Macasa Learning Center

Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite

Practical Research 1
First Semester

Nature of Inquiry and Research

Inquiry - is a learning process that motivates you to obtain knowledge or information, about people, things,
places or events.

Research - is a process of executing various mental acts for discovering and examining facts and information to
prove the accuracy or truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about the topic of your research.

Characteristics of Research
1. Accuracy 5. Clarity
2. Objectiveness 6. Systematic
3. Timeliness
4. Relevance

Types of Research
1. Descriptive - aims at defining or giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a person, thing, event, group, situation
etc.
2. Correlational - shows relationships or connectedness of two factors, circumstances, or agents called
variables that affect the research.
3. Explanatory - explains not just the reasons behind the relationship of two factors, but also the ways by which
such relationship exist.
4. Exploratory - its purpose is to find out how reasonable or possible it is to conduct a research study on a
certain topic.
5. Action - it studies an ongoing practice of a school, organization, community, or institution for the purpose of
obtaining results that will bring improvements in the system.

Qualitative Research - the research uses words rather than numbers to express the results, the inquiry, or
investigation about people’s thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views, and lifestyles regarding the object of the study.

Quantitative Research - it presents research findings referring to the number of frequency of something in
numerical forms.

Qualitative Research and Its Importance in Daily Life

Qualitative Research is a research that puts high value on people’s thinking or point of view conditioned by their
personal traits. It usually takes place in soft sciences like social sciences, politics, economics, humanities,
education, psychology, nursing, and all business-related subjects.
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

Characteristics of a Qualitative Research

1. Human understanding and interpretation 6. Diversified data in real-life situations
2. Active, powerful, and forceful 7. Abounds with words and visuals
3. Multiple research approaches and methods 8. Internal analysis
4. Specificity to generalization
5. Contextualization

Types of Qualitative Research

1. Case study - This involves a long-time study of a person, group. Organization, or situation.It seeks to find
answers to why such thing occurs to the subject.
2. Ethnography - It is the study of a particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its organizational
set-up, internal operation, and lifestyle.
3. Phenomenology - It refers to the study of how people find their experiences meaningful.
4. Content and Discourse Analysis - Content Analysis requires examination of the substance or the content
mode of communication used by a person, group. Organization, or any institution in communicating. Discourse
Analysis - is a study language structures used in the medium of communication to discover the effects of
sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the content.
5. Historical Analysis - It will make you understand the connection of past events to the present time.
6. Grounded Theory - It takes place when you discover a new theory to underlie your study at the time of data
collection and analysis.

Strengths of Qualitative Research

1. Adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter. 6. It increases the researcher’s interest in the study
as it includes the researcher’s experience or
2. Promotes a full understanding of human behavior
background knowledge in interpreting verbal and
or personality traits in their natural setting.
visual data.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining
4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality as its knowledge about something.
demands the researcher’s careful and attentive stand
toward people’s world views.
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social
interactions.
Weaknesses of Qualitative Research
1. It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis.
2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
3. It is time consuming.
4. It is open-ended questions yield “data overload” that requires long-time analysis.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the researcher’s views.
 Macasa Learning Center
Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

Identifying the Inquiry and Stating the Problem

Subject Matter of the Inquiry or Research

Guidelines in Choosing a Research topic

1. Interest in the subject matter 4. Limitations on the subject
2. Availability of information 5. Personal Resources
3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic

Research Topic to be Avoided

1. Controversial topics 5. Too narrow subjects
2. Highly Technical subjects 6. Vague subjects
3. Hard- to-investigate subjects
4. Too broad subjects

Sources of Research Topics

1. Mass media communication
2. Books, internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publications
3. Professionals periodicals
4. General Periodicals
5. Previews reading assignments in your other subjects
6. Work experience

Research Problem
Is a definite or clear expression about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be
eliminated, or a troubling question that exist in scholarly literature, in theory or within existing practice that points
to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation.

Research Question
Is an answerable inquiry into a specific concern or issue.

Learning from Others and Reviewing the Literature

Review of Related Literature (RRL)

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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

is an analysis of man’s written or spoken knowledge of the world.

Purposes of RRL
1. To obtain background knowledge of your research. 6. To explain technical terms involved in your
research study.
2. To relate your study to the current condition or
situation of the world. 7. To highlight the significance of your work with the
kind of evidence it gathered to support the conclusion
3. To show the capacity of your research work to
of your research.
introduce new knowledge.
8. To avoid repeating research studies.
4. To expand, prove, or disprove the findings of
previous research studies. 9. To recommend the necessity of further research on
a certain topic.
5. To increase your understanding of the underlying
theories, principles, or concepts of your research.

Styles or Approaches of RRL

1. Traditional Review of Literature (TRL) - to summarize present forms of knowledge on a specific subject.

Different types of TRL

1. Conceptual review
2. Critical review
3. State-of-the-Art review
4. Expert review
5. Scoping review

2. Systematic Review of Literature (SRL) - involves sequential acts of a review of related literature.

Stages of the Process of Review of Related Literature

1. Stage 1 Search for the Literature - This is the stage where you devote much of your time in looking for
sources of knowledge, data, or information to answer your research questions or to support your assumptions
about your research topic.
2. Stage 2 Reading the Source Material - Reading, understanding, or making the materials meaning to you on
the second stage of reading RRL.
3. Stage 3 Writing the Review - This is the stage of idea connection and organization in order to form an overall
understanding of the material by paraphrasing or summarizing the it.

Citation - a source quoted in an essay, report, or book to clarify, illustrate, or substantiate a point.
Purposes of Citation
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

1. To give importance and respect to other people for what they know about the field.
2. To help readers find or contact the sources of ideas easily.
3. To give authority, validity, and credibility to other people’s claims, conclusions, and arguments.
4. To prove your broad and extensive reading of authentic and relevant materials about your topic.
5. To permit readers to check the accuracy of your work.
6. To save yourself from plagiarism.

Styles of Citation
1. Integral Citation - This is one way of citing or referring to the author whose ideas appear in your work.
2. Non-integral Citation - It reflects the author’s personal inclinations to a certain extent.

Patterns of Citation
1. Summary Extract
2. Paraphrase 5. Tense of Verbs for Reporting
3. Short Direct Quotation
4. Long Direct Quotation or Block Quotation or
Plagiarism - is an act of quoting or copying the exact words of the writer and passing the quoted words off as
your own words.

Understanding Data and Ways to Systematically Collect Data

Design - it means a plan or something that is conceptualized by the mind.

Types of Qualitative Research Designs
1. Case Study 4. Phenomenology
2. Ethnography 5. Grounded Theory
3. Historical Study

Sampling - is a word that refers to your method or process of selecting respondents or people to answer
questions meant to yield data for a research study.
Population - the bigger group from where you choose the sample.
Sampling Frame - the list of the members of such population from where you will get the sample.

Classes of Sampling
1.Probability or Unbiased Sampling - involves all members listed in the sampling frame representing a certain
population focused on by your study. By means of this sampling, you are able to obtain a sample that is capable
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

of representing the population under study or of showing strong similarities in characteristics with the members
of the population.
Types of Probability Sampling
1. Simple Random Sampling - best type of probability sampling through which you can choose sample from a
population.
2. Systematic Sampling - chance and system are the ones to determine who should compose the sample.
3. Stratified Sampling - The group comprising the sample is chosen in a way that such a group is liable to
subdivision during the data analysis stage.
4. Cluster Sampling - It makes you isolate a set of persons instead of individual members to serve as sample
members.

2. Non-Probability Sampling - disregards random selection of subjects. The subjects are chosen based on
their availability or the purpose of the study, and in some cases, on the sole discretion of the researcher.
Types of Non-Probability Sampling
1.Quota Sampling - you tend to choose sample members possessing or indicating the characteristics of the
target population.
2.Voluntary Sampling - there is no need for you to do any selection process
3.Purposive or Judgmental Sampling - choosing people whom you are sure could respond to the objectives of
your study.
4.Availability Sampling - the willingness of a person as your subject to interact with you.
5.Snowball Sampling - obtaining data from any group to form the sample of your study.

Finding Answers through Data Collection

Observation - is a technique of gathering data whereby you personally watch, interact, or communicate with the
subjects of your research.

Types of Observation
1. Participant Observation - the observer, who is the researcher, takes part in the activities of the individual or
group being observed.
2. Non-participation or Structured Observation - it completely detaches you from the target of your observation.

Methods of Observation
1. Direct Observation - makes you see or listen to everything that happens in the area of observation.
2. Indirect Observation - (also called behavior archaeology) you observe traces of past events to get information
or a measure of behavior, trait, or quality of your subject.
Methods of Indirect Observation
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

1.Continuous Monitoring or CM - you observe to evaluate the way people deal with one another.
2.Spot Sampling - (also known as scan or time sampling) - it focus on researching the extent of children’s
nervous habits as they would go through their regular personality development.
Two types of Spot Sampling 1. Time Allocation or TA 2. Experience Sampling

Interview - is a data gathering technique that makes you verbally ask the subjects or respondents questions to
give answers to what your research study is trying to look for.

Types of Interview
1. Structured Interview - requires the use of an interview schedule or a list of questions answerable with one and
only item from a set of alternative responses.
2. Unstructured Interview - the respondents answer the questions based on what they personally think and feel
about it.
3. Semi-Structured Interview - you prepare a schedule or list of questions that is accompanied by a list of
expressions from where the respondents can pick out the correct answer.

Approaches
1. Individual Interview 3. Mediated Interview
2. Group Interview

Steps in Conducting an Interview

1. Getting to know each other 5. Putting an end to the interview
2. Having an idea of the research 6. Pondering over interview afterthoughts
3. Starting the interview
4. Conducting the interview proper

Questionnaire - is a paper containing a list of questions including the specific place and space in the paper
where you write the answers to the questions.

Types of Questionnaire
1. Postal questionnaire - goes to the respondent through postal service or electronic mail.
2. Self-administered questionnaire - makes you act as the interviewer and the interviewee at the same time.

Analyzing the Meaning of the Data and Drawing Conclusions

Data Analysis - is a process of understanding data or known facts or assumptions serving as the basis of any
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

claims or conclusions you have about something.

Coding - act of using symbols like letters or words to represent arbitrary or subjective data to ensure secrecy or
privacy of data.
Collating - bringing together the coded data
Data Matrix - used to name table of responses that consists of table of cases and their associated variables.

Two types of Data Matrix

1.Profile Matrix - shows measurements of variables or factors for a set of cases or respondents.
2.Proximity Matrix - indicates measurements of similarities and differences between items.
Similarity matrix - measurements show how alike things are
Dissimilarity matrix - show how different they are

Qualitative Data Analysis - is a time consuming process. It makes you deal with data coming from a wide
sources of information.
Conclusion - is a type of inferential or interpretative thinking that derives its validity, truthfulness, or
reasonableness from your sensory experience.
Drawing Conclusions - you form conclusions that arise from the factual data you encountered and analyzed.

Reporting and Sharing the Findings

Structure or Format of the Research Report

1. Title - gives information and description of the subject matter of the research.
2. Abstract - concisely discusses the essential aspects of your paper such as the background of the problem,
objectives, significance, research design, data collection technique, data analysis method, discussions of the
findings, scope, conclusions among others.
3. Introduction - explains the background of the research problem, states a set of specific research questions,
and of optional hypotheses or assumptions.
4. Method - explains the types and sources of data as well as the method you used in collecting and analyzing
the data you have gathered.
5. Findings - present as findings of your study those that you have analyzed and commented on.
Ways of doing findings
A. Geographical presentation
B. Statistical method
C. Written discussion
6. Discussion and Conclusion - Findings resulting from thematically or theoretically gathered and analyzed data
with the capacity of leading you to a valid conclusion are explained. Conclusions become valuable as they are
able to answer the specific research questions and render any research hypotheses or assumptions right or
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Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester

wrong.
7. Recommendations - it broaden the readers’ knowledge and understanding of the are covered by the research
8. References - list down all the sources of knowledge you used in carrying out your study.
9. Appendix - contains copies of table, questionnaires, interview rates, observation checklist, and other
materials that are necessary in completing your research study.

Referencing your research - means directing your readers to the exact sources of data or information stated in
your report, particularly those stated in the review of related literature.

Styles of Referencing Your Research

1. Harvardian 3. Turibian 5. MLA
2. Vancouver 4. APA

MLA Style (Modern Language Association) also known as Humanities Style - often used in literature, history
and arts. It provides bibliographic citation in notes that correspond to reference number in the body of the paper.
These notes are called footnotes when they are printed at the foot of the page; notes or endnotes or back
notes when they are printed at the back of the book, at the end of the chapter, or at the end of an article in a
journal.
Substantive or Discursive Notes - notes consisting of explanations or elaborations of the discussions in the
text.

Example of Substantive or Discursive Notes

In 2016, the recipients of the TOYM award mostly came from the NCR (National Capital Region). Only one
hailed from the southern part of the country. (Mario Yulo. 2017. Awards for World Progress. Quezon City:
National Press Club, 2017, p. 38)

Examples of End Notes

p. 20 3.89 Fredo Gomez, Language and Culture, in “On Intercultural Competence,” p. 68.
P. 25 3.45 Contemporary Movies, p. 478

APA Style (American Psychological Association) also known as Author-Date Style - often used by
researchers in the field of natural science and social sciences. APA uses space and time.
Two parts of APA Referencing Style
1.In-text citation or citation
2.Reference list
Macasa Learning Center
Greenplain/Greentown Village Mambog Bacoor Cavite
Practical Research 1
First Semester