve basic skills and study skills.	· Encourage some autonomy in pupil choices of the means of ends of learning. · Facilitate knowledge use in pupil-led investigation. · Facilitate pupils' individual and collaborative study skills.	· Promote authentic activities and the development of autonomous learning. · Facilitates pupils' independent attempts at research.
Managing
(a) Managing order	· Operate established procedures for order with a group. · Attempt to sustain purposeful work. · Deal with minor misbehaviours.	· Communicate assertively to gain attention. · Maintaining a good working atmosphere. · Operate a framework of rules consistently. · Give due attention to issues of safety and pupil welfare. · Signal and manage transitions effectively. · Draw on support where appropriate.	· Manage and sustain a flow of work and activities effectively. · Detect problems of order early meet them with firmness. · Set and maintain agreed rules and values. · Set high expectations for pupils' behaviour. · Attempt to assimilate difficult children.	· Maintain and improve order by purposeful work and shared values. · Involve children appropriately in taking responsibility. · Work systematically with difficult children to improve their learning and adjustment to life in school.
(b) Managing resources	· Provide and manage materials for a group. · Display work (after advice). · Organise tidying of the classroom.	· Provide appropriate resources for lessons. · Managing the distribution and collection of materials effectively. · Display pupils' work effectively. · Ensure care of resources and safe environment. · Arrange appropriate seating. · Make use of visual aids. · Make effective use of time.	· Select and make good use of textbooks, IT and other learning resources. · Work or improving the learning environment. · Use displays to stimulate learning. · Manage own and pupils use of time effectively. · Use adult assistants effectively.	· Develop and experiment with new resources. · Design, produce and use novel curriculum materials. · Sustain long-term resourcing for class, or subject. · Encourage pupils to manage resources independently. · Develop the effectiveness of adult assistants.
Evaluating
	· Show awareness of children's engagement work. · Mark children's work (with advice). · Write summary evaluations of episodes of teaching.	· Assess work in relation to objectives and NC (with help). · Use observations and questioning to asses understanding. · Diagnose problems and provide feedback. · Relate assessment to future planning and teaching. · Keep records of pupils' work. · Write evaluation using, for example, agendas, conferences and university based-work.	· Use a variety of formal and informal assessment techniques. · Mark and monitor pupils' class and homework. · Provide constructive feedback and set targets. · Assess and record each pupil's progress systematically, using NC levels, school records and comparative data to inform planning and teaching. · Be familiar with statutory assessment and reporting requirements. · Know how to prepare and present reports to parents. · Identify and assess SEN in line with relevant codes of practice. · Demonstrate awareness of own development as a teacher.	· Consider alternative analyses of teaching and learning. · Assess pupils' progress critically and effectively. · Take part in staff development programmes. · Undertake research in to own professional practice. · Develop own theoretical and practical ideas.

2 Stages in developing competence criteria

The process through which the The Dimensions of Teaching went was a lengthy one and it took several years and numerous trial versions before a pro forma which satisfied all partners in the process was agreed upon.⁴ In each case, teachers participated in the generation of the criteria. They engaged in a process which was characterised by the following four stages:

1. Identification Participants identified their perceived needs or the competencies which related to their required roles. The participants in this stage included teachers, teacher trainers, and leader teachers.

2. Categorisation Participants categorised or classified identified criteria for evaluation under specific category headings.

3. Revision Participants refined criteria in order to ensure that they would be utilisable when incorporated into the instrument or working tool. This is done by · making statements operationalisable · identifying relevant evidence · categorising and establishing levels of competence.

4. Utilisation Participants evaluated tools within an ongoing programme of classroom support.

The first three stages of this process of development are conducted in the early stages of a project, usually during workshop sessions in which all teachers, trainers and leader teachers participate. We realised that it would be far more cost effective for us merely to present the Exeter Dimensions of teaching as a model or template. If we had done that we could have (by eliminating the first three stages) shortened the time which teachers need to generate their own criteria. While this would certainly have allowed Exeter to capitalise on the effort and expense which went into their original development, it would not have permitted teachers to generate (and therefore 'own') those competencies which are relevant to their own distinctive cultural/pedagogical contexts. The 'handing down' of externally developed criteria would deny teachers the opportunity to participate. in the stages which are necessary for their own professional development. In fact, we believe that the process of defining notions of effective teaching (stage 1) and the consequential collaborative development of the competence criteria (stages 2 and 3) are crucial stages for enabling teachers' professional development. The only role that project leaders or consultants should play in these initial phases is one involving the facilitation and scaffolding of workshop processes (Tharp 1993; Good & Brophy 1995).

2.1 Stage 1: Initiation of the process of identifying competencies

The following list describes four ways of initiating the process of identification of competencies in stage 1:

· Teachers can initially be asked questions like What is literacy? What is science? How can you build onto pupils experiences? What makes a good teacher of mathematics?

· Facilitators can provide examples of good classroom practice by using, for example, a video recording of lessons drawn from a range of specific teaching subjects and then requesting the group to analyse what they see and then discuss issues like What is the teacher doing that is effective?

· Teachers can share and analyse their school policy documents in an attempt to identify where there may be consensus about characteristics of effective teaching. They could be asked to think about questions like (for example) What is important about monitoring pupils work?

· In subsequent sessions, teachers can be asked to identify changes in their practice which have been inspired by input from earlier workshops and support. They can be asked to expand their understanding of good practice by extending their newly acquired understanding to their own subject areas and classroom contexts. Thus, for example, they might be asked How can group discussions be used in the teaching of science?

2.1.1 Participants' responses to the question What do student teachers in Year 1 need when they first go into school?

WHAT?	WHY?
1. professional commitment	knowledge, attitudes, skills depend on this
2. how to know pupils needs	always necessary for teachers (relevance and motivation)
3. subject knowledge	teachers have to know the requirements of the syllabus
4. communication skills	to give guidelines to pupils for presentation, description, summarising
5. how to choose learning and teaching materials suitable for pupils	so they have pupils' attention
5. punctuality	for organisation
7. flexibility	to be adaptable
8. learning to learn	for innovation
9. cooperative working skills	to learn from each other
10. self-awareness and confidence	important for the teaching process
11. how to work modern technology	to protect those technologies
12. knowledge, skills and attitude	to perform teacher's tasks well, to understand learners
13. how to make a lesson plan	better teaching and learning
14. make resources for teaching and learning	according to methods and techniques (process)
15. about intervention, communication and management	to get pupil attention, motivation and reinforcement
16. summarising	to bring out main points
17. knowledge about assessment and evaluation	to motivate pupils and give feedback
18. planning abilities (management)	to prepare a proper plan for teaching and learning
19. ability to identify the pupils' needs	to improve their hidden talent
20. techniques of effective learning	to achieve effectiveness and efficiency
21. ability to create teaching and learning aids	to get interest of children, to get attention, to motivate, etc.
22. ability to assess and evaluate successfully	to identify the levels of competence of pupils
23. questioning ability	to implement learning
24. ability to build good interactions	to implement pleasant atmosphere
25. communication skills	to explain, inform, persuade, etc.
26. counselling and guiding abilities	to help pupils with difficulties and to develop their personalities

Source: Sri Pada College of Education Report

The following tables emerged from the second and third stages respectively. They were stages in the in the development of criteria by staff of the Sri Pada College, Sri Lanka.

2.2 Stage 2: Participants categorisation of needs into suggested Professional Skill Indicators

Communication Ability to build good interaction Indicator 1. Climate of the classroom 2. Two-way communication 3. Active learning process	Evidence · Democratic classroom situation · Interaction between teacher-pupil (t/p) and pupil-pupil (p/p) · Cooperative learning process · Good responses of pupils and teachers · Looking at the activities in the lesson plan
Assessment Ability to assess and evaluate successfully Indicator 1. Achievement level of the pupil 2. Difficulties which pupils have in reaching main objectives 3. Various patterns of assessment	Evidence · Through classroom activities, the student teacher can see different levels of pupils' achievements. · Most of students could not reach aspiration levels according to the student teacher's teaching processes. · There are suitable patterns to assess for each lesson.
Management Ability to use techniques of effective learning Indicator 1 Careful timing 2. Good use of space 3. Good use of resources	Evidence · Seeing whether the student teacher comes and return to class on time · Seeing whether the student teacher completes work on time · Seeing whether the student teacher uses space in a proper way · Seeing whether the student teacher uses sufficient resources · Seeing whether the student teacher uses resources that are suitable for the pupils · Seeing weather the student teacher has ideas about conversation of resources · Seeing whether the student teacher uses all the resources that have been collected
Planning Ability to write a lesson plan Indicator 1. Selecting objectives 2. Activities relevant to the objectives	Evidence · The main points can be pulled out from the summary. · Can observe from the questions through the lesson and at the end of the lesson · Observe the process going on through the lesson.

2.3 Stage 5; Revision of the working document on Professional Skill Indicators: levels for Year 1 and Year 2

Communication: Year 1 Ability to build good interaction Indicators 1. Climate of the classroom 2. Two-way communication 3. Active learning process 4. Democratic classroom situation	Evidence · interaction between teacher and pupil · Cooperative learning processes · Good responses of pupils and teacher that cater for individual differences · Look at the activities in the lesson plan
Communication: Year 2 Cooperative Working Skills Indicators 1. Good interaction between pupils and student teacher 2. Two-way communication	Evidence · Pupils are working in a happy mood. · Pupils have enough opportunity to ask questions. · Student teacher responds to the pupils adequately. · Pupils help each other and work in a friendly manner. · They listen to each other attentively. · Summarise the lesson by discussion.
Resources: Year 2 Ability to make teaching and learning aids. Indicators 1. The student teacher selects appropriate resources for the lesson. 2. The student teacher makes relevant resources with minimum cost. 3. The student teacher makes resources creatively. 4. The teaching aids are used at the appropriate time in the lesson.	Evidence · Look at the lesson plan objectives. · Have the visual aids been prepared according to the objectives? · Observe whether the resources help to motivate pupils to be active, · Check whether these resources are made with available materials at low cost. · Talk to the student teacher to find out how they were made. · Check whether resources are traditional or of original design. · Observe whether the resources help to develop the pupils'' creativity. · Check whether the student teacher uses resources at appropriate times.
Resources: Year 2 Ability to choose teaching materials Indicators 1. Ability to use teaching and learning materials in an appropriate way in order to develop understanding of the concepts 2. Opportunities for pupils to handle teaching and learning materials	Evidence · During and at the end of the lesson, teacher uses the resources to support achievement of the objectives. · Pupils actively involved
Personal Qualities: Year 1 Ability to manage time Indicators 1. Whether the student teacher prepares the lesson plan in advance 2. Whether the student teacher arrives and departs on time 3, Whether the student teacher conducts the lesson as planned 4. Whether the student teacher allocates appropriate time to the different sections of the lesson, e.g. setting scene, presentation of the subject matter, summary, evaluation, feedback to pupils 5. Student teacher communicates well 6. Student teacher should have good physical appearance.	Evidence · Observe lesson plan at start of lesson. · Lecturers'' observation of student punctuality · Ask student's opinion. What do you think? Could you organise this in another way? · Observation throughout the lesson · Knows pupil's names. The pupils can interact with the teacher and other pupils. · Do the pupils respect the student teacher?
Personal Qualities: Year 2 Professional Commitment Indicators 1. Subject matter gathered from various sources 2. Time management 3. Awareness of the class 4. Remedial teaching	Evidence · Library reference · Consulting tutors · Preparing appropriate teaching and learning aids · Using the above · Arriving and leaving punctually · Management of the learning strategies · Pupils' actions and thinking · Ways of addressing pupils · Varying responses to individuals · Attention to the potential of pupils (assignments, questioning, etc.)

Source: Sri Pada College of education Project (pp. 1 and 2)

As was indicated earlier, the value of teacher participation in generating performance criteria such as those emerging from the first three stages of the intervention is immense and cannot replicated by the handing over of criteria by those who are external to the programme. On the contrary, it is contended that the handing over of criteria would further deskill teachers and induce them to become dependent on external consultants. This, we believe, would lead to loss of motivation among teachers and to the ascription of celebrity status to external consultants.

2.4 Stage 4: The utilisation of competencies in the classroom

The key aspect of this process is the commitment to the criteria generated in the above stages. It is at this stage, that teachers are expected to apply the criteria to their own teaching contexts. This emphasis on class-based practice is crucial to reinforcing understandings of the criteria and to ensuring that teachers are able to make the link between theory and practice. Various studies have provided evidence that workshops (i.e. stages 1 to 3) alone do not have an impact on professional development (see, for example, Harvey 1997) and that supported application in the classroom is required (Beeby 1986). It is thus essential that both the teachers and those providing classroom support be committed to the criteria on which their professional development is being based and evaluated.

Providing effective and ongoing classroom support requires that those who will carry out the support function are themselves competent. Managing support on a large scale and over a sustained period of time can be labour-intensive and therefore expensive. Too frequently, cohorts of mentors/advisory teachers/leader teachers are trained a high cost but then become lost to the system through inadequate support (Peacock & Morakaladi 1995). The following two strategies for dealing with this were developed within the Limpopo School Empowerment Project (LSEP).

· Locating support teams within the training centre

The first is to train the Professional Development Team (a group of former initial training tutors based within the Ramaano Bulaheni Training Centre where the project is based) simultaneously with the Leader Teacher training programme. This means that both classroom practitioners and the Professional Development Team are trained as leader teachers for their school/cluster. They were all initially trained together on the same workshop programme, and were all collaboratively engaged in the process of developing criteria. In practice this means that, as collaborators, they now all share a commitment to a common way of supporting and evaluating performance.

· Providing cost-effective classroom support

The second way of approaching the need for sustained support is to use trainee teachers from the University of Exeter School of Education in a dual role of supplying cover teaching and classroom support for the leader teachers. A pilot programme in KwaZulu Natal (Link Community Development 1996) demonstrated that second-year primary trainees with two extended periods of school experience were adequately prepared to cover for teachers and to provide effective classroom support. Hence in the first year of the Limpopo School Empowerment Project, 10 students spent eight weeks in Northern Province cover teaching in the leader teachers' classes in 10 primary schools whilst the leader teachers themselves attended workshops. Subsequently, students modelled such activities as conferencing (observing each other teacher and undergoing a structured critique of the lesson afterwards) and alternative strategies for behaviour management - all of which proved to be a powerful tool for teacher development.

3 The outcomes of the teacher development process

We wish to emphasise some of the most important outcomes of this process in all three projects.

· The evidence from this programme provisionally indicates that teachers needed time and support to discuss and question their underlying pedagogical and epistemological assumptions about the process - but that this process was essential.

· The competence statements underwent various stages of revision. After initial reluctance, leader teachers became committed to this process. Thus, for example, when specific professional skills were highlighted, teachers practised evaluating these in their lessons according to the chosen indicators.

· Teachers also became aware in practice of the need to establish levels of achievement in any given skill area in order to evaluate progress and set targets (Hatton & Smith 1995). It was apparent that professional development programmes need to be phased and explicitly matched to the varying levels of development of participants.

· The LSEP will be developed over three years, and progression will be built into the workshop programme in each of the successive years.

· Giving teachers responsibility for developing their own competence criteria generates trust and confidence, and this gradually leads to supportive critical analysis in the school rather than conventional complementarity.

· A crucial element in this equation was the high esteem with which teachers regarded the Exeter students, who demonstrated that the criteria (relating to, for example, group work and to the use of materials) were achievable even within very large classes and under inauspicious circumstances (Link Community Development 1998).

· The simultaneous process of work-shopping and classroom support also prepares teachers for their roles as mentors (or leader teachers) in schools. This provided the added benefit of providing cost-effective classroom support in the medium and long term.

4 Conclusion

Our experience in the Exeter programme, as outlined in this paper, lends support to our assumption that teachers respond well to such interventions. We recognise, however, that the process for the development of teachers as effective evaluators of teaching competence takes time and relies on the development of their confidence. This requires funding which will sustain the progress until such programmes are institutionalised. The need to train mentors or leader teachers is an ongoing one. There is constant attrition and hence the constant need to replace those who have moved on or who have progressed to other areas. There is also a constant need to refine and improve teacher performance. We do not believe that short-term programmes which focus on a few schools are likely to reach the critical stage beyond which the institutionalisation of such a development process becomes established.

Footnote

1. Implementation Primary School Programme

2. Implementation: GTZ

3. Implementation: Link Community Development

4. As a result of the lengthy time period it was necessary that certain adaptations were to be made when we attempted to build in teachers' thinking about competences to the much shorter programmes of professional development that characterised the three projects.

5.2 Combining the teaching of research methods with an assessment of project impact

Elijah Sekgobela
Institute for Adult Basic Education and Training
University of South Africa

The University of South Africa (Unisa) is a distance teaching institution in Pretoria, South Africa, which offers hundreds of courses each year to more than a hundred thousand students. In 1995, Unisa initiated a training course for educators who would work in the areas of adult base education and training (ABET) and more especially in the areas of literacy, English Second language teaching and skills training. The newly developed programme endeavours to train adult educators with a developmental consciousness and, as such, includes a large component on community development and research methods. But, as with all distance education programmes, the ABET Institute has had to devise ways of teaching research methods by getting students practically involved in research design, planning, field work and analysis. In 1997, ABET decided to teach students in one of the DFID-funded provinces to do research and to get them to undertake part of the evaluation of the project in that province. Elijah Sekgobela of Unisa's Institute for Adult Basic Education and Training undertook to carry out this activity. In this paper, he outlines the implementation of a process of participatory assessment of impact, in which students were expected to participate in all spheres of the research process – from the initial conceptualisation to the final recording of data. This paper discusses the process and the benefits derived therefrom.

1 Introduction

In 1997, the Unisa ABET Institute undertook an internal impact assessment as part of its teaching programme. The purpose of the assessment was two-fold:

· The first purpose of the assessment was to teach Unisa ABET students to do research by using a hands on approach. The experience thus gained would enable the students involved to become competent in the formulation of a research design, the selection of appropriate methods, the necessary fieldwork, the analyses of data and the compilation of a report - thus fulfilling certain curriculum requirements of the ABET course.

· The second purpose of the study was to assess the impact of Unisa ABET's educator training programme in the Northern Province in South Africa. This particular province was chosen to pilot the hands on training for the following reasons:

- It one of the poorest provinces in South Africa and is earmarked for intensive care programmes of all kinds.

- The ABET Institute is DFID-funded – and the Northern

Province is one of its three priority provinces.

- Because the ABET Institute has already done a substantial amount of work in this province, it had become necessary

(formatively) to gain some sense of the impact which the institute's work had made.

- Because the ABET Institute works closely with the Provincial Education Department in this province, it was felt that the information gathered would be useful to government and also that it would also enhance the capacity of those government officials participating in the assessment exercise.

2. Methodology

Since it was necessary to formulate a design for the programme that would be both educative and participatory, a decidedly participatory approach was adopted.

2.1 Research design

The research investigation was designed to explore the ABET students' understanding of what ABET is in terms of their own practice. This question What is ABET? was intended to capture their ideas of how this particular Unisa programme impacts (and ought to impact) on the province. The students were also expected to answer the question How can ABET delivery in the Northern Province be improved? - and it was expected that the data from this question would allow ABET to deduce a significant number of formative recommendations.

The investigation/training utilised a mix of workshops and self-completion questionnaires which were designed to elicit what the students themselves really thought about the issues involved. The questionnaires which were drawn up were based on the themes and issues which had been raised in the exploratory workshops. The students were then able to see how the issues they identified became operationalisable before their very eyes - so to speak. After the data has been collected, ABET arranged a second round of research/capacity building workshops. In these workshops the participating students interpreted the data and (lastly) wrote up of the findings in a report. Thus they were able to see at first hand how the data they had obtained were integrated into the report.

2.2 Workshops as a qualitative research approach as well as a teaching approach

Two rounds of six workshops were held in the Northern Province (two in each of the six provincial regions based at centres the Thohoyandou, Giyani, Nebo, Tzaneen, Pietersburg and Potgietersrus ABET centres). These areas are predominantly rural and very poor and have minimal capacity. They are also government regions for education delivery.

In the first round, the trainers/evaluators ran an intensive two-day research exercise which was divided into two sessions. These sessions were designed to elicit information from the practitioners in the workshop and to build research capacity by training ABET students and practitioners in the fundamentals of research. The workshop sessions generated both in-depth information for the research analysis and interpretation and themes and issues which were later made operationalisable in the questionnaires. The ABET students/practitioners were thus involved in questionnaire construction from the very beginning.

2.3 Fieldwork as a learning experience

After being trained in research protocol, the students were expected to do the fieldwork by using the instrument which they had collaboratively designed. This period of fieldwork was followed some weeks later by a second round of workshops. In the second round the workshops focused on building capacity in research interpretation and report writing. The research findings were presented and discussed¹ with the ABET students/practitioners. They were expected to analyse the data under the supervision of the workshop coordinators.

2.3 Questionnaires

The students/practitioners were helped to design questionnaires which could be used to obtain information from a variety of interest groups in the field of ABET training. Generally, the interest groups are:

· practitioners or educators
· officials from the education department
· learners who attend classes
· broader community.

It was decided to construct a different questionnaire for each interest group. The questionnaires comprised a balance between closed and open-ended questions, which allowed for the volunteering of information by the interviewees. The training in question construction fulfilled a major part of the Research Methods course curriculum in which our students are required to demonstrate competence.

2.4 Sample

The sample selected to attend the workshop was drawn from the Unisa ABET Institute's database of ABET students enrolled for the course by the provincial department of education. (Because we felt it necessary to build capacity around this issue in the Northern Province, we also selected those practitioners who had previously completed the ABET course.) We were aware even at the time of selection that our method of selecting the sample was neither scientifically rigorous nor yielding of a representative sample, but since our aim was primarily to build capacity and then to assess impact, we were more or less satisfied (with certain reservations) with the ad hoc sample which we assembled. Our crude sampling approach gave rise to a very large sample of respondents. But it also enabled us to gather data from an even larger constituency because each student/researcher, as part of his/her fieldwork training exercise, was required to complete up to 10 questionnaires in two of the designated areas of investigation.

3 Doing research: a step-by-step programme

3.1 Participatory research

The outline of the workshop programme was as follows:

· Introduction: Building research capacity by doing research
· Plenary: What is ABET?
· Breakaway discussion groups: Explore topics in detail.
· Plenary: How can we improve ABET?
· Breakaway discussion groups: Explore topics in detail.
· Individual session: What I like/dislike most about ABET?
· Conclusion

In the first round of regional workshops, each workshop commenced with a plenary session which posed the questions: What is ABET? (morning session) and How to improve ABET? (afternoon session). These sessions took the form of a plenary group discussion facilitated by the Unisa ABET co-ordinators² who are locals from the province. Each focus group interrogated the two topics and their comments were written down in the order in which they arose, on a flip chart. The initial plenary was intended to enable the participants to brainstorm and to reflect on their situations. Once the plenary group had exhausted its initial response to the questions posed, the workshop broke-up into smaller breakaway groups to discuss a different selection of the responses. These groups were run by the students/practitioners themselves who were tasked with making an in-depth analysis of the ideas from the brainstorm session. By way of teaching qualitative methods, the students/researchers' attention was drawn to the experience of a focus group activity and to other qualitative approaches. They were required to reflect on their own experience of the focus groups and also to think about the advantages and disadvantages of using this as a research approach.

The breakaway focus group discussions reflected on and contextualised the points from the plenary sessions. The numbered order of points raised in the plenary sessions were kept so that the additional comments of these ideas, by the breakaway focus groups, could be observed. Their interrogation of the points identified in the brainstorm activity demonstrated the depth and range of opinions of the ABET practitioners on ABET and how ABET is expected to be a vehicle in the new South Africa.

3.1.1 Formulating a questionnaire

The breakaway groups, by thinking through plenary workshops, created a detailed theoretical framework of the issues so that an investigation into ABET by utilising a questionnaire. The issues which emerged and were to form the basis of questionnaire construction where the group was required to formulate questions pertaining to the broad themes as indicated below.

What is ABET?	How to improve ABET?
· Teaching methodology	· Government inputs
· Literacy and Numeracy	· Teaching methodology
· Second language skills	· Training methodology
· Life skills	· Business skills
· Business skills	· Problem of time
· Parenting	· Capacity building
· Community building
· New South Africa

3.2 Doing research

From the discussions, the students had gained a sense of the following:

· How to compile a questionnaire
· How to do field work
· What is data capturing?³
· How to analyse data
· Report writing
· Report-rewrite (by the co-ordinators)
· Presentation of report

The ABET students/researchers were fully involved in each of the above steps, with explanations given by the co-ordinators why things were done in a particular way. In addition, the students/researchers were provided with notes which they could use during the fieldwork and later as a source of reference.

4 Conclusion

The programme achieved its aims. It gathered evidence about the impact of the ABET programme in the Northern Province and it also achieved its aims insofar as the development of local capacity. However, as with all research exercises included in this publication, the research project also had its downside - but this is the substance of another paper.

Footnote

1. The academics involved in the training had already undertaken statistical analysis of the questionnaires and this data was presented to the students for them to interpret the findings and to suggest recommendations.

2. These co-ordinators are employed on a contract basis for the Unisa ABET Institute In this province, most co-ordinators are employed in a full time capacity as government officials in the Provincial education department The evaluation exercise targeted them specifically in an endeavour to build provincial capacity but also to enable interventions to be made via the recommendations of the research exercise.

3 Although the data processing was done by the University, the students nevertheless needed to gain a sense of this process.