Research Methodology Course - Introduction

1. ALL ABOUT RESEARCH –
INTRODUCTION

2. Issues...
 Why are we interested in research?
 What is research?
 Why must we understand research?
 Key concepts and issues

3. Why are we interested in research?
 Desire to get a research degree along with its
consequential benefits;
 Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved
problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates
research;
 Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative
work;
 Desire to be of service to society;
 Desire to get respectability.

4. Why are we interested in research?
 Desire to support and enrich ideas;
 Desire to increase credibility;
 Desire to become familiar with gaps in the literature
(lacking, inconclusive, contradictory and limited
evidence;)
And most importantly;
 Desire to create knowledge.

5. Why are we interested in research?

6. Why are we interested in research?

10. Why is research a valued source of knowledge?
 Common ways of knowing…
 personal experience/intuition
 experts/traditions/authority
 scientific method

11. What is Science, the Scientific Method, and
Research?
 Science…
 a body of established knowledge
 the observation, identification, investigation, and
theoretical explanation of natural phenomenon
usually the ultimate goal is theory
generation and verification

12. What is Science, the Scientific Method, and
Research?
 Theory…
 a set of inter-related constructs and propositions that
specify relations among variables to explain and
predict phenomena
 should be simple, consistent with observed
relationships, tentative and verifiable

13. What is Science, the Scientific Method, and
Research?
 Scientific Method…
 involves the principles and processes regarded as
characteristic of or necessary for scientific
investigation
 process or approach to generating valid and
trustworthy knowledge

14.  What are the fine line difference
between discovery, invention and
research?

15. Research is not
Accidental discovery :
1. Accidental discovery may occur in structured
research process
2. Usually takes the form of a phenomenon not
previously noticed
3. May lead to a structured research process to
verify or understand the observation
15

16. Research is not … cont.
Data Collection
• an intermediate step to gain reliable knowledge
• collecting reliable data is part of the research
process
16

17. Research is not … cont.
Searching out published research results in libraries
(or the internet)
• This is an important early step of research
• The research process always includes synthesis and
analysis
• But, just reviewing of literature is not research
17

18. What is Research?
Search “Re – Search” Knowledge
Scientific & Systematic search for information pertaining
to topic of interest.
Careful investigation or inquiry specially search of new
facts in any branch of knowledge.

19. Research is…
1. Searching for explanation of events, phenomena, relationships
and causes
– What, how and why things occur
– Are there interactions?
2. A process
– Planned and managed – to make the information generated
credible
– The process is creative
– It is circular – always leads to more questions
19

20. Research is….
 The systematic investigation into and study of materials,
sources, etc., in order to establish facts and reach new
conclusions.
 An endeavour to discover new or collate old facts etc.,
by the scientific study of a subject or by a course of
critical investigation.

21. Research is….
 an activity that contributes to the understanding of a
phenomenon [Kuhn, 1962; Lakatos, 1978]
 phenomenon: a set of behaviors of some entity(ies) that is
found interesting by a research community.
 understanding: knowledge that allows prediction of the
behavior of some aspect of the phenomenon.
 activities considered appropriate to the production of
understanding (knowledge) are the research methods and
techniques of a research community.

22. Research is….
“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and
to think what nobody has thought.”
Albert Szent-Gyorgy

23. Notice that:
“… truth was not used in the definition of research”
“This concept of truth is outside of the productive
realm of thinking by researchers”
23

24. Why must we understand research?
 help make informed decisions
 need to produce research in career
 evaluating research
 assist in classes

25. Characteristics of Research
 objective
 precise
 verifiable
 parsimonious
 empirical
 logical
 probabilistic

26. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

28. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

29. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

30. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

31. Research Process
Exploring Google Scholar and
other IT tools for Literature
Review
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

32. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN
Effective use of Library
Resources

33. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

34. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

35. Research Process
SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH
DESIGN

36. We shall take a closer look at these
steps and the terminology you
will need to understand before
we start the training programme.

37. Problem/Question
Observation/Research
Formulate a Hypothesis
Experiment
Collect and Analyze Results
Conclusion
Communicate the Results

38. Steps of the Scientific Method
1. Problem/Question: Develop a question or
problem that can be solved through
experimentation.

39. Steps of the Scientific Method
2.Observation/Research: Make
observations and research your topic of
interest.

40. Do you remember the next step?

41. Steps of the Scientific Method
3. Formulate a Hypothesis: Predict a
possible answer to the problem or
question.
Example: If soil temperatures rise, then
plant growth will increase.

42. Steps of the Scientific Method
4. Experiment: Develop and follow a
procedure.
Include a detailed materials list.
The outcome must be measurable
(quantifiable).

43. Steps of the Scientific Method
5. Collect and Analyze Results: Modify the
procedure if needed.
Confirm the results by retesting.
Include tables, graphs, and photographs.

44. Steps of the Scientific Method
6. Conclusion: Include a statement that
accepts or rejects the hypothesis.
Make recommendations for further study
and possible improvements to the
procedure.

45. Steps of the Scientific Method
7. Communicate the Results: Be prepared
to present the project to an audience.
Expect questions from the audience.

46. Think you can name all seven steps?
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47. Let’s put our knowledge of the Scientific
Method to a realistic example that
includes some of the terms you’ll be
needing to use and understand.

48. Problem/Question
John watches his
grandmother bake
bread. He ask his
grandmother what
makes the bread rise.
She explains that yeast
releases a gas as it
feeds on sugar.

53. Problem/Question
John wonders if the
amount of sugar used
in the recipe will affect
the size of the bread
loaf?

54. Caution!
Be careful how you use effect and
affect.
Effect is usually a noun and affect, a
verb.
“ The effect of sugar amounts on the
rising of bread.”
“How does sugar affect the rising of
bread?”

55. Observation/Research
John researches the
areas of baking and
fermentation and tries
to come up with a way
to test his question.
He keeps all of his
information on this
topic in a journal.

56. John talks with his teacher and
she gives him a
Experimental Design
Diagram to help him set up
his investigation.

58. Formulate a Hypothesis
After talking with his teacher and
conducting further research, he
comes up with a hypothesis.
“If more sugar is added, then the
bread will rise higher.”

59. Hypothesis
The hypothesis is an educated
guess about the relationship
between the independent and
dependent variables.
Note: These variables will be
defined in the next few slides.

60. Do you know the difference between the
independent and dependent variables?

61. Independent Variable
The independent, or manipulated
variable, is a factor that’s intentionally
varied by the experimenter.
John is going to use 25g., 50g., 100g.,
250g., 500g. of sugar in his experiment.

62. Dependent Variable
The dependent, or responding variable, is
the factor that may change as a result of
changes made in the independent
variable.
In this case, it would be the size of the loaf
of bread.

63. Experiment
His teacher helps him
come up with a
procedure and list of
needed materials.
She discusses with
John how to
determine the control
group.

64. Control Group
In a scientific experiment, the control is
the group that serves as the standard of
comparison.
The control group may be a “no
treatment" or an “experimenter
selected” group.

65. Control Group
The control group is exposed to the same
conditions as the experimental group,
except for the variable being tested.
All experiments should have a control
group.

66. Control Group
Because his grandmother always used
50g. of sugar in her recipe, John is going
to use that amount in his control group.

67. Constants
John’s teacher reminds
him to keep all other
factors the same so
that any observed
changes in the bread
can be attributed to
the variation in the
amount of sugar.

68. Constants
The constants in an
experiment are all the
factors that the
experimenter attempts
to keep the same.

69. Can you think of some constants
for this experiment?

70. Constants
They might include:
Other ingredients to the bread recipe, oven
used, rise time, brand of ingredients,
cooking time, type of pan used, air
temperature and humidity where the bread
was rising, oven temperature, age of the
yeast…

71. Experiment
John writes out his procedure for his
experiment along with a materials
list in his journal. He has both of
these checked by his teacher where
she checks for any safety concerns.

72. Trials
Trials refer to replicate groups that
are exposed to the same
conditions in an experiment.
John is going to test each sugar
variable 3 times.

73. Collect and Analyze Results
John comes up with a table he can
use to record his data.
John gets all his materials together
and carries out his experiment.

74. Size of Baked Bread (LxWxH) cm3
Amt. of
Sugar (g.)
Size of Bread Loaf (cm3)
Trials
1 2 3 Average
Size (cm3)
25 768 744 761 758
50 1296 1188 1296 1260
Control group
100 1188 1080 1080 1116
250 672 576 588 612
500 432 504 360 432

75. Collect and Analyze Results
John examines his data and notices
that his control worked the best in
this experiment, but not significantly
better than 100g. of sugar.

76. Conclusion
John rejects his hypothesis, but
decides to re-test using sugar
amounts between 50g. and
100g.

77. Experiment
Once again, John
gathers his materials
and carries out his
experiment.
Here are the results.

78. Can you tell which group did the
best?

79. Size of Baked Bread (LxWxH) cm3
Amt. of
Sugar (g.)
Size of Bread Loaf (cm3)
Trials
1 2 3 Average
Size (cm3)
50 1296 1440 1296 1344
Control group
60 1404 1296 1440 1380
70 1638 1638 1560 1612
80 1404 1296 1296 1332
90 1080 1200 972 1084

80. Conclusion
John finds that 70g. of sugar
produces the largest loaf.
His hypothesis is accepted.

81. Communicate the Results
John tells his
grandmother about his
findings and prepares
to present his project.

82.  Every conclusion viewed through a scientific method
must be verifiable.
 Scientific laws are universally applicable and tested
wherever one wants to check their veracity.
 The scientific conclusions are predictable.
 Scientific methods are objectivity based
 Scientific methods employ a systematic approach.

83. Discuss in view of scientific methods as to how Newton
ascertained Laws of Gravity by observing apple falling
from tree

84. What is the difference between
 Research Methods
 Research Methodology
Please Briefly differentiate!