Page 176 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Identifying the Target Needs of Non-Native Subject Teachers

Table 4. Codes and details about different stake holders

Participant Code Gender Age Years of Subject
Experience Specialization
GD M 49 27 Mathematics
CM M 47 25 English
PS1 M 36 14 English
PS2 F 32 8 English
PS3 F 30 5 English
HD1 M 39 16 Mathematics
HD2 M 33 11 Science
HD3 M 38 15 Biology
HD4 M 39 16 Primary School Education
HD5 M 34 12 English

Data Collection Instrument and Its Development

In order to find answers to the first RQ posed at the onset of the study, in other words to elicit the target
needs, lacks and wants of the participants, a four-part needs analysis questionnaire was designed by
the researchers (see Appendix 1). It included both closed and open-ended items. The participants were
asked to respond to the closed-ended items by using 3-point Likert scale. For different parts, different
anchors were used. The first part of the questionnaire aimed at identifying the lacks of the participants
concerning communicative target tasks, i.e. occupational tasks, requiring speaking, writing, reading and
listening skills. The second part asked the participants to evaluate their general English skills in order to
have a deeper understanding of their lacks. At the right side of each item in these first and second parts,
the participants were provided spaces where they were invited to give more in depth information about
their target needs. In the third part, they were asked to select those language skills and communicative
target tasks given in the first two parts that they would like to develop more in the course. They were
also given space to write more about their individual expectations from the course. By this way, their
wants were identified. In the last part of the questionnaire, demographic information about the partici-
pants was collected.
While developing the needs analysis questionnaire, firstly, three parties of stakeholders, i.e., GD,
CM, 3 PSs and 5 HDs were interviewed about the priorities of the course and target needs of the subject
teachers related to the knowledge and skills in English. These initial unstructured interviews provided
exploratory data in return (Long, 2005). All interviews were tape-recorded. This data were not only
used to understand the phenomenon under investigation but also formed the basis of the needs analysis
questionnaire in that the interview data were transcribed and analyzed to determine those needs that
were emphasized and the ideas were turned into items and pooled according to Hutchinson and Waters’
‘target needs’ focus. Then, the pooled items were first presented to the interview participants for ‘member
checking’. As known, member checking is a technique for establishing the validity of an account where
participants correct errors, confirm and/or revise the interpretations, and add any new points to the data
(Guba & Lincoln, 1989). After this first step, some minor changes in wording took place and the first
version of the questionnaire was designed. Secondly, this earlier version was sent to two experts from

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