Annie is looking at the difference between student teachers’ planned or ‘ideal’ teaching strategies and their actual experience in the classroom. The longitudinal study, which started in 2006 and will finish in 2010, plans to bridge the gap between the two and drive curriculum improvements to improve the quality of teacher education at the Hong Kong Institute.
“It’s powerful and functional. I worked on my own project within the beta software. I use a lot of audio and video (interviewing student teachers and observing them with their pupils) and usually I have to review, transcribe and prepare the information before inputting it into the software. Because I could upload audio and video directly into NVivo 8, it removed several steps of that pre-work.
“I’m one of eight researchers and I liked the fact that there are features that now allow members of a team to comment and then come back together and compare their coding (analysis) and work. This is helpful, because different observers will notice different elements or characteristics from the same video footage. We can compare our observations and see what we have missed.
“I know some researchers are reluctant to use software but people really need to break through their fear. It provides great convenience for data management, enables you to structure your work and gives you more time for thinking and analyzing.”
