PRACTICAL RESEARCH

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH

Research – can be defined as the systematic and objective analysis and recording
of observations that may lead to the development of generalizations, principles or
theories, resulting in prediction and possibly ultimate control of events.
• Research involves the quest for answers to unsolved problems.
• Research emphasizes the development of generalizations, principles or theories
that will be helpful in predicting future occurrences.
• Research is based on observable experience or empirical evidence.
 UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH
Research (Leedy and Ormrod 2001) – systematic process of collecting and analyzing information (data) in
order to increase our understanding of the phenomenon about which we are concerned or interested. It
undergoes the following activities:
• Research originates with a question or problem.
• Research requires a clear articulation of goal.
• Research follows a specific plan of procedure.
• Research usually divides the principal problem into more manageable subproblems.
• Research is guided by the specific research problem, question or hypothesis.
• Research requires the collection and interpretation of data in an attempt to answer the problem that
initiated the research.
• Research is, by its nature, cyclical or more exactly helical.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative research is concerned with developing explanations of social
phenomena. That is to say, it aims to help us to understand the social world in
which we live and why things are the way they are. It is concerned with the social
aspects of our world and seeks to answer questions about:
• Why people behave the way they do
• How opinions and attitudes are formed
• How people are affected by the events that go on around them
• How and why cultures and practices have developed in the way they have
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• The purpose of qualitative research is to find out what is in a respondent’s mind.
It is done in order to access and get a rough idea about the person’s perspective.
This method is not only about “what” people think but also “why” they think so,

• Qualitative data are collected to know more about things that cannot be directly
observed and measured.
• Feelings, thoughts, intentions, and behavior that took place in the past are a few
examples of those feelings that can be obtained only through qualitative data
collection methods.
 QUALITATIVE VS QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Attributes Qualitative Research
Analytical objectives Focuses on to describe individual
experiences and beliefs;
analysis aimed at revealing meaning
Types of questions Open ended questions
asked
Data collection Use semi-structured methods such as
instrument in-depth interview; collection of
“narratives,” either already existing
(e.g., diaries), or new (e.g.,
interviews)
Design non-experimental
Setting field
Data Type descriptive (e.g., interview
protocols, written records, videos)
Generalization focus on testing hypotheses
Quantitative Research
Focuses on describing the
characteristics of a population;
descriptive and analytic statistics
Closed ended questions
Use highly structured methods such
as structured observation using
questionnaires and surveys;
instruments (e.g., electronic or
mechanical devices, tests,
questionnaires)
 experimental
 laboratory
numerical (ratio, interval, ordinal)
focus on generating hypotheses
 THE DEFINITIVE NATURE AND EMERGENCE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• The core property of qualitative research is that it examines the way people make sense out of their own
concrete real-life experiences in their own minds and in their own words.
• Qualitative research thus contrasts with quantitative research, which focuses on the way the world is understood
in researchers’ minds, usually using abstract scientific concepts and terminology.
• Quantitative research also examines differences in amount or level of the variables being studied and cause and
effect relationships among them, whereas qualitative research is concerned with the patterns and forms of such
variables.
• Qualitative methods are no longer regarded as mainly useful because they make it possible to deal with data that
(regrettably) are unsuitable for statistical analysis, but are regarded by many researchers nowadays as offering a
legitimate method for gaining information about and understanding how human beings function.
• Although qualitative research was out of fashion for a long time, modern interest in it represents the re-
emergence of an approach that has as long a history in social science as quantitative methods. Despite the
existence of “paradigm wars,” the two approaches are not rivals but are complementary.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative research studies typically serve one or more of the following purposes:
• Description – They can reveal the nature of certain situations, settings, processes,
relationships, systems or people.
• Interpretation – They enable a researcher to (a) gain insights about the nature of a
particular phenomenon, (b) develop new concepts or theoretical perspectives about
the phenomenon, and (c) discover the problems that exsit within the phenomenon
• Verification – They allow a researcher to test the validity of certain assumptions,
claims, theories, or generalizations within real-world contexts.
• Evaluation – They provide a means through which a researcher can judge the
effectiveness of particular policies, practices or innovations.
 THE ESSENCE OF THE QUALITATIVE APPROACH

• The qualitative approach can be understood by looking at three dimensions: Its ontology (i.e., the way in which reality is
understood), its epistemology (i.e., the kinds of question it regards as important), and its methodology (i.e., the procedures it
employs for answering the questions just mentioned).
• Ontology: The qualitative approach involves the view that

(a) each person actively “constructs” an individual “reality” out of his or her own particular experiences,
(b) this reality differs from person to person, and
(c) it is shaped by interactions with other people, i.e., reality is ‘socially constructed.” This means that people are not “subjects”
who passively receive whatever an objective external reality offers them, but that they are “actors” who “construct” the world
they live in.
• Epistemology: Qualitative procedures emphasize questions such as:

(a) How do people make sense of the external world?

(b) How do they understand how they themselves and others fit into this world?
(c) How do they decide how to act in terms of their own reality? How do they communicate their understandings to other
people?
 THE ESSENCE OF THE QUALITATIVE APPROACH
• Research methodology: The social sciences are empirical disciplines in which advances in knowledge are achieved via observation of people’s
behaviour. In this they differ from non-empirical disciplines that advance understanding either by following the rules of an internally coherent,
closed system of axioms that are taken as indisputable truths (e.g., Marxism, theology) or by the application of logic (e.g., mathematics,
philosophy). This use of observation of behaviour as the source of new knowledge is shared by both qualitative and quantitative research
methods. However, the qualitative approach differs from the quantitative in the following way: It involves

• observing one or more people in a real life setting and recording what happens or actively eliciting descriptions of real life from people, for
instance by means of interviews. These descriptions are almost always verbal, very frequently spoken, and are often referred to as “narratives”;

• recording what the people say or write, or how they behave. This often involves a written text, even when the original record consisted of audio
or video tapes;

• interpreting what the people said. From the point of view of the present book, the purpose of this interpretation is to use the concepts of a
particular discipline such as sociology or psychology to understand what was observed and recorded in the steps already outlined. The results of
this step constitute the findings of the research;

• generalizing these interpretations by relating them to other people or settings, or to existing theory (or both). This step yields the conclusions of
the study. The conclusions may consist of a general description of a setting or a group of people such as a description of interpersonal relations
in, let us say, a hospital (more typical of sociology or anthropology than of psychology or education), or of the extension and clarification of
existing theory regarding some phenomenon such as the development of intelligence (more typical of psychology and education).
 ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE:

• A simple example of a quantitative research question would be “Is there a difference between the level of
intelligence of men and women?”
• For purposes of research design this is almost always expressed in the form of a null hypothesis (“There is NO
difference”).
• To answer this question it would be necessary to measure how much intelligence samples of men and women
possessed, compare the two amounts with the help of appropriate analytic statistics in order to decide whether
or not the null hypothesis could be rejected, and then draw general conclusions.
• This would involve (a) knowing in advance what “intelligence” is; (b) possessing instruments for measuring it;
(c) being able to express its amount in numerical form; (d) already having a hypotheses about its distribution
across gender groups; (e) testing this hypothesis via statistical procedures (i.e., determining objectively whether
any numerical differences revealed by the data were statistically significant); (f) generalizing the findings with
the present samples to other groups of men and women apart from the ones involved in the study.
 ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE:

• By contrast, a simple qualitative approach might ask, “Is there a difference in the nature of the intelligence of
men and women?”
• The two groups might be equal in terms of amount of intelligence (quantitative approach), but might
nonetheless display different patterns of intelligence, women for instance showing verbal, social, intuitively
oriented ability, men mechanical, logical, mathematical pattern.
• The researcher might conclude that there is no quantitative difference but a substantial qualitative one – no
difference in the amount of intelligence but differences in the kind.
• A more full-blooded qualitative approach would go further in rejecting the “How much?” approach. The
researcher might ask, “How do men and women themselves experience their own interactions with situations
requiring what is commonly called ‘intelligence’?” “What explanations do they use to explain what happens
when they find themselves in such situations?” These questions define a more phenomenological approach.
 FORMULATION OF RESEARCH CONCEPT

• The class will be divided into 6 groups with 5 members each.

• Assign a leader in each group.
• Each member is required to formulate his/her own research concept.
• Research at least 5 journal articles related to your chosen research
concept.