My First Interview/Observation.

I conducted my first interview and observation for my inquiry on Thursday. This took place at the college where I trained with one of my former teachers.

As she wasn't free to see me before the lesson, I observed the class first and conducted the interview afterwards.

I was extremely pleased with how this first interview/observation went as I was unsure whether my questions were at a level to encourage the interviewee to respond with thorough and detailed answers or also if I could draw out insights from my observations.

The class I observed was Contemporary dance style, with 8 students participating, all between the ages of 16 and 19.

Firstly, I handed out my information slips which were a good start to the class as the students seemed very interested as to why I was there so the information slips were a professional way to introduce myself.

My notes were quite extensive on the observation and I laid them out in a way which I was pleased with so I intend to stick to a similar format on my next observation. I gave myself headings to highlight what I was specifically looking out for in the class and I wrote what I observed below each heading.

The class was an hour and a quarter long and after this I interviewed the teacher which lasted about 45 minutes. The interviewee was extremely positive and went in to great depth with her answers. During the interview, I found that the interviewee when answering a particular question would discuss the topic in a way which also answered the questions that I intended for later and hadn't even asked yet. I think the reason this happened is because my questions are similar and obviously all related to the same topic and I designed it this way to help me draw out detailed answers.  I’m not sure whether this means I should revise my questions or to test them out again on my next interview as I feel that a different interviewee could produce a different outcome and that repetition of questions or similarity of questions may be necessary to draw out their answers and gain a full insight.

I took down notes during the interview but unfortunately for this first observation I didn't take an audio recording. I definitely plan to do this for my next interview as it is necessary to ensure I record and can later recall all the data given and it will make it easier for me to cite.

I felt my first interview and observation went very well and I went away with a good amount of valuable information. Not only this, the interviewee lent me a book on teaching which she thought would help me with my inquiry. I have started to read it and I'm already finding it very useful so I will blog about this when I've finished.