RESEARCH DESIGN

RESEARCH DESIGN

 Orodho (2003) defined a research design as the scheme outline or plan

that is used to generate answers to research problem.

 Research design constitute blue print/structure for the collection

measurements and analysis of data (Kothari, 2003).

 The main function of a research design is to explain how you will find
answers to your research question.
Research design …

 What is the study about?

 Where will the study be carried out?
 What type of data is necessary?
 Where necessary data is available?
 How much time is needed to complete the study?
 What will be the sampling design?
 Which tools will be identified to collect data?
 How data will be analyzed?
Types of research design

 Cross-section studies
 These are studies that are not repetitive in nature as they are carried out once
at a particular point in time.
 This studies is the best suited to studies aimed at finding out the prevalence of
a phenomena, situation, problem, attitude or issue.
 They are useful in obtain an overall picture as it stands at the time of the study.
 E.g The incidence of HIV-positive cases in Tanzania
 The impact of unemployment on street crime.
Types of research design …

Longitudinal studies
 Longitudinal studies are repetitive in nature as they are prolonged over a
period of time.
 In longitudinal studies the study population is visited a number of times at
regular interval, usually over a long period, to correct required information.
 These intervals are not fixed, so their length may vary from study to study.
 The main advantage of this approach is its ability to study changes and
development over time.
 Types of Research design

 A case study
 It is intensive description and analysis of a single situation. It is frequently make a
use of qualitative research. But over reliance on a single unit of data collection
limits generalization.
 Experimental research: The researcher attempts to control and/or manipulate the
variables in the study to establish the effects they create in the dependent variable.
 This can be done by changing or holding variable(s) constant in the experiment.
 The manipulated variable is known as independent variable and one we intend to
observe or measure its effect is called dependent variables.
 Types of research design …
 Correlational design : This design enables the researcher to asses the degree
of relationship that exist between two or more variables.
 Example. Compare the examination performance of a group of university
students who prepare their own meals everyday and those who eat at the
cafeteria.
 Cross cultural research design: This is used to compare the behavior
patterns of different culture.
 Using this design you can perceive how various cultures perceive certain
educational and social outcomes.
 For example, you can compare the performance of students in English rural
and urban schools to find out to what extent cultural variations influence
Population
 Population (or universe) refers to the entire group of people, events or items from
which samples are taken for measurements.
Qualities of an effective population sample
 Diversity: The greater the diversity and differences that exists in the population
the higher the applicability of the research findings to the whole population.
 Representative: It is important for researcher to identify the selected respondent
that fulfill the questions the research is addressing.
 Accessibility: An effective population sample is one that accessible to the
researcher
 Knowledge: An effective population sample should have some ideas of the topic
being investigated.
Respondents
 In research, respondents refers to those who will reply to, or respond to
research instruments.
Qualities of effective respondents selection
 Respondents should be individuals who posses some knowledge about the
topic being studied.
 They should be willing to share the information they have in relation to
the topic with the researcher
 They must be willing to give their time to study.
 They should be active participants in the culture or organization under
study.
SAMPLITING TECHNIQUES

 Sample refers to any sub-set or subgroup of the population

 Sampling is an act, process or techniques of selecting a suitable sample,
or a representative part of population for the purpose of determining
parameters or characteristics of the whole population.
 Sample size refers to the exact number of the items selected from a
population to constitute a sample.
 Sampling design refers to that part of the research plan that indicates
how cases are to be selected for observation
Type of sampling

a) Probability sampling

b)Non probability sampling

Probability sampling
 The key behind all probability sampling is randomization, or random
selection.
 Probability sampling is type of sampling where every member in the
population has a probability or chance of being selected to form a sample.
Types of sampling …

Non probability sampling

-Is a biased sampling procedures that it does not provide any basis for
estimating the probability that each item in the population has a chance of
being included in the sample
Types of sampling …

Probability sampling Non probability sampling

a) Simple random sampling a) Deliberate or judgment or

purposive sampling
b) Systematic random sampling
b) Quota sampling
c) Stratified random sampling
c) Snowball sampling
d) Cluster sampling
d) Convenience sampling
Probability sampling

 Simple random sampling: All members in population have equal chance

of being selected to form a sample.

 Itcategorized into two parts: sampling with replacement and sampling

without replacement.

 Advantage: Samples yield to research data can be generalized to a large

population.
Probability sampling …

Systematic sampling: Involves selecting the sample at regular intervals from the
sampling frame, i.e every nth term.
The element of the population in the sample must be arranged in order
Total population
Interval 
Sample size

It
is employed when both total population and sample size are known.
Advantages: Bias is minimized and large population can be analyzed
 Probability sampling …
 Stratifiedrandom sampling: Total population is divided into groups,
randomly selected individuals from each group.
 Groups can be due to gender (male or female), marital (married, single,
widowed, divorce), age, occupation, level of education, level of income,
religion or basing on other characteristics depending on the nature of the
study.
 Advantages: Enables to represent not only the overall population, but also
key subgroup of population, especially minority.
 Disadvantages: If not careful stratified, bias can occur.
Probability sampling …

 Cluster random sampling: Total population is divided into groups,

randomly selected some of the groups. Your sample is everyone in the group.
 Advantages: It needs a detailed sampling framework for selecting clusters
only rather than for entire target population.
 Disadvantages:

a. There is a risk of missing an important group

b. Lack of complete representative of the target population.
Non probability sampling

 Convenience sampling: It involves selecting respondents on the basis of

their availability and willingness to respond.
 Disadvantage: There is a great chance of bias.
 Purposive sampling/judgmental sampling: the decision with regard to
which element /item should be included or excluded based in the sample
rests on the researcher judgement and intuition.
 Thismethod is less expensive and quick for selecting sample, but its major
weakness is bias.
Non probability sampling …

 Quota sampling: Divide population into groups (age, gender ,marital,

education, income, geographic area). Then select a minimum number
from each specified group.
 Snowball sampling: Researcher identifies only few cases and then ask
them to identify others who are likely to have the required data.
 Research Instruments

a) Questionnaires
b) Telephone surveys
c) Personal interviews
d) Web surveys
e) Focus group
f) Observation
Research instruments

 Questionnaires is regarded as a series of questions

 It can be constructed into two main forms;
 Open ended questions
 Closed ended questions
Open ended questions form-is when questions asked required the
respondents to give their own answer.
Close-ended questions form the respondents have no flexibility as they
restricted to choose among the given answer.
Research instruments …

Advantages:
 Information can be collected from a large sample and
diverse regions
 Confidentiality is upheld
 Saves on time
 Sincethey are presented in paper format, there is no
opportunity for interview bias
Research instruments ….

Disadvantages:
 Thereis no direct contact so the researcher cannot deal with any
misunderstanding.
 There is no opportunity to ask for further information related to answer
given.
 No clear reason can be given for incomplete response.
 Research instruments …
 Focusing group
An interview or discussion is carried out by an expert moderator, in a
natural manner with a small group respondents. [6-8 people]
 Telephone survey
When the survey is carried out over telecommunication devices, i.e
telephone or mobile, where the response are in form of close handed
answers (YES or NO)
 Research instrument …
 Personal interview
One to one interview is conducted to gain understanding of the
problem under study.
 Web surveys
Researcher selected a group of respondents and mails questionnaire to
them, to obtain information.
 Observation
It provides information about actual behavior. Direct observation allows
the researcher to put behavior in context and thereby understand it better.
DATA COLLECTION

 Data collections refers to the gathering of information to serve or prove

some facts.
 In data collection the researcher must have a clear vision of the
instruments to be used, the respondents and selected area.
 Advantage: It allows for dissemination of accurate information and
development of meaningful programs.
Data are categorized into two parts
a) Primary data
b) Secondary data
 Primary data
 Primary data is information gathered direct from respondents.
 Data is collected from the existing sources.
 It involves creating new data.
Collection of primary data
a) Questionnaires
b) Interviews
c) Focused group discussion
d) Observation
 Secondary data

 Secondary data means data that is already available.

 It involves gathering data that already has been collected by someone else.
 Secondary data may be available in
a) Various publications of central, state, or local government.
b) Various publication by foreign governments or international bodies and
their subsidiary organization.
c) Technical and trade journals.
d) Books, magazines and newspapers.
Secondary data …

 Reports prepared by scholars, universities, economists in different field.

 Public records and statistics, historical documents and other sources of
published information.
ASSIGNMENT: Ranjit page 75-80

Variables
 Independent variables
 Dependent variables
 Extraneous variables
 Intervening variables
 TYPES OF MEASUREMENT SCALES
 Nominal or classification scale
 Ordinal or ranking scale
 Interval scale
 Ratio scale
Nominal scale
 A nominal scale enables the classification of individuals, objects or
responses based on a common/shared property or characteristics.
 These people, objects or responses are divided into subgroups in a such
away that each member of the subgroup has a common characteristics.
Measurement scale …

 Examples
 A. Tree, house, taxi etc
 Gender : Male and Female
 Religions: Christian, Islam, Hindu etc
 Ordinal or ranking Scale
 It has the characteristics of a nominal scale
 Characteristics classified under a subgroup have a common characteristics.
 It also ranks the subgroups in a certain order (ascending or descending order)
 Measurement scale …

Example
 Income : above the average, average, below the average
 Social income status: upper, middle, low
 Attitudes:
Strong favorable, favorable, uncertain, unfavorable, strong
unfavorable
 The distance between the subcategories is not equal as there is no
quantitative unit of measurements.
 Measurement scale …
The interval scale
 Ithas all characteristics of ordinal scale, that is individuals or responses
belonging to the subcategory have a common characteristics and
subcategories are arranged in ascending or descending order.
 In addition, an interval scale uses a unit of measurements that enables the
individuals or responses to be placed at equally spaced interval in
relation to the spread of the variable.
 Ithas a unit of measurement with an arbitrary starting and terminating
point.
Measurement scale …
  Example


 Temperature: starting point is and terminating point is

 Fahrenheit: Starting point is and terminating point is
 Attitude scale
 10 - 20
 21 - 30
 31 - 40
 41 - 50 etc
 Measurement scale …
Ratio scale
 It has all the properties of an interval scale.
 It has a starting point fixed at zero.
 This means that the ratio can be used for mathematical operations.
Examples
 Height: cm
 Income: $
 Age: years/month
 Weight: Kg
DATA PROCESSING AND DATA ANALYSIS
 Data entry is also part of data preparation before data analysis is attempted.
 Data entry aims at converting gathering data to a medium for viewing and manipulation
(Bhattacharyya, 2003)
 All gathering data are to be entered in a computer to facilitate tabulation and analysis.

 The key activities of data processing are

i. editing,
ii. coding
iii. classification
iv. tabulation.
Data processing …

EDITING
 Processing data is to ensure that the data is clean- that is free from
inconsistencies and incompleteness. The process of cleaning data is called
editing.
 Editing consists of scrutinizing the completed research instruments to
identify and minimize as far as possible, errors, incompleteness,
misclassification and gaps in the information obtained from the respondents.
 Fieldediting is recommended to clarify things which are not clear to you
such as readable handwriting, abbreviations, unfilled questions and
sometimes you might have field to get a clear meaning of the statement.
 Data processing …
CODING
 The core function of the coding process is to create codes and scales from the
responses, which can then be summarized and analyzed in various ways.
 Coding refers to the process of assigning numerals or other symbol to classes
(Kothari, 2004).
 Coding can be seen as some sort of classification because the first step in coding is to
specify the categories or classes into which the responses are to be placed (Ghauri
and Kjeli 2002).
Example
 Inwhich country will be benefitted more than others in the new East Africa
community?
Data processing …

• Tanzania 1
• Uganda 2 [ ]
• Kenya 3
 Coding facilitate data entry because instead of entering the whole
response like Tanzania, just a number [ 1 ] or symbol T will serve the
purpose.
 Coding reduces the bulkiness of responses and time spent in data entry,
hence minimizes making errors in data entry
 Data processing …
 Rules of coding
• The classes should be appropriate to the research problem under classification.
• The classes should be mutually exclusive. This means that each response or member
must belong to one and only one classes or category.
Example
Age Code number/symbol
20 - 24 1
25 - 29 2
30 - 34 3
35 - 39 4
40 - 44 5
Data processing …
 Example: Mr Liguo was conducting a survey on the professionalism of Tanzanian
workers. He classified employees in the following categories:
 1. Accountants[1]
 2. Suppliers [2]
 3. Teachers [3]
 4. Scientists [4]
 5. Lectures [5]
 6. Others [6]
 It is possible that a person can categories himself as a teacher and a lecturer at the
same point. To avoid this problem make sure operational definitions are given.
 Data processing
 For example: defining a teacher as a person having a certificate in education
or a diploma in a education or a Bachelor degree in education who is teaching
in a primary schools or in a secondary schools.
CLASSIFICATION
 Classificationis just a process of putting responses of the same characteristics
in the same group or class.
 Data having common traits are grouped together and therefore whole
responses get divided into a number of classes.
 The major role of classification is to reduce the hugeness of collected raw data
to facilitated easy tabulation.
Data processing …

 Classification of data according to attributes and class

interval
No. of Students Classification according to Classification according to
class intervals attributes

20 90 - 100 A

75 70 - 89 B+

28 60 - 69 B

17 50 - 59 C

13 40 - 49 D
Data processing …

TABULATION
 Tabulation is the process of summarizing collected raw data in a table to
facilitate computation of the various measurement during data analysis.
 Data are arranged in form of rows and columns by presenting the number
of frequencies falling into each of the several classes.
 Tabulation facilitate statistical computation, It also saves space, makes
comparison possible and identification of errors.
 Some principles of tabulation.
 Data processing …

i. Insert a title to tell what the table is all about.

ii. Number the table to facilitate easy referencing.
iii. Indicate the source(s) of the data presented in the table just below the table to avoid
plagiarism.
iv. Do not overcrowd the table. Avoid unnecessary details in the table, instead use
approximation whenever it necessary.
v. Abbreviation should be avoided to the extent possible
vi. Indicate the units of measurements under each heading (e.g TZS, Tones, kg etc)
vii. Footnotes (if any) be placed directly beneath the tables.
DATA ANALYSIS
 Data analysis refers to the computation of the certain measures along with
searching for patterns of relationship that exist among groups.
 The process of analysis aims at determining whether our observations support
the hypothesis we formulated before going into the field to collect the
information or reject them.
 The main goal of data analysis is formulation of conclusion that can be used
in decision making in future situation.
 Two techniques for analyzing data
i. Quantitative techniques
ii. Qualitative techniques
DATA ANALYSIS …

 The quantitative techniques are statistical in nature and are divided in

two descriptive and inferential statistics.
 Descriptive statistics
a. Measures of central tendency: numbers that defines the location of
distribution’s centre.
i. Mode
ii. Median
iii. Mean
DATA ANALYSIS …

b. Measures of Dispersions
i. Range
ii. Variance
iii. Standard deviation
Data analysis …

  ARITHMETIC

MEAN
 Arithmetic mean is obtained by adding all the data values and
dividing by the number of items.
 If the data are from the sample the mean is denoted by
 If the data are from the population the mean is denoted by
 Formula from sample mean
Data analysis …

  For

population mean

 Where is total number of items in the sample/population.

 For grouped data

 = midpoint multiplied by its frequency

 = The total number of cases
Data analysis …

 THE MEDIAN
 The median is a position average that divides the distribution into two equal parts. In
short median is a midpoint.
 THE MODE
 The mode is a measured which occurs most frequency in a distribution. That is the
most common or frequently occurring number in a distribution
 It is possible a distribution to have more than one mode
 It is also possible a distribution to have no mode.
Data analysis …
  
Measures of Dispersion
Refers to measure the spread of the values from the centre.

RANGE
It is defined as the difference between the largest and smallest value.

VARIANCE
 The difference between an observed value and the mean is called the
deviation from the mean.

 The variance is the mean squared deviation from the mean

 Population variance
Measures of dispersion …

The larger the variance, the further the individual cases are from the mean.

Mean

The smaller the variance, the closer the individual scores are to the mean.

Mean
  
Sample

variance

 Standard deviation
 it intends to show how far on the average a score is from the
mean.

 Coefficient of Variation
 It indicates how large the standard deviation is relative to the
mean.
EXERCISES
  
1. Find the mode, mean, median, range and standard deviation from the following set
of numbers

2. Given the distribution of marks scored by students in research methods as follows

Class interval Frequency
f
35 - 44 10
45 - 54 15
55 - 64 12
65 - 74 16
75 - 84 4
Exercise …

 Compute variance and standard deviation.

GRAPHIC PRESENTATION

Data can be presented in graphics forms and tabular forms for easy interpretation
and understanding.
Graphic representation means the use of graphs, charts and other pictorial devices.

Examples of forms of graphs are:

a) Line graphs
-simple line graphs
-Group (comparative) line graphs
-Divergence line graphs
-Cumulative line graphs
Graphic presentation …

 b) Bar graphs
• Simple bar graphs
• Group (comparative ) bar graphs
• Compound bar graphs
• Divergence bar graphs
c) Age and gender graphs such as population pyramids
d) Semi-logarithmic graphs
e) Pie charts
Graphic presentation …

 f) Statistical maps
• Dot maps
• Isolines
• Shading maps
Note: All of these graphs can be easily be drawn by
using software packages. e.g Microft Excell
Worked Example

Using the table below draw the simple line graph (cashew
nut) simple bar graph (cashew nut), grouped bar graph and
compound bar graph to portray the given information.
The main crops produced in country X
(000 tones)- Hypothetical
  Cashew nut Wheat Rice
Year (tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes)
1990 23470 47930 60890
1991 30000 59985 532180
1992 25890 47832 60987
1993 31080 59990 52900
1994 26000 52000 54800
1995 22000 44309 65093
1996 34900 60820 52098
1997 29876 59999 521890
1998 35000 62090 49905
1999 28630 56902 54903
Descriptive Statistics Vs Inferential
Statistics
 Descriptive statistics intend to describe a big hunk of data with
summary charts and tables, but do not attempt to draw conclusions
about the population from which the sample was taken.  

 Inferential statistics, you are testing a hypothesis and drawing

conclusions about a population, based on your sample.  In this case, you
are going to run concepts like ANOVA, T-Test, Chi-Squared, confidence
interval, regression etc.