CHAPTER THREE; Methodology and Research Design

This varies completely from the situation in Accra, Kumasi and other communities. As such a lesson suitable for pupils at other parts of the country and elsewhere cannot be necessarily suitable for pupils at Apeyime. For that matter, this problem must be track led differently irrespective of what other writers says about it.

To crown it all, the researcher realized that the interventional techniques will come to no use or fruition if efforts are not made to implement them effectively.
In conclusion, one will realize that the above research findings were silent in all the above literatures. It is based on these facts that the researcher is determined to carry out the topic.

CHAPTER THREE ;  METHODOLOGY

Introduction
This third chapter of this action research project report is entitled “METHODOLOGY”. It describes the research design and procedures employed in obtaining data for the study.

Research Design
The researcher made use of the action research design to carry out the study. The term action research is defined as a kind of research activity in which the researcher works collaboratively with other people to solve a perceived problem.

It is an way which aims at improving an issue related situation by change. In the school situation, action research encourages teachers to be aware of their own practice, to be critical of that practice and to be prepared to change.
An action research is participatory, because it involves the teacher in its enquiry. It is also collaborative, because it involves other people as parts of the shared enquiry.

Action research allows both the teacher and pupils to learn experientially about the research process, by being there and by doing it instead of being told how to do it.

Action research does not only focus on generating new knowledge. But also enables both the participants (i.e. the teacher – researcher and the pupils) to develop appropriate intervention strategies aimed at finding a lasting solution to the problems identified in the teaching – learning situation.

However, a distinction is often drawn between “PURE” and “ACTION” research. Pure research aimed at generating new knowledge within a particular area of human academic discipline.

It is primary concerned with generalizations from a large area of cases and that the link between the research findings and their applications needs are immediate. Another feature of “pure” research is that, the link between those who applied its need is not to be a close one. The dissemination of information is often second – hand that is through publications articles books etc.

Action research on the other hand might be describe as inquiry conducted on a particular issue of current concern, usually undertaken by those directly involved. Action research is carried out on specific problems identified with the aim of finding solutions to those problems in other to bring about change. For example, problems identified in the classroom.

Somebody may ask why is it action research? First of all, research as pointed out earlier, is an essential and important aspect of the teacher’s professional responsibilities. Action research has a number of practical benefits. Among them are as follows;

(a) It helps the teacher to understand what actually goes on in teaching – learning situations.
(b) It is very important that, it does not only enhance the teacher’s professional status but also develop the teacher’s personal and improvement of his or her practice.

(c) Finding from action research provides teachers with the opportunity of acquiring a better understanding of all aspect of their own practice; be in ration to subjects, topics, contents, the curriculum or the ways appropriate to the level of the learners in that class.

Nevertheless, there are some limitations as far as action research is concern. Among them are high involvement of fund, much time to carry out activities and analysis of research findings and reluctances on the part of the respondents in given out relevant information on the questions presented to them. In all, the tremendous benefits that, both teacher and learners derived from action research as outlined above motivated the writer to adopt it for this study.

Population and Sample Selection
Population here refers to all the people legible for the research. And in this study, the population includes the pupils in Apeyime R.C Primary Six (6), the class teacher and the parents of the pupils.
Sampling is also defined as the various activities involved in getting respondents necessary for the study. The sample here implies the group of people the writer selected to take parts in the study.

In the course of finding out the problems of pupils poor performances in reading, in Apeyime R.C Primary six, the researcher decided to sample five (5) out of seventeen (17) pupils in the class as the respondents. The researcher adopted random sampling by using balloting approach. By this approach, the researcher folded 17 pieces of papers on which she wrote “Yes” on 5 and “No” on 12.

The researcher then called on the pupils to come out and pick the papers. Those who picked “Yes” were those he used as samples or respondents for the study. The researcher also decided to involve the class teacher among the respondents. The researcher resorted to the use of above approaches in sampling her respondents (pupils and their parents) because, the approach is free and fair. It does not encourage the act of favoritism and being biased.

Development of Research Instruments
The under listed instruments were employed by the researcher in the collection of data for the study. This includes; Observation, Interview, Questionnaire and Test.

Observation
Observation is seen as keeping eye contact on somebody and viewing critically the person’s behaviour towards an activity or issues, usually without the knowledge of the one under study.
Observation as a research instrument is very important because it plays a very significant role in the assessment of information for a research work.
Some of the roles it plays are outlined as follow.

Observation provides information when other methods are not effective. When the respondents are unable to co-operate, observation is the best instrument to be administered. Observation also provides information without relying on the reports of others.
The researcher did not rely on report from anywhere, but she critically observed the pupils and the class teacher to acquire information relevant for this study. Observation is relatively in expensive. The researcher did not move away from her environment to acquire information. She did not use any material apart from the list of items or information she wished to acquire.

The researcher used observation in collection of data by witnessing the class teacher’s lesson on reading aloud for two weeks. The observation’s objectives of those lessons were simply not achieved as such, so the researcher chooses to write on the topic.
The observation was administered to both pupils and the class teacher during the teacher’s lesson delivery.
Things to look for, during the observation includes; the impact of the lesson on the pupils, the mood of the teacher during the reading aloud lesson and the pupil – teacher relationship. The researcher prepared a list of information she wished to investigate.

This includes;
(a) What actually is causing the pupils’ inability to read after the teacher’s lesson?
(b) What is making the pupils less interested in the lesson?
After the lesson, the researcher recorded the following as the apparent causes of the pupil’s problem.
(a) The teacher did not follow the correct approaches for teaching reading aloud. Instead of drilling the pupil’s to do correct pronunciation, he just read through the key words and asked pupil’s to repeat the words after him for just three times. He should have used word attack skills, word cards or flash cards to teach the pronunciation and word recognition which appears to be the pupils’ main problem.
(b) The needed TLMs were also not used for the lesson.
(c) The pupils were also not participatory enough. Some words they met before could also not be pronounced by the pupils.

This means that they do not learn after school. This also is perceived to be the fault of their parents. They may not give enough time to their wards to learn after school. The researcher for that matter decides to further investigate into the causes and the effects of the problem through interview and questionnaires to the parents and the class teacher.