Abstract
At the outset of this thesis, the aim was to address needs expressed by secondary teachers of English in Sierra Leone for a system of support to facilitate their teaching. After a review of the literature, it seemed that this could be achieved through the construction of an in-service training and education of teachers (INSET) at a distance course. The thesis accordingly describes the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the course. This aspect of this thesis is referred to as research theme I. A feature of the course was the use of course tutors and members belonging to the same schools, who interacted with each other daily while sharing the same staffrooms. Consequently, one of the traditionally identified problems of distance learning, namely the isolation factor, was overcome. With regard to research theme I, the thesis reveals the advantages of such a DL/INSET course over more conventional forms of training. Many of the findings (both advantageous and disadvantageous) generally concur with those found by other researchers. Findings specific to the Sierra Leonean situation relate particularly to her socio-economic problems. It is argued that researchers should never underestimate the tremendous impact of societal context on the smooth implementation of a course of this nature. The thesis argues for the non-traditional paradigm for evaluating the course. The flexible nature of this paradigm led to the development of a special feature of this work, namely an audio cassette mode of evaluating at a distance. This consists of sending out blank cassette tapes to respondents who speak their views in an open ended and spontaneous fashion on to the tape in their own time and in a location of their own choosing. The development of this instrument and its comparison with conventional methods of evaluating at a distance constitutes research theme II of this thesis. For research theme II, the thesis reveals that the tape method of evaluating at a distance is viable. It can yield data that can be equated to those elicited through other means, but it can also in certain circumstances produce richer data. Other potential advantages to researcher and respondents- alike are discussed.