Nature of Inquiry and Research
Its topic must be instrumental in
Inquiry
- a learning process that motivates you to obtain
knowledge or information about people, things,
places, or events.
- seeking for truth, information or knowledge.
Inquiry elevates your thinking power. It makes you think in
different ways, enabling you to arrive at a particular idea or
understanding that will motivate you to create something
unique, new, or innovative for your personal growth as well as
for the world.
Solving a problem, especially social issues, does not only involve
yourself but other member of the society too. Hence, inquiry, a
problem-solving technique, includes cooperative learning
because any knowledge from members of the society can help
to make the solution.
Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning
• Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills.
• Improves students’ learning abilities.
• Widens learners’ vocabulary.
• Facilitates problem-solving acts.
• Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge.
• Encourage cooperative learning.
• Provides mastery of procedural knowledge.
• Encourage higher order thinking strategies.
• Hastens conceptual understanding.
Nature of Research
Research is a process of executing various mental acts
for discovering and examining facts and information to prove
the accuracy or truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about
the topic of your research.
- The systematic investigation and study of materials and
resources to establish facts and reach new conclusions.
Characteristics of Research
• Accuracy. It must give correct or accurate data.
• Objectiveness. It must deal with facts not opinion.
• Timeliness. It must work on topic that is fresh &
interesting to the present society.
• Relevance.
improving society.
• Clarity. It must succeed in expressing its central point
• Systematic. It must take place in an organized or
orderly manner.
Types of Research
1. Based on Application of Research Method (Applied Research)
- intention is to apply your chosen research to societal
problems or issues, finding ways to make positive changes in
society.
2. Based on Purpose of the Research
> Descriptive Research: aims at defining or giving a
verbal portrayal or picture of a person, thing, event, group,
situation, etc.
> Correlational Research: shows relationship or
connectedness of two factors or variables.
> Explanatory Research: elaborates or explains not
just the reasons behind the relationship of two factors, but also
the way by which such relationship exists.
> Exploratory Research - find out how reasonable or
possible it is to conduct a research study on a certain topic.
> Action Research - studies an ongoing practice of a
school, organization, community, or institution for the purpose
of obtaining results that will bring improvements in the system.
3. Based on Types of Data Needed
> Qualitative Research – requires non-numerical data,
which means that the research uses words rather than numbers
to express the result of the study.
> Quantitative Research – involves measurement of
data. It presents research findings referring to the number or
frequency of something in numerical forms.
Types of Research Data
1. Primary data – obtained through direct observation or
contact with people, objects, artifacts, etc. These data
are new and original.
2. Secondary data – already been written about or
reported on and are available for reading purposes.
Approaches to Research
• Scientific or Positive Approach (Quantitative Study)
• Naturalistic Approach (Qualitative Approach)
• Triangulation Approach (Both Quanti & Quali)
Qualitative Research
- getting at the bottom of human situations, social
phenomena or inquiries about human behavior in
daily life.
- Inquiry process of understanding a social or human
problem based on building a complex holistic picture
formed with words, reporting detailed views of
informants and conducted in a natural setting.
In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society
and people’s intentions are involved in explaining cause-effect
relationships. Things are studied in their natural setting, enough
for you to conclude that qualitative research is an act of inquiry
or investigation of real-life events.
Kinds of Qualitative Research
• Participant Observation – demands immersion in the
natural setting of the research participant/s. The
researcher participant is able to hear, see and
experience reality as the research participants
perform activities and deal with one another.
• Observation – entails the systematic noting or
recording of events, behaviors and artifacts in the
social setting chosen for study. Researcher is able to
discover the recurring patterns of behavior and
relationships.
• In-depth Interviewing – resembles conversations, but
with pre-determined response categories.
Interviewers should have excellent listening skills, and
be equally skillful at personal interaction, question
framing and gentle probing for elaboration.
• Focus Group Interviewing – involves 7-10, at times 6-8
people, who are unfamiliar with one another and
have been selected because they share certain
characteristics that are relevant to the research
inquiry or problem.
• Content Analysis – systematic examination of forms of
communication to document patterns objectively as
shown in letters, emails, minutes of meetings, etc.
• Narratology – applied to any spoken or written story.
 • Films, Videos and Photographs – these provide visual
records of events, especially the films and videos
which capture the perspective of the filmmaker or
videographer.
Characteristics of Qualitative Research
1. Human understanding and interpretation
2. Active, powerful and forceful
3. Multiple research approaches and methods
4. Specificity to generalization
5. Contextualization
6. Diversified data in real-life situations
7. Abounds with words and visuals
8. Internal analysis
Strengths of Qualitative Research
1. Qualitative research can offer the best light on or best
answers to certain phenomena-social, economic,
political or even psychological.
2. Research results are exhaustive; even underlying
meanings surface.
3. It offers several avenues to understand phenomena,
behavior, human conditions and the like.
4. It can build on, or even develop theories through
consistent themes, categories, relationships,
interrelationships that are crystalized during data
gathering and analysis.
Weaknesses of Qualitative Research
1. Total immersion in the natural setting of the research
can be time-consuming and tedious, and resource-
draining, as well.
2. There comes a point when the personal-self and the
researcher-self are inseparable, so, subjectivity on the
part of the researcher, can happen.
Qualitative Research Across Different Fields
Research studies happen in any field of knowledge.
Anthropology, Business Communication, Education,
Engineering, Law, Nursing, etc.
Belonging to a certain area of discipline, you have the condition, mental capacity, needed facilities and time allotment
option to choose one from the three basic approaches: in completing your research.
Scientific, Naturalistic and Triangulation Approach or Mixed
method. Research Topics to be avoided
Scientific Approach: 1. Controversial topics
> Hard sciences (STEM) - Facts can’t support topics like these.
> Natural sciences (Biology, Physics, 2. Highly technical subjects
Chemistry) - No to advance study or technical knowledge for beginners
Naturalistic Approach: 3. Hard-to-investigate subjects
> People oriented (HUMSS) - No reading materials available
Triangulation Approach: 4. Too broad subjects
> Business world (ABM) - Prevents you from giving a concentrated or an in-
depth analysis on the subject matter
Subject Matter of the Inquiry or Research 5. Too narrow subjects
You begin your research work with a problem; that is, - Limited or too specific that an extensive searching
having a problem or topic to work on. Mulling over a topic for about the subject is necessary
your research work drives you to perform HOTS or higher order 6. Vague subjects
thinking strategies. - Prevents you from having a clear focus on your paper.
A topic is researchable if the knowledge and For instance, titles beginning with indefinite adjectives
information about it are supported by evidence that is such as several, many, some, etc.
observable, factual and logical. Example: Some Remarkable Traits of a Filipino…
Guidelines in Choosing a Research Topic
1. Interest in the subject matter
- being curious about a subject makes you
determined to unravel the mystery or intriguing thing behind it.
2. Availability of Information
- collecting a lot of information as evidence to support
your claims about your subject matter from varied forms of
literature like books, journals, and newspapers, among others,
is a part and parcel of any research work.
3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic
- the topic is relevant if it yields results that are
instrumental in societal improvement. It is timely if it is related
to the present.
4. Limitations on the subject
- This makes you link your choosing with course
requirements.
5. Personal resources
- Before sticking fully to your final choice, assess your
research abilities in terms of your financial standing, health