t they were studying. Firstly, the team introduced itself and explained the purpose and nature of the study to the participating students at the first meeting. Secondly, each team member accompanied the student that he or she was observing throughout the project to go to the library, sat beside the student and tape-recorded the narration of the student in the search process. Finally, the team members asked the students several questions at the beginning and at the end of each search session. As a result of Hawthorne effect, Babbie (1998, p.286) states that if the subjects of study realize that they are being studied, it is inevitable that whatever the observer does or does not do will have effect on what is being observed. In this research, the observers might affect the behavior of the students by imposing pressure on them. Since the students had known the purpose of the study at the very start and they were being closely observed while searching, it was difficult to expect them performing searching as naturally and honestly as they would do without being focused by strangers. Thus, this might lead to three students being absent in the horticulture class during the three-week observation period even though they knew that the research team were depending on them to conduct the research. In fact, the rate of absence is somewhat high in an eight-student group. Even if the absences were just coincidence and it was nothing about the research, there were still clues to the possibility that the students did not like being closely observed and felt like being supervised. For a few times, the students were sitting at the computers and started searching already without waiting for the team members to record their behavior. Moreover, the team members found that most of the students did not like school most of the time. Both of the phenomenons uncovered that the students were likely to dislike being watched to complete tasks. Furtherm...
