Key Concepts in research

1. D R C H R I S T I N E C O O M B E
H C T D U B A I , M E N ’ S C A M P U S
Research Methods

2. What is research?
 A systematic investigation or inquiry that is
concerned with
 Producing knowledge
 Improving conditions
 Eliminating difficulties
 Seeking answers (Cohen & Manion, 1994)
 Basic objective is to know something that was not
known before

3. Three key words
 Knowledge
 In any field knowledge is referred to as what we already know
and accept
 Supported by evidence
 Systematic
 Use of organized processes
 Enquiry
 The process of knowledge getting or making

4. Who can do research?
 Research can be carried out by a number of
individuals:
 School-age children (e.g. projects)
 Undergraduate students (e.g., projects)
 Graduate students (e.g. MA thesis, doctoral dissertations)
 Teachers (e.g., reflective action research)
 University professors (e.g. writing papers and books for
publication)
 Research specialists (e.g., doing funded research projects)

5. Types of research
 Secondary
 Based on sources that are one step removed from the original
information
 Most researchers are most familiar with this kind
 Primary
 Research from the primary or original source

6. Choosing a research methodology
 Researchers must know the difference between
 Quantitative
 Qualitative
 Mixed methods

7. Qualitative research methodology
 Explores attitudes, behavior and experiences
 Mostly collects ‘word’ data
 Common data collection methods include:
 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Interview transcripts
 Field notes
 Videotapes
 Observations
 Personal documents
 Official documents
 The goal is to get in-depth (deep) opinions from participants
 Researchers using qualitative research
 need fewer participants
 spend more time with their participants

8. More on qualitative research
 Qualitative research is descriptive.
 Qualitative research is concerned with process
more than with outcomes or products.
 Asks broad questions and collects word data from
participants
 Researcher looks for themes
 Data analysis
 No hypotheses are generated/proven or disproven
 Theory develops from the collected data
 This bottom up approach is called grounded theory

9. Quantitative research methodology
 “Systematic investigation into a social phenomena via
statistical, mathematical or computational techniques”
(Given, 2008)
 This type of research generates statistics
 Usually starts with the generation of a hypothesis (tentative
answer to a question generally based upon prior research)
 Common methods include:
 Questionnaires/surveys
 Structured interviews
 Experiments
 Quantitative research
 reaches more people
 contact with subjects is a lot quicker than with qualitative research

10. More on quantitative research
 Research asks a specific question and collects
numerical data from people to answer that question
 Researcher then uses statistics to answer the
question
 Data is in numerical form
 This type of research is widely used in social sciences
(psychology, economics, sociology, marketing, IT,
etc)

11. Choosing a methodology
 In the past, researchers had a preference for
quantitative research as they felt it was more
rigorous
 However, nowadays both methodologies are
recognized as equal
 They are different
 They each have their strengths and weaknesses

12. Examples of qualitative research methodologies
 Action research
 Common in educational settings
 Ts recognize a problem in their classrooms and then set out to
solve it with research
 Ethnography
 Has its roots in anthropology
 Emphasis is on describing and interpreting cultural behavior
 Rs often live with the people under study for long periods of
time
 Rs participate in group activities and observe behavior, take
notes, conduct interviews, reflect and write reports

13. Summary
 Research methodology:
 The philosophy or general principle which guides the research
 Research methods:
 Tools you use to gather your data
 Qualitative research:
 Explores attitudes, behavior and experiences
 Examples include action research and ethnography
 Quantitative research:
 Generates statistics
 Based on numerical data
 Neither is better, they are both different

14. The recommended ideal for researchers
 Researchers can combine both qualitative and
quantitative research methodologies
 When this occurs it is called:
 Mixed methods research
 Triangulation