ABSTRACT

There are thousands of published and unpublished schedules for studying what happens in the classroom, as has been described in Chapter 2 on quantitative methodology, but qualitative methods are just as many and varied. There are numerous approaches which try to probe beneath the surface of events, to elicit the meanings, sometimes deeply buried, the interpretations and explanations, signifi cance and impact of classroom life. Trying to explain the meaning of a particular incident in a classroom to an intelligent Martian would not be straightforward, as explanations are sometimes easiest when a great deal can be taken for granted, or when there is a background of shared assumptions.