CHAPTER 1

The Nature of Research: An Overview

Although all ethnographic research is inherently descriptive, not all descriptive research uses ethnographic methods. Survey research methods are often used to collect descriptive data that are quantitative. 1.1 Why Should Educator Have to Know About Research? Educator s should know about research because education is a research-based discipline. Research is a way of knowing that emphasizes systematic investigation. 1.2 The Scope of Educational Research Reviewing the literature is that part of the research process that involves locating and analyzing materials in the library that pertain to a particular topic. Some kind of research use the scientific method, which involves defining a problem, formulating one or more hypotheses to solve the problem, collecting data to test each hypothesis empirically, and determining if each hypothesis empirically, and determining if each hypothesis is or is not supported. The scientific method is not used in historical or descriptive research Theories are general statements about how phenomena are related Hypotheses based on theories are predictions about for specific instances of the theoretical phenomena are related The term research denotes the systematic processor: 1. Identifying a problem 2. Reviewing the literature dealing with the problem 3. Developing one or more research hypotheses or questions related to the problem 4. Collecting data by means of empirical investigation

5. Analyzing the data 6. Interpreting the results of the investigation Empirical research involves carrying out a firsthand investigation Common reasons for conducting educational research are to; test theoretical Concepts, solve practical problem, evaluate existing programs, and develop new programs. 1.3 Purpose of Research Basic research is carried out to address some theoretical question Applied research is carried out to solve a real life problem Action research is carried out find out what work in a particular situation with Particular group of people Evaluation research is carried out to the determine the effectiveness of existing Programs Policy research is carried out to obtain information to the determine what kinds of new programs should be developed. Research is also carried out to explore, describe, explain, or predict various phenomena. 1.4 Variables in Empirical Research A variable can be defined as any entity that may take on one of two or more mutually exclusive values. Gender is a variable that may take on one of two mutually exclusive values: female or male. Day of the week is a variable that may take on any one of seven mutually exclusive values: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Age is a variable that can take on a large number of mutually exclusive values. A variable is any entity that may take on to or more mutually exclusive values. 1.5 Population and Samples Populations are group consisting of all people to whom a researcher wishes to apply the findings of a study.

Samples are subsets of people used to represent populations. 1.6 Types of Educational Research The terminology used to describe research can be confusing because it is possible to describe research from multiple perspectives. The major kinds of educational research are; historical, descriptive, correlation, and group comparison. Descriptive research may be ethnographic or survey. Group comparison research may be experimental, quasi-experimental, or ex post facto ( causal-comparative ). Qualitative research methods are used to examine questions that can best be answered by verbally describing how participants in a study perceive and interpret various aspect of their environment Quantitative research methods are used to examine question that can best be answered by collecting and statistically analyzing data that are in numerical form. A single piece of research may use qualitative methods, quantitative methods, or both. 1.7 Historical Research Historian use authentic, credible information as evidence to support hypotheses they construct about the ways in which phenomena in the past were related. Historical research attempts determine the nature of causal relationships among variables at some point in the past. 1.8 Ethnographic Research Ethnographic research attempts to provide a rich, detailed verbal description of how member of a cultural perceive the culture Participant observation is a data collection technique used by ethnographic researchers that entails simultaneously participating in group activities and observing what is occurring in the group.

1.9

Survey Research Survey research methods are often used to collect descriptive data that are

quantitative. For example, pools carried out prior to an election are typical of such descriptive studies. Survey research describes how values of variables are distributed among various groups of people. 1.10 Correlation Research Correlation research examines the relationship between two or more variables for a single group of people. 1.11 Group Comparison Research Group comparison research examines possible differences in the distribution of values of a single variable among two or more groups or people. The manner in which group are formed determines the type of group comparison being made. In ex post facto designs, the groups, being studied have already been formed according to values of a variable before the researcher has begun the study. In experiments, the researcher randomly assigns people on an individual basis to the groups to be investigated. In quasi- experiments, the researcher randomly assigns intact groups of people to form the groups to be investigated.

CHAPTER 3
Reviewing the Literature
All of the indexes described in the chapter so far may be used to locate articles and educational documents about a given topic. Articles and documents provide you not only with information about a topic but, importantly, they also provide you with a list of reference cited in the article that many also be related to your topic. 3.1 The Purpose of Reviewing the Literature The purpose of reviewing the literature is to help researchers design a new study on a topic and develop a logical rationale underlying their hypotheses and questions. In searching for a research question it is best to begin reviewing the literature broadly and gradually narrow the search. 3.2 Reviewing a Research Question Once a research question has been formulated, the strategy for reviewing the literature changes from one of breadth to one of depth. Primary source are reports written by persons who have conducted the research Major forms of disseminating research findings include books, chapters in books, journal articles, educational documents, and papers presented at professional conferences. 3.3 Educational Research Information Center (ERIC) The Educational Resources Information Center ( ERIC ) produced the Thesaurus of ERIC descriptors, the Current Index to Journals in Education ( CIJE ), and Resources in education ( RIE ). Educational documents are enquired by the various clearing houses in two ways. Researchers may send a copy of a completed study directly to the appropriate clearinghouse, or the clearinghouse may request a copy of a report directly from a researcher. 3.4 Reference Tools Produced by ERIC

CIJE is an index to education journal articles, RIE is an index to educational documents, and the ERIC Thesaurus list the descriptor terms under which article and documents are classified in CIJE and RIE respectively. There are 15 ERIC clearinghouses, each of which is responsible for gathering and disseminating information about a particular aspect of the field of education 3.5 Current Index to Journal in Educational (CIJE) Each monthly issue of CIJE is divided into several sections, the most important of which are the Subject Index and the Main Entry Section. Other indexes to education-related journal articles are the education index and Psychological Abstracts 3.6 The Psychological Research Literature There are several styles of citing references, one of the most common of which is that endorsed by the American Psychological Association. Different citation formats are used for books, articles, and education documents. Preparing a separate set of notes for each aspect of a topic permit one to organize information obtained from multiple sources. Conceptualizing a research question as one exemplar of the more general Phenomenon may overcome the problem of failing to find any literature about the question. The review of literature may include no empirical articles as well as empirical article.

CHAPTER 4
Formulating research hypotheses
It will be helping to summarize briefly some of the information in this chapter so that you can get an overview of what is generating your own research hypothesis. 4.1 Defining Variables as Sets of Values A studies objective refers to what is to be investigated empirically, its purpose refers to why and for whom the study is being carried out. A hypothesis is a tentative, testable statement about relationships among variables. Different conceptualizations of the same variable consist of different sets of values. Variable and values have a hierarchical relationship in which variables are conceptually broader than values. Some concepts may simultaneously be a variable with its own set of values and a value with a respect to another variable. 4.2 Operational Definitions Operational definitions define variables and constructs in term of how they are measured. Terms that we invent to refer to complex phenomena that consist of unobservable characteristic are called construct; example of constructs are creativity, anxiety, and selfconcept. 4.3 Pseudo hypotheses Pseudo hypotheses either have no basis for comparison or effect value judgments, that are not testable. 4.4 Hypotheses and the Related Literature Researchers interpretations of the literature related to a research question determine the form in which they state their hypotheses.

In group comparison studies, direction hypotheses state witch group should have the higher mean; in correlation studies they state whether the correlation should be positive or negative.

CHAPTER 5
Ethical and Legal Aspects of Conducting Research
A Especially helpful information about ethical issues pertaining to conducting research may be found in Ethical Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants published in 1982 by the American Psychological Association. These principles are described briefly in the following sections. 5.1 Research Ethics The major ethical question about carrying out piece of research is whether the benefits of conducting the study outweigh the risks to persons participating in it. Informed consent involves making sure that potential subject understand the general nature of the research project and pointing out aspects of the study that may fluency them to decline to participate. Mentally competent adults (or guardians of children or persons who may not be mentally competent) should sign a written consent form before participating in a study. 5.2 Concealment and Deception Concealment occurs when a researcher tell subject the truth, but not the whole truth about a study. Deception occurs when a researcher purposely provides subject false information. Some researcher considers the use of deception as inherently unethical. At the conclusion of a study that has employed deception, researcher often use of the process of (a) dehoaxing to make sure that subjects know they have been deceived and to avoid permanent damage or (b) desensitization to help subjects over come negative feelings about behaviors they may have displayed while participating in a study. 5.3 The Use of Volunteers Although the use of volunteers as subjects may make it impossible to generalize a studies findings, the failure to do so raises serious ethical questions.

Educators should not use their position of authority to coerce students to participate in a study. Participants in a study must be protected not only form pussycat danger but from mental stress as well.
5.4 Researcher Responsibilities at the Conclusion of a Study

Gender and race bias can occur at any point in the research topic to reporting the results of a study. Except under certain conditions described in the code of federal regulations, all research proposals involving human subjects must be reviewed by an institutional, review board whose job is to make sure that subjects right are protected. 5.5 Legal Aspects of Conducting Research Researchers have an ethical and legal responsibility to avoid plagiarism by crediting others by means of appropriate reference citations.

CHAPTER 6
Sampling: Choosing Participants for a Study
As described earlier, one may use a table of random numbers to select a sample if one has access to a list of the names of every member of a population. Using a table of random numbers is not the only way, however, to select a sample from a population list. 6.1 Samples as Representation of Populations Sampling units may consist of individuals or groups of person or things, Larges samples are not necessarily better than smaller samples in term of representativeness of a population, more important is the procedure used to select the sample. A low response rate to mailed questionnaire is likely to yield a biased sample. 6.2 Methods for Selecting a Sample The term random sample applies to samples that have been selected in such way that every member of the population had a equal chance of being included in the sample. Random assignment is different from random sampling; random assignment refers to the process in which person in an experiment are assigned to the groups to be investigated. Stratified sampling requires that a population be broken into subpopulations prior to selecting the sampling. The size of stratified sample may be chosen either to reflect the proportional representation of subgroups in the population or to have equal numbers. The procedure of cluster sampling involves the random selection of sampling units of progressively smaller size. Systematic sampling is a procedure of obtaining a random sample from a list of the members of a population by selecting every nth name. Samples of convenience are not random samples they are groups of person the researcher happened to be able to select with ease. 6.3 Sampling in Ethnographic Studies

Ethnographic researchers often use purposeful, sampling in order obtain person who are most likely to be able to provide information about a particular research question. Regardless of whether ethnographic researchers choose to use random sampling or not, however, they characteristically use other sampling techniques that are sometimes called purposeful sampling or criterion-based selection (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993)

CHAPTER 7
Evaluating, Locating, and Constructing Measuring Instrument
No matter how well designed a study is, the final outcome can be better than the measures used to collect the data. 7.1 Measuring Instrument and Operational Definitions Many operational definitions in educational research are test scores. 7.2 Reliability and Validity Validity refers to the appropriateness of inferences made from test scores. Reliability refers to the degree of consistency of measurement. . 7.3 Reliability test may or may not be valid; an unreadily test cannot be valid. Determining Reliability

The rehabilitee may be determined by examining the (a) stability of test scores over time using the test retest method or parallel forms; or (B) internal consistency of the test. Using the split-half method, the Kuder-Richardson Formulas no 20 or no 21 or Cronbachs alpha. The reliability coefficient is symbolized by r; the closer is to + 1.00, the more reliable the test. In creasing the number of items on a test leads to an increase in the tests reliability. The ratability of observational measures in determined by the extent of observer agreement. 7.4 Reliability of Different Kinds of Test

Acceptable levels of reliability (shown in parentheses) depend on the type of test academic achievement (80), aptitude (80), attitudinal inventories (70), and personality (60). A test score may be thought of as having two components a true score and an error score. The standard error of measurement (s) provides a measure of the range within which a test takers true score likely lies. 7.5 Determining Validity

An objective measure is one on which a persons score would be the same no matter who scored the test, as long as the scorer is competent.

Construct validity determined by integrating evidence that score on the test (a) correlate positively with related construct by but not with unrelated ones, (b) differentiate between people who hypothetically should and should not exhibit different levels of the construct, and (c) change in an appropriate direction when exposed to factors that theoretically should bring about such a change. Content validity is determined by examining how well the items on a test reflect the instructional objectives of a unit of instruction. Criterion relisted validity is determined by comparing predicated preferment on the basis of the test results with actual performance. 7.6 Selecting Measuring Instruments

A standardized test is designed so that the procedures for administering the test, the materials used in the test, and the way in which the test is scored are constant. All standardized test are objective measures, but not all objective measures are standardized . Open-ended responses are particularly difficult to interpret. 7.7 Questionnaires Each item on a questionnaire should ask no more than a single question. Likert scale items are statements followed by a range of choices going, for example, from strongly agree to strongly disagree. When likert scale item are used, half should be worded be worded so that response of agreement indicates a positive attitude and half worded so that responses of agreement indicates a negative attitude. Semantic differential scales consist of pairs of bipolar objectives. Checklists are use to record the presence or frequency of some type of behavior; Rating scales are used to provide qualitative information about the behavior.