Qualitative Data...so far

As I stated in a previous post, I struggled with coding student interviews.  I only included one page of the interview below, but every page is similar.  In addition to the first page, you can see a page with post-its of the final themes that ran throughout the interviews.  A more in depth description of the coding follows the interviews.

 

 

 

The pages above display the beginning coding for each interview that was conducted in February.  Two interviews were conducted.  One was with four fourth grade students and the other with four fifth grade students.  Both interviews were recorded on my cell phone.  I then scribed the interviews and went back through to code.  As you can see in the pictures above, I color coded each student. All names are pseudonyms created by the students.  After color coding, I counted the number of speaking parts for each student.  The numbers also indicate times when more than one student was talking. 

                       

Observations

             Although the atmosphere of each interview was different, the information gleaned from them was very similar.  I used “constant comparative methods” while coding to see how the interviews related to each other (Glaser & Strauss, 1967 as cited in Charmaz, 2006 p. 54).  All eight students indicated negative emotion relating to testing and/or writing.  Concerns expressed were extended-response questions with multiple parts, knowing the answer but struggling when it was time to write it on the page, time,  and spelling.  In addition to the struggles with writing and testing, tests with multiple choice questions were less of a concern than tests with writing activities or writing assignments in general.

Indications of fear or worry

When asked about taking the KPREP –

“Kind of nervous.” 

 “Yeah and scared.”

 “Cause, it’s like, what happens if you get all the answers wrong?”

“Sometimes you might worry that you might not finish like the whole test in time.”

When asked about answering extended-response questions-

“Nervous”

When talking about taking tests-

“I study all the time and then, like, whenever it goes to the test, like, I worry too much and like I forget all the answers.”

“I study all the time, but when I’m, when I’m actually doing the reading test I lock up.”

“Scary. Scary. Scary.”

 

Concerns about multiple parts

“Like you have to write A and B and you have to read through it.”

“You know when you see and you have lots of parts to answer for it…”

 

Concerns about knowing the answer, but not being able to write it correctly

“With open response you have to like write it all out.”

“I know it in my head, but when I put it down on paper it comes out wrong.”

“….I’ll write about it and I’ll get it wrong because I don’t remember about it when we read it…”

“I know the answers. I study all the time, but when I’m, when I’m actually doing the reading test I lock up.”

 

Comments about multiple choice questions

Teacher: Why is it harder to do that than to do multiple choice?

Male student: Because you have four answers to pick out.

 

Teacher: Do you feel nervous about…multiple choice questions, too?”

3 Students in unison: No way!

 

“I like it more when you have like choices.”

Table 2

Code Mapping (to be read from the bottom up)

 

THIRD ITERATIONS: Data Categories

Concerns (CO)                                      Emotion (EM)                                  Multiple Choice (MC)

 

 

SECOND ITERATION: Focused Codes

Spelling (S)                                           Emotion (EM)                                   Multiple Choice (MC)

Know answer, but forget

     while writing (FW)

Multiple Parts (MP)

Time (T)

 

 

FIRST ITERATION: Initial Codes

 Spelling                                                          Emotion                                 Multiple Choice

Forgetting while writing                Clarifying negative feelings                Explaining why multiple                 

Worried about time                                          Scary                                                choice is easier

Writing                                                                                                   

Testing

Worried about time

 

 

 

Resource:

Charmaz. K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks: Sage (42-71).