Constructing the Final Piece

The signs were designed on A4 paper in the form of a square with the corners rounded so that, if the child picked one up he/she would not hurt themselves. They were then cut into shape and glued to foam board. On the reverse I placed a piece of "Velcro" which would then adhere to the main board which would be placed at the front of the class. The teacher can then attach the sign to the board at will, if necessary, taking it off the board to hold it up to emphasise a point.

The special needs signs I made slightly smaller and laminated them so that they would not be damaged if a child got hold of one.

I will be doing a test run for a prototype of the final piece from 6 - 14 April with a teacher from St Clara's school and then doing a follow- up interview with her to find out how she and the children got on. I am keeping my fingers crossed but am quietly hopeful all will be well.

Finally I have come up with a name for the product "Early Signs" and am toying with the idea of extending my designs to "Early Letters" and, possibly, "Early Numbers" if the present project comes off .

Designing the Final Piece

Having gathered all the information and comments from the interviews that I could and sifted through them to take out the main points, I sat down and began to design my signs. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting down in front of the computer and beginning to design some new concept or other. I had already filled a sketchbook with possible designs and had a pretty good idea what I was going to do. The plan was to keep the signs simple but colourful and eye-catching.

I designed 22 signs- 10 were mild commands like "put your hand up", "keep in line", "no talking" and the other 12 were indicating which lesson was about to take place. These signs were designed to be placed on a board in front of the class so the teacher could indicate the point she wanted to make, either the lesson they were about to have or a particular command she wanted to make.

I also designed a further 10 signs for the special needs children. They were slightly different in colour and size as they were designed to be placed on the desk of the child by the special needs teacher. The teacher I interviewed was very helpful and told me which colours to use etc.

Interviews

I interviewed them all over a period of a week in early March. What they had to say was both informative and gratifying. They were all very enthusiastic about the project. In fact, the psychologist even went as far as to suggest it might be presented to the Education Board later in the year.

I had taken great care to prepare the questions I was going to ask each of them, varying them slightly according to their expertise. Taking the advice of Cohen & Manion (1998) I used mainly open - ended questions as they give the interviewees the opportunity to express their opinions and feelings freely.

I also consulted Corrie & Zaklukiewicz (1985) about the use of tape recorders and took the advice of Horalambos & Holborn (1995) on the usefulness of semi-structured interviews. ( full transcripts of the interviews will appear in the appendices of the dissertation).

Personal Interviews

Questionnaires were useful but I thought I needed to support these with more detailed information.  I decided , therefore, to do a series of personal interviews with a variety of experts. 

I thought four interviews should be enough, provided I selected the best people.  I chose:

A. An experienced teacher from St. Joseph School

B. The headmistress of one of the schools

C. A special needs from St. Joseph School

D. A Child Psychologist

First Questionnaire

I then constructed a questionnaire, asking a mix of questions on things that would need to be taken into account when designing the signs.  (See copy of questionnaire and covering letter below.) 

I sent out 15 questionnaires to each school and received back completed 20 in all. This gave me some very useful information (See my comment on the Findings later).  My plan is to send a further questionnaire to the same schools, with pictures of my signs, to see what they think of my final piece later.

Methodology

Qualitative dissertation

While I was completing the Introduction and the Literature Review, I was also considering how to collect all the data to show that, not only would my signage work, but that the teachers, headmistresses etc. who would have to implement the system were generally in agreement with it. 

I decided that, as the whole concept and the final piece were fairly technical, I should aim at a qualitative, rather than quantitative, dissertation. This was because qualitative data, in comparison with quantitative data, is seen as richer and having greater depth due to the substantial amount of the detail.  Qualitative research is considered as more vital and more likely to present a truer picture of reality i.e. the way of life, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of the participants.  Haralambos & Holborn (1995).

I chose two primary schools:

1. St.Joseph Primary School, Sliema (Church School)
2. St. Clara College, Pembroke Primary School (Government School)

I spoke to the two headmistresses in early January and they readily agreed that I could send a questionnaire to their teachers to find out their views on what colour, shapes etc. my signs should be.

How I would set out the methodology?

In the second part, I explained that the methodology will be to design around 20 cards, picturing a number of requests for the students to respond to.   I planned to send out two sets of questionnaires to teachers at two selected primary schools to elicit information from them on colours, shapes etc. of the signs to help me to design them.  A second questionnaire will also be sent after the cards were designed to obtain some feedback on whether they thought they would work. 

I would also be doing some personal interviews with a teacher, a special needs teacher, a headmistress and a child psychologist to receive more in depth information before starting the designing.

Introduction

The Set Up

Having completed the Literature Review, I began thinking what I was going to say in the " Introduction". To complete this I split it, basically, into two sections as I did with the Literature Review:

1. The early use of signs which are introduced at an early age to children

2. The methodology of the dissertation.

In the first part I explained how, from an early age, children are introduced to signs and symbols, first, by their parents and, later, by their teachers, using Flash cards, pictures etc. I explained that my plan was to help primary school teachers manage their classes with the aid of a series of picture cards, which could be held up or pointed to if they were hanging on a board in lieu of having to give verbal commands. This would save time and the children would enjoy seeing and responding to the cards.