A Teacher’s Experiences of Playing Games as a Teaching Model in a Primary School Through Narrative Analysis

I.      Research Question

How is the implementation of playing games as a teaching model in the primary school based on a teacher experience?

II.    Theoretical Framework

     The proposed research will investigate, through narrative analysis, a teacher’s experience of using the playing of games as a teaching model in a primary school. According to Elliott (cited in Delamont 2012, p. 294), there has been an increasing interest in the use of narrative analysis in the social sciences over the past three decades. Similarly, Lyons 2007 (cited in Chan 2012, p. 116) reports that teachers’ individual experiences of using narrative analysis have recently been widely discussed and studied. The researcher notes that narrative is powerful in capturing the complexity of the situation between teachers’ work and the classroom. Elliot (1997 cited in Delamont 2012, p. 282) provides as an example of researchers in Britain who employ narratives in their research on the primary school teacher experience. Likewise, in North America, narrative study has been found to be ‘fruitful’ in the field of education. Thus, this project will focus on examining, through narrative analysis, teachers’ experiences of a particular teaching method in a primary school (Elliot 1997 cited in Delamont 2012, p. 282)

    ‘Narratives’ are stories of events and experiences with a beginning, middle and an end (Elliot 1997 cited in Delamont 2012, p. 281). According to Clandinin and Connelly (2000, p. 2), the term ‘experience’ refers to both the personal and social thinking through of an event or situation. It also involves the individual learning, which includes understanding that the learning has a relationship with other matters, such as—in the context of teaching—other students, teachers, the classroom or the community. Further, they note that ‘people are individuals and need to be understood as such, but they cannot be understood only as individuals’. The experience itself leads to further experiences, meaning that ‘each point has a past experiential base and leads to an experiential future’ (Clandinin & Connelly 2000, p. 2). In education, this also highlights that ‘experience’ is a key term, since it concerns students’ learning, the school and policies and so on, which have a historical story as it changes every time. Teachers’ experiences are discussed in education and educational studies, which form experience (Clandinin & Connelly 2000, p. 18). Narrative is an excellent way of representing and understanding experiences. Thus, since this study is concerned with an individual’s experiences in education, narrative will be a focus.

    Narrative has three empirical and reflective learning benefits (Bell 2002, p. 2). First, narrative allows researchers to understand the experience of the learning struggle. Consequently, most researchers examine only results without considering the impact of the experience itself. Secondly, narrative allows researchers to bring deeply hidden assumptions to the surface. This means that analysis of people’s experiences enables the discovery of assumptions about purposes, goals and methods of literacy that people previously do not realise they have. Thirdly, narrative shifts interpretation, meaning that a person’s understanding of other people and events can change. Therefore, by examining the assumptions of a student, for example, a researcher can gain deep insight into their motivation, investment, struggles, losses and gains and language ideology.

     Bell and Burns (2011, p. 953) further state that recent narrative research has not produced purely individual production. It is also tied to aspects of social constructionism, such as ‘social, cultural and historical conventions and the relationship between the storyteller and the interviewer’. However, when the narrative researcher only focuses on the experiences of one individual, it is suggested that the study will produce a single individual (Creswell 2012, p. 507). In studying an individual person, ‘exploring the experiences’ of that individual is crucial, as will be shown in both personal—namely, individual—and social experiences, in which the person interacts with others. Narrative also involves the researcher’s subjectivity as in drawing, framing, interpreting, retelling, and representing of participant’s personal experience (Barkhuzein 2008, p.232). Constructing the analysis on narrative study is a hard working when it is going to be objective. Likewise, Peshkin (cited in Bell 2008, p.210) argues that a story is “inherently multilayers and ambiguous so the construction natures of truth and subjective”.  Nevertheless, Bell claims that the role of the researcher is the most important in giving the meaning as long as it is not merely ‘storytelling’ but unpacking the story well.

     Mansour and Collier (2008, p. 36) defines ‘game playing’ as activities that students are able to experience as being joyful and that motivate them to understand the underlying concepts. Moreover, Plummer (2008, p. 28) states that playing games provides a joyful activity through which to learn ‘serious ideas and important life skills’ and Morrow (2008, p. 331) describes playing games as a great suspicion learning in the classroom through which students are challenged to ‘share their ideas and reflect upon their experience’. Similarly, Hubert (2001,   p. 232) describes game playing as ‘a series of life games intended for use in educational settings’. She also provides some good examples of skills developed as a result of game playing, such as self-knowledge, communication and being assertive. Thwaites (2008, p. 1) stresses that playing games is like a ‘circus activity’, which, in the context of learning, includes some enjoyment and fun. Thus, ‘game playing’ in the classroom can be defined as a learning activity that involves a joyful situation, communication and is a life skills exercise.

   

    The use of game playing as a teaching method in education is not new (Denham et al. 2006, p. 33). For example, Plummer (2008, p. 29) observes that game playing has been deployed as a model of teaching in primary schools to assist students to understand the concept being taught. Moreover, he points that playing games is popular as it is an entertaining way of learning. He elaborates that students will be involved in a meaningful experience that is also joyful and full of challenge. Hence, students may be more enthusiastic about studying the materials if game playing is used as a teaching method. In Indonesia, the implementation of game playing in primary schools has recently been increasing, as it is considered an innovative teaching model that asks students to be more engaged in participating in their learning (Suwarna cited in Solihatin 2007, p. 2). According to the researcher, the existing problems show that there are still many conditions characterised by an emphasis on cognition, yet there is little to stimulate students to be involved actively in their learning. Consequently, students are passive. They are used to reading textbooks or listening to the teacher while sitting in their chairs. In contrast, Yanhong, Liming and Lifang (2010, p. 620), in line with Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, state that education should aim ‘to develop the student’s cognitive domain and the potential internal invention and growth, which are the features of the educational games’. Game playing, then, is one method that can address the traditional education problem of passive learning and improve learning by being non-traditional (Whisen & Dunphy 2010, p. 141). Game playing can be used to increase student motivation, so that the required learning can be accomplished and teaching goal reached (Yanhong, Liming & Lifang 2010, p. 620). The implementation of playing games needs careful consideration. As Yanhong, Liming and Lifang (2010, p. 620) have noted, a teacher plays an important role in successful game play. A teacher is needed to teach the games effectively, to stimulate student motivation and encourage students to complete the learning tasks optimally and efficiently in a pleasant way. Therefore, in the context of this study, which focuses on the experiences of a primary school teacher, their views on game playing should be taken into account.

    Related to the personal issue of researcher, it is necessary to upgrade my knowledge of teaching in primary schools regularly since recently I am a junior lecturer in Primary Teacher Education Department. During my work, I have learned about innovative teaching models by reading many sources such as books, journals and material on the Internet. Further, together with my colleagues, I have actively attended seminars, workshops and short training courses in the field of educational instruction. I need to engage in such activities because of my responsibility to transfer this knowledge to my students who will become primary school teachers at the end of their bachelor of education course. However, the mere three hours per week I spend teaching them in the innovative teaching models course are not sufficient to allow me to provide practical to students. Additionally, my students need the model of a real teacher to enrich their teaching skills.

    One innovative teaching model that I have a particular interest in studying is game playing, due to its many advantages. I consider that playing games can address the objectives of ensuring learning is joyful, motivating students and deepening their understanding of the materials. Based on my own work experience, I am interested in examining the teacher’s experience of using game playing as a teaching model in a primary school.

    Based on the theories explored and outlined, it is generally proposed that the aim of this study will be to examine, through narrative analysis, the teacher’s experience of using game play as a teaching model in a primary school. Hence, the three objectives of this study will be to investigate to help conducting the research: (1) the benefits gained from a teacher’s experience of examining their experience of playing games, (2) the barriers encountered during the activity of teaching in class, and (3) the strategies employed to manage the problems that arise when teaching using game playing.

III.     Design and Methods

    This study will use a case study approach. According to Punch (1998, p. 11), a case study approach is a strategy used by qualitative researchers to investigate and understand the case in depth in its natural setting, recognising its complexity and context. Further, Willig (2003, p. 70) defines a ‘case study’ as an approach to the study of singular entities that involves a wide range of methods of data collection and analysis. Therefore, a case study is not about the methods used to collect and analyse the data, but a particular unit of analysis, namely, the case itself. The case may be a person, a school, a city, a community or any other unit of social life. A case can also be a condition or an experience. Bromley (cited in Willig 2003, p. 70) describes ‘cases’ as being ‘natural occurrences with definable boundaries’.

    The process of undertaking a case study involves an ‘in-depth, intensive, and sharply focused exploration of such an occurrence’. To address this, a qualitative method—semi structured interview—will be employed. Semi-structured interview allows the researcher to listen the participant talk about particular topic of their life experiences (Willig 2003, p.22). This method of data collection will provide information about the participant’s thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, reasoning, motivations and feelings about a topic to be obtained (Johnson & Christensen 2008, p. 207). This means that the researcher must gain the trust of the participant and build rapport with them to ensure they feel comfortable enough to relate their experiences (Patton cited in Johnson & Christensen 2008, p. 207).

    There are some particular advantages and limitations related to a semi-structures interview. As the advantages, a semi-structured interview consists of a small number of open-ended questions (Johnson & Christensen 2008, p. 207), which is a good reference to start the interview. The method of interview also functions as ‘triggers’ that encourage the participant to talk (Willig 2003, p.22). Along this view the authors outlines that, apparently, the method is lacking in finding the balance maintaining control between researcher and participant. Thus, ‘a carefully constructed interview agenda’ can deal with so the interview would not lose the original research question. In addition, the semi-structured interview is rather ambiguous. Based on Willig (2003, p.23) this is because the method combine the formal features interview with informal conversation. Another limitation of this method which can be observed from this author relates to ‘sensitive and ethical negotiation’ between researcher and participant. Hence, the researcher “should not abuse the informal ambience of the interview to encourage the participant to reveal more than they might be comfortable with after the event” (Willig 2003, p.23).

IV.     Relevant Research Tools

    This study will employ a qualitative approach using semi-structured interview and, if necessary, analysis of collected documents such as course materials and lesson plan as research tools. To obtain perspectives of the individual’s experiences, the participating teacher will be asked to tell stories about their experiences (Creswell 2012, p. 508). The researcher will focus on collecting their recalled experiences and may gather information from a variety of related texts (course materials and lesson plans) belonging to the participant.

     The data will be collected by the researcher for the period January to June 2013. The study will be conducted in Yogyakarta, a city in Indonesia. The interview questions will be carefully devised based on the objectives of the study. The data will be gathered from the interviews, transcribed and systematically analysed according to each objective of the study.

V.      Pilot Study

Piloting study is used to generate questions which might be more meaningful. Since the study uses interview, it is probably occurs that some questions have problem in construction such as unclear, wordy, overlapping response option, or mismatch between the question and answer. Therefore, a pilot study is employed – testing questions which will be developed for collecting data. Creswell  (2012, p.390) points out that piloting is powerful to determine whether an individual in same sample understand the questions well or not.  Some participants coming from similar background will be tested to have a pilot study as getting involve on an interview. 

VI.       Sampling Issues

    The subject of this study will be one Indonesian primary teacher. The participant of this study is only one individual from the sample. The sampling uses non-random sampling techniques then employs convenience sampling. According to Johnson and Christensen (2008, p. 238), convenience sampling is used when there are people who are able to participate or easily recruited in the sample. The participant in this study is noticed “conveniently selected”. The authors emphasise that in this technique of sampling, it is unlikely to generate from a sample to population. Also, not everyone has equal chance to be selected as sample, even it is not so clear about what specific this sample comes from. As there will only be one respondent, the study will not represent the general experience of primary school teachers in Indonesia

    The selected participant will be gained to in-depth interview during the process of data collection. It will be located in a primary school. However, to address the ethical issue in gathering the data, the researcher will ask permission from the headmaster that there will be a teacher in the school is able to participate in the research. Then the researcher will write and record the story about his experience in teaching games in his classroom. Although it will be held in the school, the in-depth interview will be situated more private in multiple episodes so that the participant feels comfortable in sharing his experiences. What he tells about will be bundled in ‘a personal experience story’, as Clandinin and Connelly (2000, p. 40) broad to be both personal and social context, yet convey the stance as the essence of his experience about himself as a teacher and his teaching games play in schools.

VII.     Ethical Issues

     There might be some ethical concerns in gathering the stories of an individual. It is important for the researcher to be cautious about the reliability of the stories—that is, whether they are true or not. Sometimes, a participant may not tell the true or ‘fake the data’ (Connelly & Clandinin in Creswell 2010 p. 512). Nevertheless, the participant does not need to tell the ‘real’ story, especially if they feel it is inconvenient to recall or report the story. Further, another ethical issue may be related who ‘owns’ the story being related. Creswell (2012, p. 513) mentions that reporting an individual’s story is risky, thus the researcher must seek permission of the individual before doing so. Additionally, the participant’s perspective might be lost or obscured by the end of the research process. As such, it has been suggested that a report focus on the researcher’s story rather than the participant’s story. Some techniques might be employed to address any such distortions. Data triangulation and member checking will help to ensure that the researcher collects good data. Further, if the participant is not able to recall a particular story about something that happened a long time ago, the narrative researcher should remind the reader that the stories are ‘truth of experiences’ (Riessman cited in Creswell 2012, p. 512). Finally, before the data collection begins, the the narrative researcher can inform the participant of the purpose of the study and seek their permission to report their stories.

   Sometimes, it would be difficult for researcher to encourage the participant speak freely and openly, as consequence, he cannot share his experience maximally (Willig 2003, p.22). Thus as a suggestion in line with the approach of narrative study which allow the researcher to consider factor of sociocultural. Therefore, this is recommended that a researcher be familiar with the participant before doing the interview. In addition, a researcher should be aware with the linguistic variability since in the semi-structured interview, the most important thing is getting meaning rather than ‘lexical comparibility’ (Willig 2003, p. 22). The preference to choose the participant from the same cultural background as the researcher might reduce the distortion.

VIII.    Validity, Reliability and Quality

The study will be concerned with producing results that are valid, reliable and of quality in will be conducted in an ethical manner. Merriam (2009, p. 209) believes that it is essential that research is trustworthy, explaining, by way of example, that there is no classroom teacher who wants to use a new method of teaching and learning without it having been previously tested. For a study to be considered trustworthy, there must have been some rigor in how it was conducted. This trustworthiness and rigor will explore the issue of validity and reliability in narrative as qualitative research (Merriam 2009, p. 209). There are some practical recommendations with which to deal with these concerns when researching.Each type of research has different criteria of validity and reliability. Creswell (2012, p. 516) states that a good and useful determination of validity in narrative can be through member checking, triangulating among data sources and searching for disconfirming evidence. Creswell (2009, p. 190) also suggests some procedures for ensuring reliability, including checking transcripts to make sure that no mistakes were made during the transcription, clearly defining codes by comparing the data with the codes and writing notes about them, and cross-checking codes by comparing results with different researchers.

IX.     Analysing Data

     The data analysis in this study will have several components. As Creswell (2009, p. 184) mentions, data analysis in this type of study involves collecting ‘open-ended’ data—meaning that the data are based on responses to questions asked—and establishing an analysis from the information gathered on the teacher’s experience of playing games. The major step of analysing in the process is writing and presenting the story of the participant about teaching experience on playing games.

    Basically, there is not a necessity for narrative of personal experience follow the analysis features on qualitative research. However, in this study, the researcher will follow the features of narrative (Creswell 2012, p. 515), for instance, have the individual record his story in a journal or diary, observe the individual and record fieldnotes, assembles stories about his performance from students, gather documents such as course materials and lesson plan, obtain photographs contains his teaching game play in classroom and record the participant experience such as his perform on teaching. The analysis of narrative study will explicitly relate to the construction and performance of experience considered as narratives endeavor (Watson 2012 cited in Delamont 2012, p.460). There will be some approaches to analyse narrative of experience. The first analysis would draw from the semi-structure interview, which focus on the three research questions. Then it focuses on the section of transcription the stories. Furthermore, the analysis would support by a comprehensive documents and interview between students teacher about their experience of game play in classroom (Watson 2012 cited in Delamont 2012, p.467). These documents would be transcribed by converting the fieldnotes into text data through computer analysis.