Module 01 Introduction to Research

1. Research Methodology:
Complete Research
Project
By Saed A Mohamed
Module 01
Introduction to Research
(A Way of Thinking)

2. ?

3. What are
methods of
learning?
?

4. Methods of learning?
Practices
1.(Process)
Reading
1.(Unstructured
Concept)
Schooling
1.(Structured
Concept)
Research
Consumption
1.Concept
2.Methodology
3.Instrument
4.Findings
5.Implications
Research
Production
1.Concept
2.Methodology
3.Instrument
4.Findings
5.Implications
6.Practices

5. What is research
research?
Research is a scientific process
systematically conducted to
● solve problems
● revise current knowledge
● discovering new facts.
• Research problem arise from;
• Practical problems aimed
at contributing to change,
• Theoretical problems
aimed at expanding
knowledge.

6. Purposes
of Research
(Personal Perspectives)
● To find out what we don’t know.
● To confirm whether what we
know is correct.
● To know more than what we
already know.
● To affirm our conceptual belief.
● To satisfy our curiosity.

7. Purposes
of Research
(Educational Perspectives)
Research helps to:
● Generate knowledge
○ new knowledge/facts which
never been existing.
● Validate knowledge
○ helps to prove existing
knowledge or check on the
existing knowledge to prove or
disprove.
● Refine knowledge
○ Improve on the existing
knowledge.

8. What are research
barriers?
?

9. What are research
barriers?
Time Barrier
Language Barrier
Conceptual Barrier
Technical Barrier
Literature Barrier
Financial Barrier

10. Research
Products
?

11. Research Products
Student Paper
Professional
Paper
M&E Report Market Report

12. What are
components of
research/thesis
?

13. Components of
research/thesis
Preliminaries
1
Text (Chapters)
2
References
3
Appendices
4

14. PART I
PRELIMINARIES PAGES
I. TITLE PAGE
II. DECLARATION
III. APPROVAL
IV. DEDICATION
V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
VI. TABLE OF CONTENTS
VII. LIST OF TABLES
VIII. LIST OF FIGURES
IX. ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
X. ABSTRACT

15. PART II
CONTENTS
(CHAPTERS)
• CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
• CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS
• CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS

16. PART III
REFERENCES
If you have put someone else's ideas or information in
your own words, you still need to show where the
original idea or information came from.
There are two types of references in report writing/
paper writing.
In text citation:
• The first indicating within your thesis sources of
the information you have used to write your
thesis.
• This demonstrates support for your ideas,
arguments and views.
References List:
• The reference list shows the complete details of
everything you cited and appears in an
alphabetical list on a separate page, at the end
of your thesis.

17. PART III
REFERENCES
● Who – the author responsible for the content
○ Can be a person or an organization
● When – when the content was created
● What – the title of the content
● Where – where the content can be found
○ Books need: City/state of publication and
Publisher
○ Articles need: journal title, volume/issue
numbers, pages, and DOI
○ Websites need: URL

18. PART IV
APPENDICES
This contains the information that the researcher
does not deem necessary to include in the main body
of the report.
These may include-instruments used, statistical
tables, correspondence related to the study, maps etc.
• Appendix I: Informed Consent Letter
• Appendix II: Questionnaire or Interview Schedule
• Appendix III: Work plan and Timeframe
• Appendix IV: Budget
• Appendix V: Statistical Tables
• Appendix VI: Maps

19. Research = answering questions
systematically
Questions________________ Answer
Research methodology =
how you get from question to
answer
How to make
your research
project
successful ?

20. Research
Indicators
Research
Questions
Research
Methodologies
Research
Answer

21. Research
Indicators
To make your research project
successful
1. Questions must be interesting!
2. Methodologies must be appreciate
3. Answer must be compelling!
Methodologies must
be appreciate

22. This is a very interesting question!
After that readers looks
methodology
● Statistics
● Research design
● Sampling
● Validity
● Reliability
● Measurements
How to balance
your question
and your
answer?

23. Three aspects of an interesting
question
● Important: it helps to solve a
problem or advances our
understanding
● Novel: it hasn’t been answered
before
● Timely: it is the logical next step
What makes a
research
question
interesting?

24. Example 1: Depression
Importance: “It is well-known that depression can
severely impair people’s well-being and ability to
function.”
Literature review: “Research has shown that
depression is not caused the way originally assumed.
However, there is no validated treatment that fits
our current understanding of depression.”
Research question: “Can treatment X reduce
depression?
Aspects
interesting
question?

25. Example 2: Gender Equality
● Importance: “Gender equality is associated with
lower violence against women, general safety, and
economic prosperity.”
● Literature review: “Research has distinguished X1,
X2, and X3 as potential causes of gender inequality.
However, there are indications that X4 is also a
major cause of gender inequality.”
● Research question: “Does X4 cause gender
inequality?'
Aspects
interesting
question?

26. Example 3: Leadership
● Importance: “Effective leadership is one of the
main predictors of employee satisfaction and
business growth.”
● Literature review: “Research has distinguished
several leadership styles. Recently, leadership style
X has been proposed and some argued that it may
be particularly effective.”
● Research question: “Is leadership style X
associated with business growth?”
Aspects
interesting
question?

27. ● Whether a research question is
interesting or not depends on
how it is embedded in the
research literature.
● The problem that we face here
is that the research literature is
pretty big and probably way too
big for you to read through it in
its entirely.
How to formulate
an interesting
research question?

28. HOW TO DO
Step 1: Pick a research topic that YOU like
• e.g., leadership, depression, gender
equality,...
Step 2: Narrow it down further until the
literature becomes manageable
• influence of leadership on business growth,
• influence of therapy X on depression,
• causes of gender inequality,...
Step 3: As you read the literature,
• Try to formulate a research question that
is important, novel, and timely.
How to formulate
an interesting
research question?

29. The four aspects of a compelling
answer
1. No alternative explanations
2. Accurate measurements
3. External validity
4. Reliability
What makes an
research answer
compelling?

30. The four aspects of a compelling answer
1. No alternative explanations: ideally, there should be only one
way to interpret your results so that you can draw a clear
conclusion.
2. Accurate measurements: It is measure what they are supposed
to measure and also that they measure it with the highest
possible precision.
3. External validity: means that your study is set up in a way that
you can generalize your findings to the bigger world.
4. Reliability: refers that your findings are reliable in the sense
that if you did you study a second time, you would get the
same results.

31. TYPES OF RESEARCH

32. Approach
perspective
Which methodology to use?
Qualitative approach
• This method is used to understand thoughts,
concepts, or experiences of people via
interviews, focus groups, case studies,
discourse analysis, and literature review.
• It is basically a survey done to gather people
thoughts and experience.
Quantitative approach
• This method is used to generate numerical
data and hard facts, by employing statistical,
logical and mathematical technique.
• More appropriate to determine the extent of
a problem, issue or phenomenon.
18
Types of Research

33. Qualitative research
• Data: text, images, audio
• Data collection: unstructured,
flexible, sometimes subjective
• Example: interview with spontaneous
open-ended questions
• Usage: great in unexplored topics.
Quantitative research
● Data: numerical, labels
● Data collection: structured,
standardized, objective
● Example: survey with pre-defined
close-ended questions
● Usage: great for precision and
zooming into details

34. Application
perspective
Pure research
• involves developing, testing theories and hypotheses that are
intellectually challenging to the researcher.
E.g.
• developing a methodology to assess the validity of a
procedure.
• developing an instrument to measure the stress level in
people.
• finding the best way of measuring people’s attitudes.
Applied research
• the research process is applied to the collection of
information about various aspects of a situation, issue,
problem or phenomenon so that the information gathered
can be used in other ways.
• any conclusions drawn are based upon hard evidence
gathered from information collected from real-life
experiences or observations
E.g.
• policy formulation, administration and the enhancement of
understanding of a phenomenon. 18
Types of Research

35. Objective
perspective
Descriptive research
• Attempts to describe systematically a situation,
problem, phenomenon, service or program, or
provides information.
• The main purpose of such studies is to describe what
is prevalent with respect to the issue/problem under
study.
• EXAMPLE: the living conditions of Aboriginal people
in the outback
• EXAMPLE: types of service provided by an
organization.
Correlational research
• to discover or establish the existence of a
relationship/ association/ interdependence between
two or more aspects of a situation.
• EXAMPLE: What is the relationship between
stressful living and the incidence of heart attack?
• EXAMPLE: What is the relationship between
technology and unemployment? 18
Types of Research

36. Objective
perspective
Explanatory research
• to clarify why and how there is a relationship
between two aspects of a situation or
phenomenon.
• EXAMPLE: why stressful living results in heart
attacks?
• EXAMPLE: how the home environment affects
children’s level of academic achievement.
• EXAMPLE: Why do some people migrate to
another country while others do not?
Exploratory research
• explore an area where little is known or to
investigate the possibilities of undertaking a
particular research study
• EXAMPLE: feasibility study or a pilot study.
18
Types of Research

37. THE
RESEARCH
PROCESS
Figure 2.1 The research journey – touch each post and select methods and procedures appropriate for your journey

38. THE RESEARCH
PROCESS
The eight-step model for carrying out research
PHASE I DECIDING WHAT TO RESEARCH
• Step I Formulating a research problem
PHASE II PLANNING A RESEARCH STUDY
• Step II Conceptualizing a research design
• Step III Constructing an instrument for data
collection
• Step IV Selecting a sample
• Step V Writing a research proposal
PHASE III CONDUCTING A RESEARCH STUDY
• Step VI Collecting data
• Step VII Processing and displaying data
• Step VIII Writing a research report

39. The Eight-Step Model

40. 5 Major Phases of the Research Process
Conceptual
phase
Design &
planning
phase
Empirical phase
Analytical
phase
Dissemination
phase

41. Selecting great research
topic
Conceptual
Phase
Collecting relevance data
Empirical
Phase
Writing research proposal
report/final thesis.
Dissemination
Phase
Writing effective
research proposal
Design
Planning Phase
Analyzing collected
Data
Analytical
Phase
01 02 03 04 05
5 Major Phases of the Research Process
Panel Review
Panel Review
Supervisor Review
Supervisor Review
Panel Review

42. Research Indicators
● Goal 1: Formulate an interesting research question
● Goal 2: Design your research such that you can
give a compelling answer
● How: Develop and balance these two points in
parallel
An interesting research question is...
● Important (helps to solve societal problems or
understand fundamental phenomena)
● Novel (fills a gap)
● Timely (logical next step)
To formulate an initial research question...
● Pick a broad research topic that you like.
● Narrow it down until you can handle
literature.
● Formulate a research question that is novel,
and timely.
Key lessons

43. Types of Research in Objective perspective
1. Qualitative research uses a more unstructured and
flexible approach, which works well in unexplored
research fields.
2. Quantitative research uses a more structured and
standardized approach, which works well for
zooming into details with high objectivity.
• In well-researched fields, quantitative research trend
to be more common.
Types of Research in Objective perspective
1. Pure Research: developing and testing theories and
hypotheses that are intellectually challenging to the
researcher.
2. Applied Research: Findings are applied to policy
formulation, administration and the enhancement of
understanding of a phenomenon.
Key lessons

44. Types of Research in Objective perspective
1. Descriptive Research: To describe what is
prevalent regarding about phenomenon.
2. Correlational Research: To establish or explore
the relationship between variables.
3. Explanatory Research: To explain why the
relationship is existed among variables.
4. Exploratory Research: explore an area where
little is known such feasibility study or a pilot
study.
The research process, which has been broken down
into eight steps,
● Formulating a research problem, conceptualizing a
research design, constructing an instrument for data
collection, selecting a sample, writing a research
proposal, collecting data, processing data and
writing a research report
Key lessons

45. THANK
YOU