Teaching strategies for professional development offered to secondary career and technical educators via distance education

Journal of Engineering Technology, Spring 2003 by Feldhaus, Charles

The exploratory nature of this study necessitated a very small number of participants. The nine-person sample size is approximately the same used in similar qualitative studies.15 The New Albany-Floyd County Learning Strengths Inventory indicated the following learning styles: of the nine participants, two had learning style #1, two had learning style #2, three had learning style #3, and two had learning style #4.

A fundamental assumption in this research was that each individual would perceive the distance learning experience somewhat differently. As a result, the data were the subjective perceptions of the participant's reality as articulated to and understood by the researcher. Typically, in the phenomenological investigation, the long interview is the only source of data collection. However, some exploratory and phenomenological researchers have added other methods of data collection in keeping with qualitative research traditions.16 For the purposes of this study, in-depth interviews were used as the primary form of data collection. Those data were then supplemented by researcher observations of actual and videotaped distance sessions.

Several rounds of in-depth interviews were conducted with each participant. Interviews were audiotaped and participant responses were compared after each round. Three questions were asked of each participant:

1. What were the barriers to your learning as a participant in this distance learning experience?

2. What coping/adapting strategies did you use to overcome those barriers?

3. What could your instructor have done differently to enhance your learning in this distance learning experience?

An analysis of the responses helped generate additional questions that served as the basis for the next round of interviews. After informational redundancy was achieved, the results were analyzed using Moustakes' protocol. This eight-step process includes: (1) listing and preliminary groupings, (2) reducing and eliminating, (3) clustering and thematizing the invariant constituents, (4) final identification of the invariant constituents and themes by application, (5) using the relevant, validated invariant constituents and themes by application, (5) using the relevant, validated invariant constituents and themes to construct a textural description of each participant's experience, (6) using the individual textural and imaginative variation to construct a structural description of each participant's experience, (7) using the invariant constituents and themes to construct a textural-structural description of the meanings and essences of each participant's experience, and (8) using the individual textural-structural descriptors to develop a composite description of the meanings and essences of the experience that represents the group as a whole.17

Findings

It became obvious from the initial round of interviews that an individual's learning style had a significant impact on his or her perception of the distance education experience. Some of the learners had little trouble adapting to the distance environment, while others experienced feelings of chaos and detachment. The individual perceptions, however, were congruent within specific learning styles.