wk1 Intro

INTRODUCTION TO
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
Lynn W Zimmerman, PhD
What is Research?
• endless • publish
• sometimes painful • statistics
• convincing • never perfect
• experiment • boring
• findings • time consuming
• consistent • experts
• analysis • unpredictable
• implications
University of Hawaii data
What is Methodology?
• A specific way or method of performing a process

• An organized, documented set of procedures and
guidelines
• A step-by-step approach for carrying out the
procedure
What is Research Methodology?
• Methods to collect data, and the concepts and
theories which underlie the methods
• A scientific and systematic way to solve a research
problem by using various logical steps
• Helps to define and clarify the process and the
product of the research
• Aims to describe and analyze the methods
themselves, to clarify their strengths and limitations
Influences on Research
• Expectations and possibilities concerning research in
your field
• What do people in education do research on?
• Effectiveness of teaching strategies
• Student motivation
• Effects of testing on learning
• Influence on learning of sequence of instruction
Three Types of Research
Basic or
theoretical
Applied Practical
Quantitative Research Methodologies
• Quantitative research
• collect quantitative data
• measure variables
• verify existing theories or hypotheses or questioning
them
• data often used to generate new hypotheses
• emphasizes the measurement and analysis of causal
relationships between variables, not processes.
Qualitative Research Methodologies
• Qualitative research
• to understand meanings
• look at, describe and understand experience, ideas,
beliefs and values
• seeks answers to questions that stress how social
experience is created and given meaning
• subjects that are difficult to quantify
Side-by-Side Comparison Chart
Qualitative Quantitative
Data - words, pictures or objects. Data - numbers and statistics.
Inductive - derived from specific Deductive - based on logical analysis of
examples. available facts
Researcher discloses biases, values, and The researcher documents the results
experiences that may impact using objective language.
interpretation of results.
Gathers data through interviews, Uses tools, such as questionnaires or
observations, content analysis, etc. equipment to collect numerical data.
The design emerges as the study unfolds. Researcher carefully designs all aspects of
study before collecting data.
Researcher may only know roughly in The researcher knows clearly in advance
advance what he/she is looking for. what he/she is looking for.
What? Why? How many?
Natural setting. Highly controlled.
Quotes, bar/line graphs, pie charts. Pie charts, statistics, and graphs.
Example: Analysis of an Oil Painting
Qualitative Quantitative
Blue/green color Picture is 10” X 14”
Gold frame With frame, 14” x 18”
Smells old and musty Weight 8.5 pounds
Texture shows masterful brush Surface area of painting = 140 sq. in.
strokes Cost = $300
Peaceful scene of the countryside
Variables
• Variable - something that changes
• it changes according to different factors
• Researchers, especially quantitative researchers are
often seeking to measure variables.
• The two primary types of variables are
• Independent – the variable the researcher wants to
measure (the cause)
• Dependent – the effect (or assumed effect)
Mixed Method
• A combination of both - often quantitative to
establish baselines and background and qualitative
for follow up
• triangulate
• back up one set of findings from one method of data
collection supported by one methodology, with
another very different method underpinned by
another methodology
Why Do Research?
• Objectives of research
• To discover new facts
• To verify or test important facts
• To analyze an event, process or phenomenon
• To identify a cause/effect relationship
• To develop new scientific tools, concepts and theories to solve
and understand scientific and nonscientific problems
• To find solutions to scientific, nonscientific, and social
problems
• To overcome or solve problems occurring in our everyday lives
Bases for Research by Educators
• Practical problems which arise in the
classroom
• Secondary sources – articles and conference
presentations about someone else’s research
which may raise questions for further research
• Primary research – reports of data which may
raise questions for further research
Qualitative and Quantitative Research in
Education
• Educational research
• has moved away from relying only on quantitative research
and toward more qualitative research
• Quantitative methods
• developed by the natural science to study natural phenomena.
• Examples: surveys, laboratory experiments, numerical
methods, etc.
• Qualitative methods
• developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study
social and cultural phenomena.
• Examples: Action research, case study research
Purpose of Educational Research
• Advancement of knowledge of education and learning

processes
• Development of tools and methods necessary to support
them.
• May be undertaken at the individual, situational,
institutional, and social structural levels of analysis
What Educational Researchers Do
• Education researchers aim to describe, understand, and
explain
• how learning takes place throughout the life cycle
• how formal and informal processes of education affect
learning, attainment, and the capacity to lead productive
lives.
• Unifying purpose - to build cumulative and sound
knowledge about human and social process of
fundamental significance to individuals, to groups, and to
the larger society
Revisit Your Definition
• Research
• Is planned, systematic investigation
• has testable theories
• attempts to study phenomenon through careful
description and identification, sometimes controlling
and manipulating them to study them in isolation to
discover and obtain knowledge.
References
• Brown, J. and Rodgers, T. (2002). Doing second language research.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Perry, Jr., F.L. (2005). Research in applied linguistics: Becoming a
discerning consumer. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Seliger, H. and Shohamy, E. (1989). Second language research
methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

wk1 Intro

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

wk1 Intro

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

wk1 Intro

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

INTRODUCTION TO

• A specific way or method of performing a process

• Advancement of knowledge of education and learning

You might also like