1. The Nature of Research-fixed.pptx

1. THE NATURE OF
RESEARCH
&
RESEARCH PARADIGMS

2. The Nature of
Research

3. What is research?
• Oxford Dictionaries defines research as “the systematic
investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions”
(www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/r
esearch?searchDictCode=all, retrieved January 17, 2015).
• A systematic approach to finding answers to questions (Hatch
and Farhady, 1982: 1).
• Key words: questions, systematic approach, answers.
• A process of steps used to collect and analyze information to
increase our understanding of a topic or issue (Cresswell,
2012:3).
• Three steps: posing a question, collecting data to answer the
question, and presenting an answer to the question

4. The importance of research
Research is important for three reasons:
• Research adds to our knowledge
• Research improves practice
• Research informs policy debates

5. • Adding to knowledge means that educators undertake
research to contribute to existing information about
issues.
• A research report might provide a study that has not been
conducted and thereby fill a void in existing knowledge.
• It can also provide additional results to confirm or
disconfirm results of prior studies.
• It can help add to the literature about practices that work
or advance better practices that educators might try in
their educational setting.
• It can provide information about people and places that
have not been previously studied.

6. • Research improves practice. Armed with research results,
teachers and other educators become more effective
professionals. This effectiveness translates into better learning
for students.
• Research offers practicing educators new ideas. From reading
research studies, educators can learn about new practices that
have been tried in other settings or situations.
• Research also helps practitioners evaluate approaches that
they hope will work with individuals in educational settings.
This process involves sifting through research to determine
which results will be most useful.
• At a broader level, research helps the practicing educator build
connections with other educators who are trying out similar
ideas in different locations.

7. • Research informs policy debates. Research also provides
information to policy makers when they research and
debate educational topics.
• Policy makers may range from federal government
employees and state workers to local school board
members and administrators, and they discuss and take
positions on educational issues important to
constituencies.

8. Research Paradigms

9. What is paradigm?
• Paradigm = philosophical worldview: “a basic set of beliefs that
guide action” (Guba, 1990, p. 17)

10. Research Paradigms
• Postpositivist
• Constructivist
• Transformative
• Pragmatic

11. Postpositivist
• Postpositivists hold a deterministic philosophy in which
causes (probably) determine effects or outcomes.
Key assumptions (Phillips and Burbules, 2000):
• Knowledge is conjectural (and antifoundational)—absolute
truth can never be found.
• Research is the process of making claims and then refining or
abandoning some of them for other claims more strongly
warranted.
• Data, evidence, and rational considerations shape knowledge.
• Research seeks to develop relevant, true statements, ones that
can serve to explain the situation of concern or that describe
the causal relationships of interest.
• Being objective is an essential aspect of competent inquiry;
researchers must examine methods and conclusions for bias.

12. Constructivist
• Social constructivists believe that individuals seek
understanding of the world in which they live and work.
• Individuals develop subjective meanings of their
experiences— meanings directed toward certain objects
or things.
• These meanings are varied and multiple, leading the
researcher to look for the complexity of views rather than
narrowing meanings into a few categories or ideas.
• The goal of the research is to rely as much as possible on
the participants’ views of the situation being studied.

13. Transformative
• A transformative worldview holds that research inquiry needs
to be intertwined with politics and a political change agenda to
confront social oppression at whatever levels it occurs (Mertens,
2010).
Key features of the transformative paradigm:
• It places central importance on the study of lives and
experiences of diverse groups that have traditionally been
marginalized
• In studying these diverse groups, the research focuses on
inequities based on gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual
orientation, and socioeconomic class that result in asymmetric
power relationships.
• The research in the transformative worldview links political and
social action to these inequities
• Transformative research uses a program theory of beliefs about
how a program works and why the problems of oppression,
domination, and power relationships exist.

14. Pragmatist
• Pragmatism as a worldview arises out of actions,
situations, and consequences rather than antecedent
conditions (as in postpositivism).
• There is a concern with applications—what works—and
solutions to problems (Patton, 1990).
• Instead of focusing on methods, researchers emphasize
the research problem and use all approaches available to
understand the problem (see Rossman &Wilson, 1985).

15. Pragmatist
• Pragmatism is not committed to any one system of
philosophy and reality. This applies to mixed methods
research.
• Individual researchers have a freedom of choice. In this
way, researchers are free to choose the methods,
techniques, and procedures of research that best meet
their needs and purposes.
• Pragmatists do not see the world as an absolute unity.
Researchers look to many approaches for collecting and
analyzing data rather than subscribing to only one way
(e.g., quantitative or qualitative)

16. Research
Methodology,
Approach, and Design

17. Research Methodology, Approach,and Design
• Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the
research problem. ... In it we study the various steps that are
generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research
problem along with the logic behind them (Kothari, 2004: 8).
• Research approach is the philosophical assumptions the
researcher brings to the study. Three approaches:
Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Research
(Cresswell, 2014)
• Research design is the conceptual structure within which
research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for the
collection, measurement and analysis of data. As such the
design includes an outline of what the researcher will do from
writing the hypothesis and its operational implications to the
final analysis of data (Kothari, 2004: 31).

21. Research Designs

22. Quantitative Research Characteristics
In quantitative research the major characteristics are:
• Describing a research problem through a description of
trends or a need for an explanation of the relationship
among variables
• Providing a major role for the literature through
suggesting the research questions to be asked and
justifying the research problem and creating a need for
the direction (purpose statement and research questions
or hypotheses) of the study
• Creating purpose statements, research questions, and
hypotheses that are specific, narrow, measurable, and
observable

23. Quantitative Research Characteristics
• Collecting numeric data from a large number of people
using instruments with preset questions and responses
• Analyzing trends, comparing groups, or relating variables
using statistical analysis, and interpreting results by
comparing them with prior predictions and past research
• Writing the research report using standard, fixed structures
and evaluation criteria, and taking an objective, unbiased
approach

27. Qualitative Research Characteristics
In qualitative research, the major characteristics are:
• Exploring a problem and developing a detailed
understanding of a central phenomenon
• Having the literature review play a minor role but justify
the problem
• Stating the purpose and research questions in a general
and broad way so as to the participants’ experiences

28. Qualitative Research Characteristics
• Collecting data based on words from a small number of
individuals so that the participants’ views are obtained
• Analyzing the data for description and themes using text
analysis and interpreting the larger meaning of the
findings
• Writing the report using flexible, emerging structures and
evaluative criteria, and including the researchers’
subjective reflexivity and bias

34. Research Steps

35. Steps in the Process of Research
Identifying a
problem or an issue
Reviewing the
literature
Formulating
question(s)
Collecting data
Analyzing and
interpreting the data
Reporting key
findings

36. • Identifying a research problem consists of specifying an
issue to study, developing a justification for studying it,
and suggesting the importance of the study for selected
audiences that will read the report.
• Reviewing the literature means locating summaries,
books, journals, and indexed publications on a topic;
selectively choosing which literature to include in your
review; and then summarizing the literature in a written
report.
Steps in the Process of Research

37. • The purpose for research consists of identifying the
major intent or objective for a study and narrowing it into
specific research questions or hypotheses.
• Collecting data means identifying and selecting
individuals for a study, obtaining their permission to
study them, and gathering information by asking people
questions or observing their behaviors.
Steps in the Process of Research

38. • Analyzing and interpreting the data involves drawing
conclusions about it; representing it in tables, figures, and
pictures to summarize it; and explaining the conclusions
in words to provide answers to your research questions.
• Reporting research involves deciding on audiences,
structuring the report in a format acceptable to these
audiences, and then writing the report in a manner that is
sensitive to all readers.
Steps in the Process of Research

39. (Cresswell, 2012: 8)