Akbar Ibrahim
Maktab Perguruan Batu Lintang
Kuching
Sarawak

Date: 26 October 2001
Time: 10.30-11.00

The classroom observation presents  new challenges to  fieldwork. A full time  researcher is put in a difficult position when it comes to   negotiating access and  to decide between being a  full time researcher and that of a teacher. There are the technical problems of data collection besides the delicate issue of gaining access. The author also highlights a number of technical problems involved in getting good quality data, the bias in sampling of both events and the process in the context of a formal classroom setting. However it can also be an immensely productive means of understanding the teaching and learning processes.

This paper explores the potential of participant observation in classroom research with  reference to the work among students preparing for an externally administered examination. The  classroom observations were supplemented  with  interviews, student diary and questionnaires. The approach has provided a  detailed outline of a particularly predominant mathematics teaching process. The interviews and students self report  complement to enrich the data as well as a source  for  triangulation.   An analysis of  the preliminary work made it possible to design data collection on a wider scale,  questionnaires  which provided a very rich database for quantitative work. The diary kept by students helped towards the understanding of their thinking and the psychological risk involved in learning.  A combination of participant observation and quantitative approach has made it possible to put together a ‘thick description’ of the classroom .