READING MATERIAL # 1: Identify

The Research Process the

Research
PracRes2 | AAJTTimenia, Problem
LPT, MSc
Report and
Reciew the
Evaluate
Literature
We live in a time where Research

nearly nothing is set in

stone. Almost everything
changes over time, from
how people dress to how Analyze
and
Specify a
Research
they live; from how they Interpret Purpose
communicate to how they Data (RQs)

enhance their standard of Collect

living; from how they solve Data

problems to how they adapt

and discover new
possibilities. Indeed, the only thing that has been demonstrated to be
constant is change.
As we progress in various sectors of our lives, we can see how society has
taken chances with various breakthroughs in technology, science,
politics, education, sports, and other areas.
Because of research, this advancement was made feasible. As a result,
study helps humanity progress. You will learn the fundamental
technical terms used in research in this course.

Research is an organized and systematic gathering of data to answer a

question, prove a certain point, establish a fact, or reach a new
conclusion. It is systematic because it follows a certain procedure or
process to get the most accurate results.

The Research Process

Research is a complex, systematic and creative process done by scholars
to increase or contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the world.
There is no one correct way of doing research; researchers are free to
become creative in the kinds of methods, strategies and techniques that
they would want to use, provided that these methods, techniques and
strategies are guided by certain scientific principles or theories.
Despite this, there are certain stages that one has to undergo in order to
ensure that the research being conducted is accomplished in a
systematic manner. Look at the diagram below. This diagram
summarizes the entire research process.

As you might have noticed, the research process is cyclical. This means
that research is a continuous, never ending process. It seeks to always
update the knowledge on a particular topic or phenomenon. For a
newbie researcher, we can start the research process with the first stage.

FIRST STAGE: Identify the research problem

In this stage, a researcher should be able to distinguish the topic, event,
phenomenon or concept that he or she will be working on. It is
recommended for a research to choose a problem that he or she is
personally interested or passionate about since you will be working on
this for a long time. It is also suggested that the topic is within your area
of expertise.

Example:
For our mini-research, we will be working on the broad topic of "The
New Normal in Education".

SECOND STAGE: Review the literature

Researchers are required to read, analyze and review "literature" on the
topic that they have chosen so that they would have enough knowledge
to make decisions as to how they will be conducting their own research.
In this case, "literature" refers to published research and non-research
materials on a given topic. This can range from newspaper articles to
textbooks to research articles and a lot more. It is also in this stage when
researchers have to write a section in their research paper called the
literature review or review of related literature (RRL).
For instance...
For your task, you might want to read articles on the new normal in
education. As you read, try to also picture how other researchers
investigated this topic. Through your readings, try to answer the
questions: What research has been conducted on this topic? What
knowledge has already been found? Where do I come in as a researcher?

THIRD STAGE: Specify a research purpose

Generally, the purpose of research is to solve problems and answer
questions. Thus, in this stage, researchers are supposed to formulate
questions that they would seek to answer in the research. These are
called research questions.
A common misconception among student researchers is: research
questions = questions to ask their respondents.
No! Research questions are the questions you ask yourself as the
researcher. These are what you answer through the research. To help
you answer this, you have to gather or collect data from your
participants through methods (which will be discussed in the next stage).
Example:
From the broad topic of The New Normal in Education, we can now
decide on the specific question to answer and conduct a research about.
For instance, we can have something like: What decision making
strategies do school administrators utilize when designing policies and
procedures for the school in the new normal?

FOURTH STAGE: Collect data

In this stage, the researcher needs to design data collection methods that
will allow them to gather evidences from their research subjects to help
them answer the research questions. Below is a list of common methods
used by researchers:
• surveys / questionnaires
• observation
• interview
• focus group discussions
You can also use a combination of these data collection methods
depending on the scope and depth of data that you would want to collect.
Example:
In the case of our research question "What decision making strategies do
school administrators utilize when
designing policies and procedures for the school in the new normal?" ,
there are several options that we can do:
Observation: As researchers, we can attend administrative meetings as
observers, who records and takes notes of what has transpired on the
meetings.
Interview: We can also set one on one interviews with school
administrators to ask them questions about how decisions are made for
the school. (What is a day in the work like? What are the problems you
faced during the new normal? What measures did you do to solve these
problems? etc.)
FIFTH STAGE: Analyze and interpret data
After you have collected all the data you need from your subjects, you
can now examine the data for the purpose of answering your research
questions. These are the data I gathered from my participants... but what
do they mean?
In this stage, you try to make sense of what of the responses you gathered
from your subjects by arriving at a conclusion.
For instance...
Assuming that in stage 5, you chose interview as your data collection
method. After you have conducted the interview, you were able to
collect responses to your interview questions: What is a day in the work
like? What are the problems you faced during the new normal? What
measures did you do to solve these problems?
What you do now is to examine the responses you gathered. Analyze and
look for concepts, key points and that directly and indirectly answer
your research questions. At this point, if you interviewed several
participants, you can look for difference and similarities between their
answers. You can also categorize their answers into classifications or
types.

SIXTH STAGE: Report and evaluate your research

In this stage, researchers either write and publish their study in research
journals or present them in research conferences. Aside from this, they
also examine how their study can be improved or extended to cover
other aspects of their topic.

On the other hand, there are important things a researcher must

consider in writing a report. In writing research papers and other
academic papers, it is important that writers know how to clearly define
the terms, topics or words that they are using. This is to avoid
misinformation and misinterpretation among the readers. In this
module, you get to learn various ways in writing definitions which you
can utilize in a mini-research paper that you will be required to write
later and in the near future.