3. Data Collection and Analysis

In order to study the teacher education programme at Edgewood College of Education, I collected data between February and April 2000. Data was collected from a number of sources¹.

· Sixty-eight (68) of the 72 Bachelor of Primary Education 1 students completed an entry level questionnaire during an hour-long lecture period. The questionnaire items were structured around students' biographical information, their expectation of the course and their aspirations and expectations relating to teaching.

· All twenty-nine (29) students of the Bachelor of Primary Education 4 class completed the exit level questionnaire during one of their lecture periods. The questionnaire items were structured around students' biographical information, their evaluation of the teacher education course and their aspirations and expectations for teaching.

· A teacher educator questionnaire was given to teacher educators who taught on the primary education programmes. The purpose of the teacher educator questionnaire was to elicit teacher educators' views about the teacher education programmes. Thirty-two questionnaires were given to teacher educators in March 2000 to complete and return after a few days. After about six weeks, 15 questionnaires were returned and used for analysis. With the National Minister's directive of incorporation the teacher educators at the college have felt that their positions and futures were very vulnerable. Teacher educators, understandably, were most concerned about their fate and this is reflected in the low return rates of the teacher educator questionnaire.

· There were interviews with six final year primary education students on their views of the teacher education programme.

· There was an interview with the Acting Deputy Rector about the history, the organisation and the issues facing the college.

· There was an interview with a Senior Head of Department, responsible for curriculum issues, regarding the organisation of the college curriculum.

· There were interviews with the Heads of Department of English, Mathematics and Science regarding the organisation of the curriculum in their subject areas.

· There was an interview with a teacher educator responsible for the organisation of the timetable.

· The registrar at the college completed a questionnaire regarding numbers of staff, students and programmes.

· There was an analysis of the various curriculum documents: COTEP curriculum; the Norms and Standards for Educators curriculum, the SAQA submissions from the college, the syllabi documents from the English, Science and Mathematics departments.

¹ I would like to thank the staff at Edgewood College of Education for all the assistance they offered in the data collection process.

The information from the questionnaires was captured on a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) spreadsheet. The student questionnaires were analysed using frequency counts, cross-tabs and chi squared tests. The teacher educator questionnaire was analysed using frequency counts.