Practical Research Lesson 1

Research Experience and Knowledge

1. Nature of Inquiry
 Defined as “a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge.”
 Information is the output of questioning
 A process that begins with gathering information and data through applying the various
human senses.
2. Factors that Affect Inquiry
1. Selection of appropriate questions
2. Formulation of appropriate questions
3. Identification of key issues
4. Search for valid and relevant evidence
5. Interpretation of and assessment of evidence
6. Application of evidence to identified issues
7. Presentation of coherent conclusion, final or tentative
8. Reflection and assessment of the learning process
 What is Research?
 Research is the systematic investigation and study of materials and the sources to
establish facts and reach new conclusions. When you come across studies about events
that happen or experiences that you meet, they shape people’s understanding of the world
around them. (Walker, 2010)
 Research is the systematic investigation and study of materials and the sources to
establish facts and reach new conclusions. When you come across studies about events
that happen or experiences that you meet, they shape people’s understanding of the world
around them. (Walker, 2010)
 Research is an act of studying something carefully and extensively in order to attain deep
knowledge.
 Research contributes to the welfare of humanity. It can be creative, exploring, or
reassuring in nature.

 Research holds the following significant data:

1. To gather necessary information
2. To make changes
3. To improve the standard of living
4. For a safer life
5. To know the truth
6. To explore our history
7. To understand arts
What are the reasons for writing a research paper?
 As a student, you write research paper because:
1. Research teaches methods of discovery
2. Research teaches investigative skills
3. Research teaches critical thinking
4. Research teaches logic
5. Research teaches the basic ingredients of argument (Lester, Sr. & Lester Jr., 2005)
 Motivations for Research Writing
 You can get to investigate topics that may be of your interest
 It can make you study meaningfully and relevantly
 You can have practical experiences through hands-on tasks
 Forms of Undergraduate Research Experiences
1. Class – Based Activities
2. Class – Based Projects
3. Capstones
4. Out of the Class Collaborative Researches
Lesson 2: Importance of Research in Daily Life
 1. The Role of Research
 leads an expansion of knowledge and discoveries
 Can help in formulating future problem’s solutions
 Is a systematic process of collecting and analyzing data to increase understanding of a
phenomenon
3. Research Points
 It is an inquiry process.
 It is a formal process of problem solving.
 It is a set of procedures and stages.
 It originates with a question and problem.
 It is an interactive process.
4. Concepts Founded by Research
 Discovery of knowledge and Theory-Building
 Testing, confirmation, revision of knowledge as theory.
 Advancement of a discipline or field.
 Promotion of individuals.
5. Significance of Research
 To gather necessary information.
 To improve the standard of living.
 To have a safer life.
 To know the truth.
 To explore our history.
 To understand arts
Contributions of Research in Other Fields
 Economic researches can help innovate ways for food production.
 Social researches can be used in order to monitor policies and execution.
 Cultural research can increase understanding of cultural values and social approaches.
 Health researches contribute to a better understanding of medical conditions
 Characteristics of Research
1. Empirical
 Research is based on observations and experimentations of theories. It takes into
account the direct experiences that fuse the researcher’s speculation with reality.
 Most researches are based on real-life situations.
2. Systematic
 Research follows orderly and sequential procedures, based on valid procedure principles.
 Researchers are advised to refer to the research guidelines provided or prescribed by the
school.
2. Controlled
 In research, all variables, except those that are tested/experimented on, are kept
constant.
4. Employs Hypothesis
 The hypothesis guides the investigation process.
 Research refers to a search of fact, answers to questions, and solution to problems.
5. Analytical
 There is a critical analysis of all data used so that there is no error in the researcher’s
interpretation.
6. Objective
 The term also refers to the research as unbiased and logical. All findings are logically
based on empirical data or based on real life situation.
7. Original Work
 The research must be original in a way that a similar research does not exist. This limits
researchers because most of the research topics are the same.
 In order to make the research original, ideas can be modified and methodology can be
changed.
Diagrams Presenting Principal Relationships in Research Writing
 Ethics in Research
Ethics
 Research ethics concerns the responsibility of researchers to be honest and
respectful to all individuals who are affected by their research studies or their
reports of the studies’ results.
Unethical Examples
 Breaking and re-breaking of bones (to see how many times they could be broken before
healing failed to occur) Nazi
 Patients had been injected with live cancer cells (Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital, NY,
1963)
 400 men had been left to suffer with syphilis long after a cure (penicillin) was available.
(Tuskegee, Alabama, 1932-72)
 Milgram’s study sustained no physical harm, they suffered shame and embarrassment for
having behaved inhumanely toward their fellow human beings. (1963)
 The Belmont Report 1979
(1) Individuals should consent to participate in studies and those who cannot give their consent,
such as children, people with diminished abilities, and prisoners, need to be protected.
(2) The researcher not harm the participants, minimize risks, and maximize possible benefits.
(3) fairness in procedures for selecting participants.
APA Guide
 The researcher is obligated to protect participants from physical or psychological harm.
 During or after a study, participants may feel increased anxiety, anger, lower self-
esteem, or mild depression, especially in situations in which they feel they have been
cheated, tricked, deceived, or insulted.
Explain why and ensure understanding
 Researchers often tell participants exactly what will be done in the study but do not
explain why.
 Simply telling participants about the research does not necessarily mean they are
informed, especially in situations in which the participants may not be competent enough
to understand.
Voluntary Participation
 Participants may feel coerced to participate or perceive that they have limited choice.
Deception
 Passive deception (or omission) is the withholding or omitting of information; the
researcher intentionally does not tell participants some information about the study.
 Active deception (or commission) is the presenting of misinformation about the study to
participants. The most common form of active deception is misleading participants about
the specific purpose of the study.
Justified Deception
 The deception must be justified in terms of some significant benefit that outweighs the
risk to the participants.
 The researcher must consider all alternatives to deception and must justify the rejection
of any alternative procedures.
Debriefing
 The final point is that deceived participants must receive a debriefing that provides a full
description of the true purpose of the study, including the use and purpose of deception,
after the study is completed.
Confidentiality
 The APA ethical guidelines require that researchers ensure the confidentiality of their
research participants.
 Ensuring that participants’ records are kept anonymous.
ETHICAL ISSUES AND SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
Reporting of Research
a. Researchers do not fabricate data. (They do not make false, deceptive, or fraudulent
statements concerning their publications or research findings.)
b. If they discover significant errors in their published data, they take reasonable steps to
correct such errors in a correction, re-traction, erratum, or other appropriate publication
means.
c. They do not present portions of another’s work or data as their own, even if the other
work or data source is cited occasionally.
Error and fraud
 It is important to distinguish between error and fraud.
 Fraud, is an explicit effort to falsify or misrepresent data.
Safeguards Against Fraud
 A safeguard against fraud is peer review, which takes place when a researcher submits a
research article for publication.
 Replication is repetition of a research study using the same basic procedures used in the
original to test the accuracy.
 Plagiarism
 You can literally copy an entire paper word for word and present it as your own work or
you can copy and paste passages from articles and sites found on the Internet.
Ethical Principles Observed in Research
 Honesty
 Objectivity
 Integrity
 Carefulness
 Openness
 Respect for intellectual property
 Confidentiality
 Social Responsibility
 Non-discrimination
 Legality
 Animal Care
 Human Subject Protection
Types of Qualitative Research
Data Collection Instruments
 Observation
 Interview
 Questionnaire
 Documents review
Types of Research
 Ethnography
 Narrative
 Phenomenological
 Grounded Theory
 Case Study
Ethnography
• Ethnographic research is probably the most popular and applicable type of qualitative
research.
• In ethnography, you engage yourself in the target participants' environment to
understand the behavior, culture, challenges, motivations, and themes that occur.
• Ethnography has its roots in cultural anthropology where researchers engage themselves
within a culture, rather than relying on interviews or surveys, you experience the
environment first hand, and sometimes as a "participant observer.”
Purpose: to describe a culture's characteristics
Outcome: description of culture
Narrative/Historical
• The narrative approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or
two individuals to form a cohesive story.
• You conduct in-depth interviews, read documents, and look for themes; in other words,
how does an individual story illustrate the larger life influences that created it.
• Often interviews are conducted over weeks, months, or even years, but the final narrative
doesn't need to be in chronological order. Rather it can be presented as a story (or
narrative) with themes, and can reconcile conflicting stories and highlight tensions and
challenges which can be opportunities for innovation.
Purpose: describe and examine events of the past to understand the present and anticipate
potential future effects
Outcome: select means of presentation - biography, chronology, issue paper
Phenomenological
• When you want to describe an event, activity, or phenomenon, the properly named
phenomenological study is an appropriate qualitative method.
• In a phenomenological study, you use a combination of methods, such as conducting
interviews, reading documents, watching videos, or visiting places and events, to
understand the meaning participants place on whatever's being examined.
• You rely on the participants' own perspectives to provide insight into their motivations.
Purpose: to describe experiences as people are lived e.g examines uniqueness of individual's
lived situations
Outcomes:
• Findings described from subject's point-of-view
• Researcher identifies themes
• Structural explanation of findings is developed
Grounded Theory
Whereas a phenomenological study looks to describe the essence of an activity or event,
grounded theory looks to provide an explanation or theory behind the events. You use primarily
interviews and existing documents to build a theory based on the data.
Purpose: theory development
Outcome: theory supported by examples from data
Case Study
Case study involves an in-depth examination of a single person or single individual or single
institution / organization. The goal of case study is to provide an accurate and complete
description of the case, the principal benefit of case-study is that it-can expand our knowledge
about the human behavior or attitude. It is also useful when the case is too-complex and need
special attention. Case study often include in-depth interviews with participant, review of his/her
previous record, observation. It provides an opportunity for the intensive analysis of many
specific details, which are often over looked by other methods. A case study involves a deep
understanding through multiple types of data sources. Case studies can be explanatory,
exploratory, or describing an event.
Purpose: describe in-depth the experience of one person, family, group, community, or
institution
Outcomes: in-depth description of the experience
Method Sample Data collection
Focus size
Ethnography Context or culture   Observation & interviews
Narrative Individual experience & 1 to 2 Stories from individuals &
sequence documents
Phenomenologica People who have 5 to 25 Interviews
l experienced a phenomenon
Grounded Theory Develop a theory from 20 to 60 Interviews, then open
grounded in field data observation

Case Study Organization, entity,   Interviews, documents,

individual, or event  reports, observations
 IMRAD Research Paper
Format, Description, and Content
Description
 IMRaD is an acronym for Introduction – Method – Results – and – Discussion.
 Theses structured using the IMRaD format are usually short and concise. The language
will be as plain and as unambiguous as possible. There is no place in this type of writing
for personal views and fanciful language.
Introduction
 Use the introduction to show that you are knowledgeable about your field of study and
existing research. Your introduction should contain:
 A summary of existing research on the subject 
 Your thesis statement, hypothesis or research question
 Theory (if relevant)
 An introduction to the field, the current situation or to prevailing practice
 The introduction should explain what we know, and what we are uncertain about. It
should explain and summarize, but it should also ask questions, clarify, compare
etc. Everything you write here must relate to your research question.
Method
 Use your method chapter to show that you arrived at your results by applying valid and
reliable methods. Explain what you did; your research, treatment or professional
intervention, and how you did it.
 Account for … 
 Document … 
 … for what you did and did not do 
 Your method chapter shows how you arrived at your results 
Results
 A relatively large part of your paper/thesis should be devoted to your results (findings,
data, empirical evidence). In this section you should:
 Present the findings 
Organize, classify, analyze and (if relevant) categorize 
 Explain and interpret (e.g., differences between various studies)
 Assess and evaluate.
 Your results = the essence of your paper. The Introduction and Methods chapter should
build up to your Results by showing how you arrived at your results (Methods) and their
significance (Introduction).
Discussion
 In this chapter you discuss the results of your study/project.
 Is it possible to generalize?
 Make comparisons with other studies
 Are there alternative explanations?
 What are the strong and weak aspects of your paper?
 What are the practical implications?
 Is more research needed?
 Make recommendations (to be applied in practice).
 For your conclusion: What answer(s) have you found to your research question? If you
have a hypothesis, has it been strengthened, weakened or falsified? Do not introduce
issues here that have not been mentioned earlier. If the results of your study do not allow
you to draw any conclusions, you can end with a summing up.