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RESEARCH 2
BTVTEd 3

LEARNING ANYTIME
The Nature of Research

• Research means searching for a theory, for testing a theory, or for solving a problem. It
means that a problem exists and has been identified and that the solution of the
problem is necessary.
• Kerlinger (1973) defines scientific research as “systematic, controlled, empirical, and
critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among
natural phenomena.
• Research is systematic when it follows steps or stages that begin with identification of
the problem, relating of this problem with existing theories, collection of data, analysis
and interpretation of these data, drawing of conclusions and integration of these
conclusions into the stream of knowledge.
• The problem is defined thoroughly, variables identified and selected, instruments
carefully selected or constructed, and conclusions drawn only from the data yielded.

The Research Problem

• One of the critical steps that you will take in thesis writing is the choice of a problem.
• Situations that may manifest a problem
• When there is an absence of information resulting in gap in our knowledge
• When there are contradictory results
• When a fact exists and you intend to make your study explain it.

Characteristics of a Good Problem

• The topic should be of great interest to you. You must have a preliminary knowledge
of what it is alien to you.
• It is useful for the concerned people in a particular field. You should then see to it
that the problem that you are going to investigate has some practical value or good
contributions to education or to other fields of concentration for this matter.
• It must posses novelty. There is a need to be explored more extensively.
• A good problem is one which invites more complex designing. A problem can
become more challenging if some variables are added.
• A good problem can become completed in the allotted time desired.
• A good problem does not carry ethical or moral impediments. It should be changed
into something that will not put individuals in bad light.

Skills for Discovering and Identifying a Problem

1. Reading a lot of literature in the field of concentration and being critical of what one read.
2. Attending professional lectures
3. Being close observant of situations and happenings around
4. Thinking out the possibility of research for most topics or lessons taken in content
courses.
5. Attending research colloqiums or seminars
6. Conducting mini-researches and noting the obtained findings closely
7. Compiling researches with special emphasis on content and methodology
8. Visiting various libraries for possible discovery of researchable topics
9. Subscribing to journals in your field and research.
10. Building up a library of materials in your field.
Statement of the Problem

1. You may start defining some major terms or concepts.

2. You should read further literature. Concentration is held on what researchers and
experts have said and done about the problem.
3. You probably will get attracted in the instruments of the author. You need to secure
his/her authority.

• It is worth mentioning in the survey of the related literature the specific variable of your
study. You will mention as well who your respondents will be and what method/s you
will use. And finally, you will also discuss the limits of your study.

Writing the Title of the Investigation

• It draws, in summary form, the content of the entire investigation.

• It serves as a framework of reference for the whole thesis.
• It enables the researcher to claim the title as his own.
• It helps other researchers to refer to the work for possible survey of theory.
• You should write the title clearly and specifically. The main concepts should be included.
• It is also for clarity and specificity that the relationship among the variables has been
indicated.

Writing the Specific Questions

• You must write them in quantifiable terms. This is one vital characteristic of a good
question. The specificity you have set will ascertain just what questions you need to
answer. Quantification and measurement will give more direction to the investigation. It
has to be broken down into smaller ones.

The Hypothesis

• As soon as you have found a suitable topic for a problem, you should start building up
your predictions of the outcome of the study. These predictions may just be based on
your observations or your firm belief about the topic but these are all pending. The real
hypothesis will be formulated after a thorough review of the literature.
• It is a tentative explanation for certain behaviors, phenomena, or events which have
occurred or will occur. It states the researcher’s expectations concerning the relationship
between the variables in the research problem. A hypothesis then is the most specific
statement of a problem of a potential relationship between two or more variables.

Characteristics of a Good Hypothesis

• A good hypothesis is one that shows a reasonable explanation of the events that have
occurred or that will occur. It should also state, in definite terms, the relationship
between variables.
• It should be testable. It should be definitely stated that the hypothesis clearly indicates
what it predicts.
• It should follow the findings of the previous studies.
Functions of the Hypothesis

• A hypothesis introduces the researcher’s thinking at the start of the study. It is not
enough that your problem be stated and specific questions be presented.
• The hypothesis structures the next stages or procedures of the study.
• It helps you provide the format for the presentation, analysis, and interpretation f the
data in the thesis.

Types of Hypothesis

Null Hypothesis
• It is usually non-directional since there is no stated direction.
• It involves two-tailed tests. It goes against what the researcher’s true
expectations.

Alternative Hypothesis
 It is the operational statement of the research hypothesis. It is the expectation based on
theory.
 It is directional and is one-tailed.

Assumptions

• An assumption is any important fact presumed to be true but not actually verified. This
pertains to events or situations that seem so true that they are taken for granted. It does
not need testing.

Scope and Limitations

• It defines where and when the study was conducted and who the subjects were. The
scope sets the delimitations and establishes the boundaries of the study.
• A limitation is a phrase or aspect of the investigation which may affect the result
adversely but over which the researcher has no control.

Definition of Terms

• As soon as you have found a suitable topic or problem for investigation, the first thing
you should do among other important steps, is to define some important concepts found
in your topic or problem. Definition of important concepts to use in the research makes
these terms precise in the sense that no two individuals would associate two different
meanings to them.
• A conceptual definition also known as constitutive, is that which is given in dictionaries. It
is the academic or the universal meaning attributed to a word or group of words.
Moreover, it is mostly abstract and formal in nature.
• The operational definition, is also known as the functional definition. Kerlinger gives two
forms of operational definition, namely, the measured and the experimental. The
measured operational states the way the concept is measured in the investigation.
• In an experimental operational definition, the researcher may spell out the details of the
manipulation of the variable.
The Variable

• It is a characteristic that has two or more mutually exclusive values or properties. They
are constructs or properties being evaluated.
• The independent variable is the basis on which grouping is made. It is considered as
the cause while the dependent variable is the effect. It is the object of the investigation.

Theory and the Review of Related Literature

• A theory is a set of interrelated constructs, definitions and propositions that

present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among
variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena.

Functions of Theory

• It identifies the start for the research problem by presenting the gaps, weak points, and
inconsistencies in the previous researches. This provides the study with a conceptual
framework, justifying the need for investigation.
• It puts together all the constructs or concepts that are related with the researcher’s topic.
It leads you into the specific questions to ask in your own investigation.
• It presents the relationships among variables that have been investigated. This process
enables you to view the topic on hand against the topic earlier bared. These findings
have the function of explaining the phenomena.

The Review of Related Literature

• It is the major process that leads you to past theory. It is your immediate concern to look
for these sources, to put the literature into some organized form, and to use this
literature in your study. It involves the systematic identification, location and analysis of
documents containing information related to the research problems.

Functions of the Related Lit

• It provides the conceptual or theoretical framework of the planned research.

• It provides you with the information about past researches related to the intended study.
This process prevents unintentional duplication of these past researches and leads to be
investigated.
• It gives you a feeling of confidence since you will have on hand constructs related to
your study. You are therefor an authority on the subject.
• It gives you information about the research methods used, the population and sampling
considered, the instruments used in gathering the data, and the statistical computation in
previous research.
• It provides findings and conclusions of past investigations which you may relate to your
own findings and conclusions.

The literature review will include three areas:

• 1. Empirical studies relating motor and cognitive development
• 2. Motor development
• 3. The neo-Piagetian theories of development as they relate to motor and cognitive
development.
The Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

• Framework is a skeletal or structural frame. As a frame or skeleton, it is also a

foundation that provides base and support. It is a frame upon which something is based.
• Theoretical means relating to or having the characteristics of theory. It becomes the
basis of the research problem. It also explains the phenomena upon which the thesis
investigation hopes to fill the vacuum in the stream of knowledge.

Planning Your Research Project

• When we talk about a general strategy for solving a research problem, we are talking
about a research design. The research design provides the overall structure for the
procedures the researcher follows, the data the researcher collects, and the data
analyses the researcher conducts. Simply put , research design is planning.
• Nothing helps a research effort be successful so much as carefully planning the overall
design. More research effort be wasted so much as carefully planning the overall design.
• You will be much more efficient and effective as a researcher if you identify your
resources, your procedures, and the forms that your data will take – always with the
central goal of solving such research problem in mind – at the very beginning of your
project.

General Criteria for a Research Project

• A good research project has four important qualities that can use as criteria in evaluating
your own research plan.
1. Universality. The research project should be one that might be carried out by any competent
person. The researcher is merely a catalyst, an agent whose function is to collect, organize, and
report what the collected data seem to indicate.
2. Replication. The researcher should be repeatable. Any other competent researcher should
be able to take the problem and, collecting data under the same circumstances and within the
same parameters you have used, achieve results comparable to those you have obtained.
3. Control. The researcher is some way isolate, or control, those factors that are central to the
research problem. Control is important for replication. An experiment should be repeated under
the identical conditions and in the identical way in which it was first carried out.
• Control is more easily achieved in some areas than in others. It is especially important in
experimental research designs.
4. Measurement. The data should measured is some way. This, again, is easily accomplished
in the physical sciences. Measurement is typically less precise and less accurate in the
humanities and social sciences.

Determining the Validity of Measurement Instruments

Validity of measurement instrument is the extent to which the instrument measures what it is
actually intended to measure.
1. Face Validity is the extent to which the instrument looks like it’s measuring a particular
characteristics.
2. Content validity is the extent to which a measurement instrument is a representative
sample of the domain being measured.
3. Criterion validity is the extent to which the results of an assessment instrument correlate
with another.
4. Construct validity is the extent to which an instrument measures a characteristic that cannot
be directly observed but is assumed to exist based on patterns in people’s behavior.

Determining the Reliability of Measurement Instruments

• Interrater reliability is the extent to which two or more individuals evaluating the same
product or performance give identical judgements.
• Internal consistency reliability is the extent to which all of the items within a single
instrument yield similar results.
• Equivalent forms reliability is the extent to which two different versions of the same
instrument.
• Test-retest reliability is the extent to which a single instrument yields the same results
for the same people on two different occasions.

Research Methods

• Research methods follow well-defined general procedures, be they basic, applied or

developmental.
• Basic or pure research is conducted primarily to test or arrive at theory. Its main
objective is to establish general principles without known or intended practical
application of the findings. It is in search of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
• Applied research refers to the application of theory to the solution of problems. It is
conducted for the purpose of applying, or testing theory, and evaluating its usefulness.
• Action research which is popularly used in schools, is a feature of applied research
since the former involves discovering and identifying a problem in the local setting, in the
classroom for example, and solving it in the same setting but without intention of
generalizing its results.

Comparing Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches

Quantitative research involves looking at amount or quantities of one or more variables of

interest. In contrast, qualitative involves looking at characteristics or qualities that can not easily
be reduced to numerical values. A qualitative researcher typically aims to examine the many
nuances and complexities of a particular phenomenon.
Ethical Issues in Research

• Within certain disciplines – the social sciences, education, criminology, medicine, and
similar areas of study – the use of human beings in research is, of course, quite
common. An in biology the subjects of investigation are often nonhuman animals.
Whenever human beings or other creatures with the potential to think, feel and
experience physical or psychological distress are the focus of investigation, we must
look closely at the ethical implications of what are we proposing to do.

Protection from Harm

• Researchers should not expose research participants to unnecessary physical or

psychological harm. When a study involves human beings, the general rule of thumb is
that the risk involved in participating in a study should not be appreciably greater than
the normal risks of day-to-day living. Participants should not risk losing life or limb, nor
should they be subjected to unusual stress, embarrassment, or lose of self-esteem.
Debriefing or counselling should follow immediately after their participation.

Informed Consent

• When research involves public documents or records that human beings have previously
created- birth certificates, newspaper articles, and so on – such documents and records
are generally considered to be fair game for investigation by researchers. But when
people are intentionally recruited for participation in a research study, they should be told
the nature of the study to be conducted and given the choice of either participating or
not. Any participation in a study should be strictly voluntary.

What information shall an informed consent contain?

• A brief description of the nature of the study

• A description of what participation will involve, in terms of activities and duration
• A statement indicating that participation is voluntary and can be terminated at any time
without penalty
• A list of any potential risk and/or discomfort that participants may encounter
• The guarantee that all responses will remain confidential and anonymous
• The researcher’s name, plus information about how the researcher can be contacted.
• An individual or office that participants can contact, should they have questions or
concerns about the study.
• An offer to provide detailed information about the study (summary of findings)
• A place for the participant to sign and date the letter, indicating agreement to participate.

Honesty with Professional Colleagues

• Reporters must report their findings in a complete and honest fashion, without
misrepresenting what they have done or intentionally misleading others about the nature
of their findings. And under no circumstances should a researcher fabricate data to
support a particular conclusion, no matter how seemingly “noble” that conclusion may
be.
Methodology and Concomitant Research Goals
Qualitative Research

• The term qualitative research encompasses several approaches to research that are, in
some respects, quite different from one another.

Characteristics of Some Qualitative Designs

Historical Research

• It means the search for knowledge and the truth. It involves any appeal to past
experience to help in knowing what to do in the present and future. It is concerned with
describing past events or facts in a spirit of inquiring critically for the whole truth. We
must therefore, look at historical data from the historical perspective. This means that we
 have to view the data as part of the development of society instead of isolated facts.
• It is an integrated narrative of past events which aims at the critical search for the whole
truth. It is both science and art in that it involves research which is science and it
employs a cohesive, masterful style of narration which is art. It is regarded as much
more than just a chronicle of the impressive events of the past; its data find applicability
to contemporary issues and problems.
Activity

Group No.: _______________________________ Date: ___________________

Below is the list of the different groups with corresponding members throughout this course.
Each group must choose a leader.

Group 1 Group 2

Carzano, Kent Nulla, Melanie

Paquibot, Ethel Dumali, Noel
Daño, Mark Donnel Malingin, Lorie Jane
Paraiso, Decie Mae Aying, Beverly
Ocampo, Crizel Lomod, Jay Marie

Group 3 Group 4

Suaton, Sairel Clarin, Shara Mae

Lapatis, Jessel Coremo, Rita
Aying, Gen An Dehito, Melona
Inoc, Rosel Daño, Bryal Rose
Baron, Hilary Daño, Christel Ann
Dedel, Sweet Joren

Directions: Choose 3 academic problems related to your course. You may refer to
different research papers and articles.
Note: The problems must be checked and approved by the teacher.

1.
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2.
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3.
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