Research

1. Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
College of Education
Main Campus, Fuentes Drive, Roxas City
Tel. Nos. (036) 6214 578 local 118
ED 311: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

2. An activity in which many people are asked a
question or a series of questions in order to
gather information about what most people do
or think about something.
Researchers are often interested in the
opinions of a large group of people about a
particular topic or issue. They ask a number of
questions, all related to the issue, to find
answers.

3. Information is collected from group of people in order
to describe some aspects or characteristics (such as
abilities, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, and/or
knowledge) of the population of which that group is a
part.
The main way in which the information is collected is
through asking questions by the members of the group
constitute the data of the study.
Information is collected from a sample rather than
from every member of the population.

4. The major purpose of surveys is to describe
the characteristics of a population. In essence, what
researchers want to find out is how the members of
a population distribute themselves on one or more
variables (for example, age, ethnicity, religious
preference, attitudes towards the school). As in other
type of research, of course, the population as a
whole is rarely studied. Instead, a carefully selected
sample of respondents is surveyed and a description
of the population is inferred from what is found out
about the sample.

5. There are two major types of
surveys—a cross-sectional survey
and a longitudinal survey.

6. CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEYS
Collects information from a sample that
has been drawn from predetermined
population. Furthermore, the information is
collected at just one point in time, although the
time it takes to collect all of the data may take
anywhere from a day to a few weeks or more.
When an entire population is surveyed, it is
called a census.

7. LONGITUDINAL SURVEYS
Information is collected at different
points in time in order to study changes
over time. Three longitudinal designs
are commonly employed in survey
research: trend studies, cohort studies,
and panel studies.

8. Trend study- different samples from a population
whose members may change are surveyed at different
points in time.
Cohort study- samples a particular population whose
members do not change over the course of the study.
Panel study- the researcher surveys the same sample
of individuals at different times during the course of
survey. Because the researcher is studying the same
individuals, she can note changes in their
characteristics or behavior and explore the reasons
for these changes.

9. It is uncommon for researcher to
examine the relationship of relationship
of responses to one question in a survey
to another, or of a score based on one set
of survey questions to a score based on
another set.

10. Suppose a researcher is interested in studying the
relationship between attitude school of high school
students and their outside-of- school interests. A
questionnaire containing items dealing with these two
variables could be prepared and administered to a
sample of high school students, and then relationships
could be determined by calculating correlation
coefficients or by preparing contingency tables. The
researcher may find that students who have a positive
attitude toward school also have a lot of outside
interests, while those who have a negative attitude
toward school have few outside interests.

12. DEFINING THE PROBLEM
The problem to be investigated by
means by a survey should be sufficiently
interested and important enough to
motivate individual to response. Trivial
questions usually get what they deserve-
they’re tossed into the nearest
wastebasket.

13. Researcher need to define clearly
their objectives in conducting a survey.
Each question should relate to one or
more of the survey’s objectives. One
strategy in defining survey questions is
to use a hierarchical approach,
beginning with the broadest, most
general questions and ending with the
most specific.

14. IDENTIFYING THE TARGET POPULATION
Almost everything can be describe by means
of survey. That which is studied survey is called
the unit of analysis. Although typically people, unit
of unit, can also be objects, clubs, companies,
classrooms, schools, government agencies, and
other.
Survey data are collected from a number of
individual unit of analysis to describe those units;
this description are then summarized to describe
the population that unit of analysis represent.

15. CHOOSING THE MOOD OF DATA
COLLECTION
There are four basic way to
collect data in survey: by
administering the survey instrument
“live” to group; by mail; by telephone;
or though face-to-face interviews.

16. The subject to be surveyed should be
selected (randomly if possible) from the population
of interest. Researcher must insure, however, that
the subject they intend to question to possess the
desired information that they will be willing to
answer this questions. Individual who possess the
necessary information but who are not interested
in the topic of survey (or who do not see it as
important) are unlikely to respond.

17. Accordingly, it is often a good idea for
researchers to conduct a preliminary
inquiry among potential respondent to
access their receptivity. Frequently, in
school-based surveys, a higher response
rate can be obtained if a questionnaire is
sent to person authority to administer to
the potential respondents rather than
sending it to the respondents themselves.

18. The most common type of instrument used in
survey in research are the questionnaire and the
interview schedule they are virtually identical, except
that the questionnaire is usually self-administered by
the respondent, while the interview schedule is
administered verbally by the researcher (or trained
assistant). In the case of mailed or self-administered
questionnaire, the appearance of the questionnaire is
very important to the overall success of the study it
should be attracted and not too long, and the question
should be easy to answer as possible.

19. A cover letter explaining the purpose of the
questionnaire. Ideally, the cover of the also motivate the
member the sample to respond.
The cover should be brief and address specifically
to the individual being ask to respond. It should be
explain the purpose of the survey, emphasize the
importance of the topic of the research, and (it is hoped)
engage the respondent’s cooperation. As possible it
indicates the researcher willingness to share the result
of the study once it is completed. Confidentiality and
anonymity of the respondent should be assure.

20. Both telephones and face-to-face interviews
need to be trained beforehand. Many suggestions
have been in this regard, and we have space a
mention only a few of them here. Telephone
interviewers need to be shown how to engage
their interviewees so that they do not hung up on
them before the interview has even begun. They
need to know how to explain quickly the purpose
of their call and why it is important to obtain
information from the respondent.

21. They need to learn how to asked question in the
way that encourages the interviewees to
response honestly.
Face-to-face interview need all the above and
more. They need to learn how to establish
rapport with their interviewees and to put them
to ease, if the respondent seems to be resistant
to the particular line of questioning, the
interviewer need to know how to move on to the
next set of questions and return to the previous
question later.

22. In almost all surveys, some members of
the sample will not respond. This refuse to non-
response. It may be due to a number of reasons
(lack of interest in the topic surveyed,
forgetfulness, unwillingness to be surveyed,
and so on), but it is a major problem that has
been increasing in recent years as more and
more people seem (for whatever reason) to be
unwilling to not participate in the survey.

23. TOTAL NON RESPONSE
Kalton points out that total nonresponse
can occur interview survey for any of the
following reasons: intended respondents can
refuse to be interviewed, not be at home when
the interview calls, be not able to take part in
the interview for various reasons (such as
illness, deafness, inability to speak the
language), or sometimes cannot be even
located. Any of these, refusal and not at home
are the most common.

24. A variety of techniques are employed by
survey researchers to reduce nonresponse. In
interview surveys, the interviewer are carefully
trained to be courteous, to ask question pleasantly
and sensitively, to dress conservatively, or to
return to conduct an interview at a more
appropriate time if he situation warrants.
Assurance of anonymity and confidentiality are
made (this is done in mailed survey as well)
question are usually organized to start with fairly
simple and nonthreatening.

25. Non response is a serious problem in many
surveys. Some observer have stated that response
rate for the uncomplicated face-to-face surveys by
nongovernment survey organization are about 70 to
75 percent. Refusal makeup majority to respondent
in face-to-face interviews, with not-at-homes
constituting most of the remainder. Telephone
survey generally have somewhat lower response
rate that face-to-face surveys (respondent simply
hang up). Response rate in mail are quite varied,
ranging from as low as 10 percent to as high as 90
percent.

26. ITEM NONRESPONSE
Partial gap in the information provided by
respondent can also occur for the variety of
reasons: the respondent may not know the
answer to the particular question; he or she
may find certain question embarrassing or
perhaps irrelevant; the respondent maybe
press for time and the interviewer may decide
skip over part of the questions; the interviewer
may fail to record the answer.

27. Sometime during the data analysis phase of
survey, the answer to certain question are
thrown out because they inconsistent with
other answer. Some answer may be unclear
or illegible.

28. Item nonresponse is rarely as high as total
nonresponse. Generally it varies according to the
nature of the question asked and the mode of data
collection. Very simple demographic question
usually have almost no response. Kalton estimate
that item dealing with income and expenditure
may experience item nonresponse rate of 10
percent or more, while extremely sensitive or
difficult questions may produce nonresponse rate
that are much higher.

30. Several threats to the validity of the
instrumentation process in surveys can cause
individuals to respond differently than they might
otherwise. Suppose, for example, that a group of
individuals is brought together to be interviewed
all in one place and an extraneous event occurs
during the interview process. The event might
upset or otherwise affect various individual,
causing them to respond to the interview
questions differently than they would have if the
event had not occurred.

31. Whenever researchers do not take care in
preparing their questionnaires- if questions
are leading or incentive, for example - it
may cause individuals to respond
differently. If the conditions under which
individuals are questioned in interview
studies are somewhat unusual, they may
react in certain ways unrelated to the
nature of the questions themselves.

32. Finally, the characteristics of a data
collector can affect how individuals
respond, causing them to react in part to
the data collector rather than to the
questions. There is also possibility of an
unconscious bias on the part of the data
collector, as when he or she asks leading
questions of some individuals but not
others.

34. FOUR MAIN THREATS TO INTERNAL VALIDITY
IN SURVEY RESEARCH
MORTALITY THREAT - arises in
longitudinal studies unless all of the
data on lost subjects are deleted, in
which case the problem becomes one
of appropriate generalization.
LOCATION THREAT - can occur if the
collection of data is carried out in
places that, any affect responses.

35. INSTRUMENT DECAY - can occur in
interview surveys if the interviewers
get tired or at rushed.
INSTRUMENTATION - if instrument
decay occurs, this will affect the
instrument themselves, not only may
reduce the validity of the information
obtained but also may introduce a
systematic bias.