I.

Nature of Inquiry

INQUIRY
- Learning process that motivates you to obtain knowledge or information
about people, things, places, or events
- Requires collection of data, meaning, facts, and information about the object
of inquiry, and examine such data carefully
- Execute varied thinking strategies that range from lower-order to higher-order
thinking skills such as inferential, critical, integrative, and creative thinking
- As a problem-solving technique, it includes cooperative learning because any
knowledge from members of the society can help to make the solution

GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OR FOUNDATION OF INQUIRY

Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

–"The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by

independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined
through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable
peers."

- stresses the essence of provocation and scaffolding in learning.

John Dewey’s Theory of Connected Experiences for Exploratory and Reflective

Thinking

-for Dewey, the everyday world of common experience was all the reality that
man had access to or needed -considered the scientific mode of inquiry and the
scientific systematization of human experience the highest attainment in the
evolution of the mind of man.

-defined the educational process as a "continual reorganization, reconstruction and

transformation of experience", for he believed that it is only through experience that
man learns about the world and only by the use of his experience that man can
maintain and better himself in the world.

Jerome Bruner’s Theory

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 - Bruner's theoretical framework is based on the theme that learners construct
new ideas or concepts based upon existing knowledge - Learning is an active process.
Facets of the process include selection and transformation of information, decision
making, generating hypotheses, and making meaning from information and
experiences.

- Bruner's theories emphasize the significance of categorization in learning. "To

perceive is to categorize, to conceptualize is to categorize, to learn is to form
categories, to make decisions is to categorize." Interpreting information and
experiences by similarities and differences is a key concept.

BENEFITS OF INQUIRY-BASED KNOWLEDGE

•Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills

•Improves student learning abilities

•Widens learners’ vocabulary

•Facilitates problem-solving acts

•Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge

•Encourages cooperative learning

•Provides mastery of procedural knowledge

•Encourages higher-order thinking strategies

•Hastens conceptual understanding

II. Nature of Research

Research

- Process of executing various mental acts for discovering and examining facts
and information to prove the accuracy or truthfulness of the claim or conclusions
about the topic of research

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- To inquire or investigate about the chosen research topic by asking questions that
will engage in top-level thinking strategies of interpreting, analyzing, synthesizing,
criticizing, appreciating, or creating to enable to discover truths

- Like inquiry, it involves cooperative learning

- Process that requires working logically or systematically and collaboratively with

others.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH

 Accuracy – must give correct or accurate data. Footnotes, notes, and

bibliographical entries should honestly and appropriately be documented or
acknowledge
 Objectiveness – must deal with facts, not with mere opinions arising from
assumptions, generalizations, predictions, or conclusion
 Timeliness – must work on a topic that is fresh, new, and interesting to the
present society
 Relevance – topic must be instrumental in improving society or in solving
problems affecting lives of people in a community
 Clarity – must succeed in expressing its central points or discoveries by using
simple, direct, concise, and correct language
 Systematic – must take place in an organized or orderly manner

Purpose of Research

Research is a tool by which they can test their own, and each other’s' theories,
by using this antagonism to find an answer and advance knowledge. The purpose of
research is really an ongoing process of correcting and refining hypotheses, which
should lead to the acceptance of certain scientific truths.

Types of Research

Based on Purpose of the Research:

1. Descriptive – aims at defining or giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a person,

thing, event, group, situation, etc.

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2. Correlation – shows relationships or connectedness of two factors, circumstances,
or agents, called variables, that affect the research

3. Explanatory – elaborates or explains not just the reason behind the relationship of
two factors, but also the ways by which such relationship exists

4. Exploratory – find out how reasonable or possible it is to conduct a research

study on a certain topic

5. Action – studies an ongoing practice of a school, organization, community, or

institution for the purpose of obtaining results that will bring improvements in the
system

Based on Types of Data Needed:

1. Qualitative Research – requires non-numerical data. Uses words rather that

numbers to express the results, the inquiry, or investigation about people’s thoughts,
beliefs, feelings, views, and lifestyles regarding the object of the study

2. Quantitative Research – involves measurement of data. Presents research

findings referring to the number or frequency of something in numerical form i.e.,
percentages, fractions, numbers

Data in Research

•Primary data – obtained through direct observation or contact with people, objects,
artifacts, paintings, etc. These data are new and original information resulting from
your sensory experience

•Secondary data – data that have already been written about or reported on and
made available for reading purposes.

APPROACHES TO RESEARCH

•Scientific or Positive Approach

- Discover and measure information as well as observe and control variables in

an impersonal manner. Data gathering techniques are structured interviews,
questionnaires, and observational checklists. Data are expressed in numbers,
meaning suitable for quantitative researches.

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•Naturalistic Approach – deals with qualitative data that speaks of how people behave
toward their surroundings. Non-numerical data that express truths about the way
people perceive or understand the world.

•Triangulation Approach

- Free to gather and analyze data using multiple methods, allowing you to
combine or mix research approaches, types, data gathering, and data analysis
techniques. Gives the opportunity to view every angle of the research from different
perspectives.

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 Qualitative Research and Its Importance in Daily Life

III. Qualitative Research

Is a broad methodological approach that encompasses many research methods. The

aim of qualitative research may vary with the disciplinary background, such as a
psychologist seeking to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the
reasons that govern such behavior.

Qualitative methods examine the why and how of decision making, not
just what, where, when, or "who", and have a strong basis in the field of sociology to
understand government and social programs. Qualitative research is popular among
political science, social work, and special education and education searchers.

CHARACTERISTIC OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. Human understanding and interpretation

Data analysis results show an individual’s mental, social and spiritual

understanding of the world.

2. Active, powerful and forceful

A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of qualitative research. As

you go to the research process, you find the need to amend or rephrase interview
questions and consider varied ways of getting answer.

3. Multiple research approaches and methods

Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your study in varied ways.
You are free to combine this with quantitative research and use all gathered data and
analysis techniques.

4. Specificity to generalization

Specific ideas in qualitative research are directed to a general understanding of

something.

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It follows an inductive or scientific method of thinking, where you start thinking of
particular or specific concept that will eventually lead you to more complex ideas
such as generalization or conclusions.

5. Contextualization

A quantitative research involves all variables, factors, or conditions affecting the

study.

Your goal here is to understand human behavior, thus it is crucial for you to examine
the context or situation of an individual’s life-the who, what, why, how and other
circumstances

-affecting his or her way of life.

6. DIVERSIFIED DATA IN REAL LIFE-SITUATION

A qualitative researcher prefer collecting data in a natural setting like observing

people as they live and work, analyzing photographs or videos as they genuinely
appear to people, and looking at classrooms unchanged or adjusted to people’s
intentional observations.

7. ABOUNDS WITH WORDS AND VISUALS

Words come in big quantity in this kind of research. Data gathering through
interviews or library reading, as well as the presentation of data analysis results, is
done verbally.

8. INTERNAL ANALYSIS

You examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the subject individuals.

You study people’s perception or views about your topic, not the effects of their
physical existence on your study.

Types of Qualitative Research

1. Phenomenology

The terminology used by different authors can be very confusing and the use
of the term phenomenology is one example. However, it is also used to describe a

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particular type of qualitative research. Literally we know that phenomenology means
the study of phenomena. Phenomena may be events, situations, experiences or
concepts. Phenomenology is a way of describing something that exists as an integral
part of the world in which we are living. We are surrounded by many phenomena.
Certainly, we are something aware of it but not fully understand. Sometimes it
happens that our lack of understanding in respect to these phenomena may exist
because the phenomenon has not been overtly described and explained or our
understanding of the impact it makes may be unclear. For example, we know that
lots of people are counselors. But what does “counseling” actually mean and what is
it like to be a counselor? Let us take another example of back pain. There are so
many co-relational studies available which tell us about the types of people who
experience back pain and the apparent causes. Randomized controlled trials of drugs
compare the effectiveness of analgesia against to each another. But what is it actually
like to live with back pain? What are the effects on peoples‟ lives? What problems
does it cause? A phenomenological study might explore, for example, the effect that
back pain has on sufferers‟ relationships with other people by describing the strain it
can cause in marriages or the effect on children of having a disabled parent. Finally
we can say that wherever is a gap in our understanding and that clarification or
explanation will be needed there the phenomenological research can begin in a
systematic way with the full confident. Phenomenological research will not
necessarily provide definitive explanations but it does raise awareness and increases
insight about the phenomena.

2. Ethnography

The social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human
beings is known as anthropology. Ethnography is a branch of anthropology that
provides scientific description of individual human societies. The term means
“portrait of a people” and it is a methodology for descriptive studies of cultures and
peoples. According to Van Maanen, "ethnography fieldwork usually means living with
and living like those who are studied. In its broadest, most conventional sense,
fieldwork demands the full-time involvement of a researcher over a lengthy period of
time (typically unspecified) and consists mostly of ongoing interaction with the
human targets of study on their home ground". The cultural parameter is that the

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people under investigation have something in common. The cultural parameters
include:

 Geographical – a particular region or country

 Religious
 Tribal – a family construction or its types
 Shared experience
 Life style – a manner to live together

In the counseling settings, researchers may choose an ethnographic approach

because the cultural parameter is suspected of affecting the population’s response to
solve their related problems. For example, cultural rules about contact between
males and females may contribute to reluctance of women from an Asian subgroup to
take up cervical screening. Ethnography helps counselor as well as counselee in the
process of counseling to develop cultural awareness and sensitivity and enhances the
provision and best way of counseling for people from all cultures.

Ethnographic studies require widespread fieldwork by the investigator in the

current sceneries. We are having several techniques for data collection. These data
collection techniques include both formal and informal interviewing. Often,
interviewing individuals on several occasions and participant observation are used for
data collection. Because of this, ethnography is extremely time consuming as it
involves the researcher spending long periods of time in the field.

In the Ethnography analysis of data adopts an “emic” approach. In the emic

approach, researcher attempts to interpret data from the perspective of the
population under study. The results are expressed as though they were being
expressed by the subjects themselves, often using local language and terminology to
describe phenomena. For example, a researcher may explore behavior which we
traditionally in the westernized medical world would describe as mental illness.
However, within the population under study, the behavior may not be characterized
as illness but as something else - as evidence that the individual is “blessed” or
“gifted” in some way.

Ethnographic research can be problematic when researchers are not

sufficiently familiar with the social mores of the people being studied or with their

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language. Interpretation from an “etic” perspective - an outsider perspective - may be
a misinterpretation causing confusion. For this reason, the ethnographic researcher
usually returns to the field to check his interpretations with informants there by
validating the data before presenting the findings.

3. Grounded theory

During their research into illness and dying, Glaser and Strauss developed
grounded theory procedures, written in their book The Discovery of Grounded Theory
(1967). To move away from the traditional scientific method, Glaser and Strauss
suggested gathering data through systematic methodological procedures and
developing theories from research that is grounded in the data.

Grounded theory is a type of qualitative research methodology that allows

theory/theories to emerge from the data that is collected. Grounded theory research
follows a systematic yet flexible process to collect data, code the data, make
connections and see what theory/theories are generated or are built from the data. A
theory is a set of concepts that are integrated through a series of relational
statements (Hage, 1972). In grounded theory, the researcher does not commence the
process of research with a predetermined theory in mind, the formulation of theories
stem from the data that allows one to explain how people experience and respond to
events. The main feature of Grounded theory research is the development of new
theory through the collection and analysis of data about a phenomenon. It goes
beyond phenomenology because the explanations that emerge are genuinely new
knowledge and are used to develop new theories about a phenomenon. In health care
settings, the new theories can be applied enabling us to approach existing problems
in a new way. For example, our approaches to health promotion or the provision of
care.

Many researchers observed that people who were bereaved progressed through
a series of stages and that each stage was characterized by certain responses: denial,
anger, acceptance and resolution. This is not a new phenomenon, people have going
through these stages for as long as society has existed, but the research formally
acknowledged and described the experience. Now we use our knowledge of the grief
process, new knowledge derived from grounded theory, to understand the experience

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of bereavement and to help the bereaved to come to terms with their loss. We
recognize when a person is having difficulty coming to terms with loss because we
use the knowledge to recognize signs of “abnormal” grief and can offer help.

There are so many techniques for the data collection are used to develop
grounded theory, particularly interviews and observation although literature review
and relevant documentary analysis make important contributions. Basically,
grounded theory is the simultaneous collection and analysis of data using a process
known as constant comparative analysis. In this process, data are transcribed and
examined for content immediately following data collection. Ideas which emerge from
the analysis are included in data collection when the researcher next enters the field.
For this reason, a researcher collecting data through semi structured interviews may
gradually develop an interview schedule in the latter stages of a research project
which looks very different to the original schedule used in the first interview. New
theory begins its conception as the researcher recognizes new ideas and themes
emerging from what people have said or from events which have been observed.
Memos form in the researcher's consciousness as raw data is reviewed. Hypotheses
about the relationship between various ideas or categories are tested out and
construct formed leading to new concepts or understandings. In this sense the theory
is grounded in the data.

In phenomenology, there are many concepts for those we are aware but do not
fully understand, there are aspects of health care which might be informed by the
development of new theory. We have one example that is related to spirituality. In any
holistic programed of care health care professionals may talk about the need to meet
the spiritual needs of patients. However, we understand very little of what this
means. At first view, spiritual needs might be interpreted as referring to religious
beliefs but many people would say that spiritual needs are more than this. It may be
an individual's sense of well-being, happiness or peace of mind. Grounded theory
research could provide health care professionals with a better framework for
providing truly holistic care.

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 4. Case study

According to the Thomas the case study is defined as: "Case studies are
analyses of persons, events, decisions, periods, projects, policies, institutions, or
other systems that are studied holistically by one or more methods. The case study
can be done in social sciences and life sciences. Case studies may be descriptive or
explanatory. Like surveys, case study research approaches can be treated as a
qualitative or quantitative. Case study research is used to describe an entity that
forms a single unit such as a person, an organization or an institution. Some
research studies describe a series of cases. The latter type is used to explore
causation in order to find underlying principles. They may be prospective, in which
criteria are established and cases fitting the criteria are included as they become
available, or retrospective, in which criteria are established for selecting cases from
historical records for inclusion in the study. The case that is the subject of the
inquiry will be an instance of a class of phenomena so as to provide an analytical
frame an object within which the study is conducted and which the case illuminates
and explicates."

Types of cases

Three types of cases may thus be distinguished:

1. Key cases

2. Outlier cases

3. Local knowledge cases

According to the frame of reference of particular choice of the subject, the case
study (key cases, outlier cases and local knowledge cases) can be made between the
subject and the object. The subject is the “practical, historical unity” through which
the theoretical focus of the study is being viewed. The object is that theoretical focus
– the analytical frame. For example, a researcher can make interest in the expansion
of western culture in India.

As a research design, the case study claims to recommend a wealth and depth
of information which is not usually offered by other methods. With many variables

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the case studies can be identified as a complex set of conditions which produce a
particular demonstration. It is a highly multipurpose research method. It can employ
any and all methods of data collection from testing to interviewing. The most simple
is an illustrative description of a single event or occurrence. More complex is the
analysis of a social situation over a period of time. The most complex is the extended
case study which traces events involving the same actors over a period of time
enabling the analysis to reflect changes and adjustments.

Now a day, case study researches have a wide scope in the field of health care
centers. For example of the case study approach would be to describe and analyze
the delivery of health services, evaluation of a particular care approach and
organizational change in the planning as in pilot projects. Another example, a case
study may be conducted of the development of a new service such as a collaboration
of hospital to run under the discharge liaison scheme. So that an outreach teenage
health service set up as an alternative of general practice based teenage clinics
centers in promoting teenage health.

Advantage or Strengths of Qualitative Research

1. It adopts naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that those
involve in the research understand things based on what they find meaningful.
2. It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in
their natural setting.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality as it demands the researcher’s
careful and attentive stand towards people’s world views.
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
6. It increases the researcher’s interest in the study as it includes the research’s
experience or background knowledge in interpreting verbal and visual data.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about something.

Disadvantages or 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.

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 3. Its open-ended question yield “data overload” that requires long term analysis.
4. It is time consuming.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the researcher’s
views or interpretative.

IV. Qualitative Research in Different Area of Knowledge

SUBJECT AREA RESEARCH APPROACHES

Belonging to a certain area of discipline, you the option to choose one

from these three basic research approaches: positive or scientific, naturalistic,
and triangulation or mixed method. The scientific approach gives stress to
measurable and observable facts instead of personal views, feelings, or
attitudes. It can be used in researches under the hard sciences or STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine) and natural sciences
(Biology, Physics, and Chemistry). The positive or scientific approach allows
control or variables or factors affecting the study. (Laursen 2010)
To become positivist or scientific in conducting your research study, you
must collect data in controlled ways through questionnaires or structured
interviews. For instance, in the field of medicine, to produce a new medicine, a
medical researcher subjects the data to a controlled laboratory experiment.
These factual data collected are recorded in numerical or statistical forms
using numbers, percentages, fractions, and the like. Expressed in measurable
ways, these types of data are called Quantitative data.
The naturalistic approach, on the other hand, is people-oriented. Data
collected, in this case, represent personal views, attitudes, thoughts, emotions,
and other subjective traits of people in a natural setting. Collecting data is
done in family homes, playground, workplaces, or schools. In this places,
people’s personal traits or qualities naturally surface in the way they manage
themselves or interact with one another. The naturalistic approach focuses on
discovering the real concept or meaning behind people’s lifestyle and social
relations.

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 Unlike the scientific approach that makes you express and record your
findings quantitatively, which means in numerical forms, the naturalistic
approach lets you present things qualitatively through verbal language.
Using words rather than numbers as the unit of analysis, this second research
approach concern itself with qualitative data – one type of data that exists in
abundance in social sciences, which to others exists as soft sciences.
Considered as soft sciences are Anthropology, Business, Education,
Economics, Law, Politics, and all subjects aligned with business and all those
focused on helping professions such as, Nursing, Counseling, Physical
Therapy, and the like. (Babbie 2013)
Having the intension to collect data from people situated in a natural
setting, social researchers used unstructured interviews and participant
observations. These two data gathering techniques yield opinionated data
through the use of open-ended questions and participation of the researcher in
the results in the gathering of qualitative data.
In the field of Humanities, man’s social life is also subjected to research
studies. However, researchers in this area give emphasis not to man’s social
life, but to the study of meanings, significance, and visualizations of human
experiences in the fields of Fine Arts, Literature, Music, Drama, Dance, and
other artistically inclined subjects.
Researchers in these subjects happen in any of the following humanistic
categories:
1. Literature and Art Criticism where the researchers, using well-chosen
language and appropriate organizational pattern, depend greatly on their
interpretative and reflective thinking in evaluating the object of their study
critically.
2. Philosophical Research where the focus of inquiry is on knowledge and
principles of being and on the manner human beings conduct themselves on
earth.
3. Historical Research where the investigation centers on events and ideas that
took place on man’s life at a particular period.

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HARD SCIENCES VS. SOFT SCIENCES

Just like in other subjects under soft sciences such as marketing, man’s
thoughts and feelings still take center stage in any research studies. The purposes of
any researches in any of these two areas in business are to increase man’s
understanding of the truths in line with markets and marketing activities, making
more him intelligent in arriving at decisions about these aspects of his life. Research
types that are useful for these areas are the basic and applied research. (Feinberg
2013)

A quantitative or qualitative kind of research is not exclusive to hard sciences

or soft sciences. These two research methods can go together in a research approach
called triangular or mixed method approach. this is the third approach to research
that allows a combination or a mixture of research designs, data collection, and data
analysis techniques.

Thus, there is no such thing as a clear dichotomy between qualitative and

quantitative research methods because some authorities on research claim that a
symbolic relationship, in which they reinforce or strengthen each other, exists
between these two research methods. Moreover, any form of knowledge, factual or
opinionated, and any statistical or verbal expression of this knowledge are deduced
from human experience that by nature is subjective. ( Hollway 2013; Letherby 2013)

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 Identify the inquiry and stating the problem

V. Subject matter of the Inquiry or Research

Guidelines in Choosing a Research Topic

1. Interest in the subject matter

2. Availability of information
3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic
4. Limitations on the subject
5. Personal resources

Research Topics to be avoided

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

Sources of Research Topics

1. Mass media communication – press (newspapers, ads, TV, radio, films, etc.)
2. Books, Internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publication
2. Professional periodicals like College English Language Teaching Forum,
English Forum, The Economist, Academia, Business Circle, Law Review, etc.
3. General periodical such as Readers’ Digest, Women’s Magazine, Panorama
Magazine, Time Magazine, World Mission Magazine, etc.
4. Previous reading assignments in your other subjects

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VI. Research Problem and Research Questions

Meaning of Research Problem

A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition
to be improved, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists
in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for
meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. In some social science
disciplines the research problem is typically posed in the form of a question. A
research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad
proposition, or present a value question.

Background of the problem

Background information identifies and describes the history and nature
of a well-defined research problem with reference to the existing literature. The
background information should indicate the root of the problem being studied,
appropriate context of the problem in relation to theory, research, and/or
practice, its scope, and the extent to which previous studies have successfully
investigated the problem, noting, in particular, where gaps exist that your
study attempts to address.

Research question
A research question is an inquisitive statement posted by a researcher to
serve as guide to what the purpose and objectives of a research study are when
slithering through a research work. It is the fulcrum in a research study upon
which the a study is touch stoned.

Formulating a Research Question

All research begins with a question derived from a general topic that piques
your interest, often through general reading, topical discussion, lectures, family
experiences, etc. In many cases the general topic is set by your Instructor.

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Generally, the question should be:

1. Relevant.
The question should have some bearing on the topic and remain within the
limits that were set beforehand.

2. Interesting.
Choose a topic that interests and stimulates you otherwise searching could
Become tedious.

3. Focused and specific.

The question should not be too broad or vague. You can however begin with a
broad question and then narrow it down to be more specific. You can narrow
the question down by:
- a particular aspect, e.g., economic, psychological
- a particular time period
- a particular event e.g., 9/11, rape, divorce
- a geographical area
- gender
- age group
The result should be a question for which there are two or more possible
answers. The following examples illustrate how to narrow broad topics to create
focused research questions.

4. Researchable.
You should get a feel for what materials will be available to you. Know what the
Library has to offer in the way of books and standard reference sources,
Indexes/databases and services to acquire resources that are not in-house.
Sometimes your question seems doable at first but when you begin your
research, It turns out not to be the case. Because most often you are doing a
literature search for the results of previous research (as opposed to original
research), it is recommended that you do a preliminary search to test if you can
get enough material, and then, if necessary, revise your question.

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