CHAPTER III:METHODOLOGY

This study, which was based in the constructivist paradigm, used a phenomenological
strategy to explain Grade IX students' the effects of using gadgets in the academic
performance.. This chapter describes the research paradigm, approach, and design
that were used to achieve the purposes of the study.

Constructivist Paradigm

This study employed a constructivist paradigm to investigate and understand the

meaning of Grade 9 students effects of using gadgets. Constructivist researchers
focus on understanding and reconstructing the meanings that people (including the
researcher) hold about the phenomenon being studied (Guba & Lincoln, 1994).
Constructivists create knowledge through interaction between the researcher and
participants (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), using dialogue and reasoning as the primary
methods of investigation. Finally, constructivist researchers return frequently to
the sources of data, asking what they meant to the participant and trying to
integrate those with their meaning to the researcher (Rudestam & Newton, 1992).
Thus, for this study, in-depth interviews is conducted to the Grade 9 students .
Data were continually scrutinized in an attempt to understand and construct meaning
of the effects of using gadgets in the academic performance of the participants.
The approach and methods employed in this study were guided by five research
questions:
1. What are the positive and negative effects of gadgets to students academic
performance?
2. How many hours a day does a student use a gadget?
3.What are some of the gadgets that student use?
4. Can excessive use of gadgets affects the teachers of the students?Why?
5.What are some of the application do students used when using a gadget?

Qualitative Research Approach

A qualitative research approach for this study was chosen because qualitative
methods are especially useful in discovering the meaning that people give to events
that they experience (Merriam, 1998). Specifically, the phenomenological method was
used to understand how participants make meaning of the phenomenon being studied;
i.e., the effects of gadgets in the academic performance of grade 9 students..
Phenomenology is effective in studying a small number of subjects – in this case,
15 participants – to identify the core of their experiences with the phenomenon
(Creswell, 2003) and to produce patterns and identify relationships of meaning that
build new knowledge (Moustakes, 1994).

The qualitative research methods used for this study are described further below
and included purposive sampling, open-ended interviewing, and systematic and
concurrent data collection and data analysis procedures. Specifically, the grounded
theory or constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was used to analyze
the data and discover the effects of gadgets in the academic performance grade 9
students of review board approved the purpose and procedures for this study
(Appendix C).

Research Design

Procedures for selecting study participants and collecting and analyzing data are
described in this section.

Participants
Grade 9 students are the chosen participants of the study the effects of gadgets in
the academic performance. The goal of the study is to identify the effects of
gadgets in the academic performance, it is important that participants experience
using gadgets in school. The experiences that participants had during this first
year of college gave them a basis from which to compare their college readiness to
other first-year college students who were not exposed to a 1:1 laptop initiative
in high school.