The Bespoke Induction Programme - Intentions, values and beliefs

I believe in giving everything my best shot. I do not believe in holding back. I am very driven by the fact that we are destined with these opportunities.

(Shailendra Singh in Hiscock, 2008:p.75)

For any research to gain credibility a researcher should demonstrate that he or she has taken into account any threats to validity. For the purpose of this research, thought was given to the use of control groups as a way of ensuring validity and a reduction in the variables that research often presents. Hopkins (2008) states:

'If the various threats to validity are not taken into account, then one cannot claim that one's interpretation is correct: the existence of possible sources of invalidity potentially offer plausible, rival interpretations to our findings when we do not account for them.'

(Hopkins, 2008:p.140) 

However, to propose that one group follows a normal induction programme, a second follows a specific induction, and a third group follows a specific induction with additional training would not be ethical. It would be a case of simply setting-up students and lecturers for possible failure.

Furthermore, the researcher was aware that at the institute being researched the management was looking at ways of improving the induction process across college. Previous e2e inductions have proved successful in retaining learners who fall into the NEET category. Having control groups across college would have been one way of testing to see if the same successes could be replicated with other student groups. Stringer (1999) also suggests:

'Collaborative processes not only generate a sense of purpose and energy but also provide the means for the accomplishment of goals and the solution of problems and produce conditions that enhance participants' personal, social, and professional lives.'

(Stringer, 1999:p.189)

However, in pursuit of validity, a researcher also has to give consideration to reliability. In the context of educational research, this researcher concluded that: reliable action research employs a process of methods that can replicate evidence which is constant in its equivalence over a span of time, if carried out on a comparable learner group. This can be further explained by McCormick and James (1989):

'Basically reliability is concerned with consistency in the production of results and refers to the requirement that, at least in principle, another researcher, or the same researcher on the same occasion, should be able to replicate the same piece of research and achieve comparable evidence and results.'

(McCormick and James, 1989:p.188)

Moreover, resources and strategies used for a specific programme of induction by one faculty may not necessarily be considered generic for use for all faculties across college: its success is inherently affected by the variable needs and perceptions of participants involved. Whether that is the teacher responsible for its delivery, or the recipient learners: both can influence the desired outcome. However, the successful elements of a specific programme could become the building blocks that other departments expand upon and take ownership of. Showalter (2003) states:

'One of the best aspects of the work of teaching is that, unlike scholarship, it does not have to be original to be good. We can borrow ideas and methods from our colleagues and our predecessors, dead or alive: we can imitate, copy, and plunder in the confidence that our students will benefit from every good teaching technique we can put into action in our own classroom.'

(Showalter, 2003:p.9)

The balance between being ethical and finding ways to ensure validity and reliability initially looked unresolvable. However, an opportunity presented itself in the form of a pilot. The e2e programme will no longer exist in 2010. In the interest of planning ahead, it was proposed that the e2e team deliver a pilot progression pathway within the Foundation Learning Tier to one of the four cohorts. This meant that Health and Social Care, Construction and Hospitality students would remain within the e2e framework of a short-course, but the pilot would be Salon Services: a one-year course. 

The ethical dilemma was also removed from the researcher, as management decided that the three e2e cohorts would start two weeks earlier and partake in the ‘bespoke’ induction programme, with the ‘pilot’ cohort of Salon Services having   an induction of one week at a later date: effectively becoming the control group. However, as any researcher can testify, the gap between what has been planned and what actually takes place can become a chasm. In the case of this research it became an abyss of mammoth proportions with dire consequences for validity. 

References:

Hopkins,D. (2008) A Teacher's Guide to Classroom Research. Berkshire, Open University Press

Singh, S. in Hiscock, G. (2008) India’s Global Wealth Club: The Stunning Rise of its Billionaires and their Secrets of Success. John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Stringer, E.T. (1999) Action Research. (2^nd Ed) London: Sage Publications

McCormick, R. and James, M. (1989) Curriculum Action Research. (2nd Ed). London, RoutledgeFalmer

Showalter, E. (2003) Teaching Literature. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers