2nd Semester Practical Research 1

Lesson 2
Nature of Inquiry

I. Preliminaries

I. Objectives
Content Standard:

The importance of research in daily life

The characteristics, processes, and ethics of
Research quantitative and qualitative
Research the kinds of research across fields

Culminating Performance Standard

The learners will discuss and defend the research that they conducted and
present to the panelist and the principal as well.

Power Standard
Use appropriate kinds of research in making decisions.

Learning Competencies
Widen your vocabulary through contextual clues;
Examine things appealing to senses to hone your investigative thinking;
Discuss the characteristics of research;
Classify research based on a set of criteria;
Differentiate the various types of research; and
Describe completed or published research studies based on concepts
learned about research.

II. Content:

NATURE OF RESEARCH
 2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 2
Nature of Research

Concept Notes
Meaning of Research
In college, you involve yourself in varied school activities such as academic contests,
sports fests, elocution contest, music festivals, college week celebrations, art exhibits,
research work, debate competitions, and man, more. All of these activities are aimed to let
you develop a well-rounded personality But one or two of them gave emphasis in honing a
particular ability (e.g., making you excel in mathematics, science, arts, music, and many
more).

One school activity that every college student has to excel in is research. This is a
quality a hallmark of a university or college education. Your research abilities reflect the
quality of your school. If you graduate from a school with superb knowledge of research
Hence, work, you can tell yourself that, "I am a product of a quality college or university."
Hence, the greatness of a higher education institution depends on how knowledgeable. its
faculty and students are about the ins and outs of research; more so, on the application of this
to their everyday life for the progress of the whole world.

What is research? A number of books on research define this term in many ways, but
such varied definitions boil down to the primary meaning of this word, which is:
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. Research requires you to inquire or investigate about your chosen
research topic by asking questions that will make you engage yourself in top-level thinking
strategies of interpreting, analyzing, synthesizing, criticizing, appreciating, or creating to
enable you to discover truths about the many things you tend to wonder about the topic of
your research work. (Litchman 2013)

Research is analogous to inquiry, in that, both involve investigation of something

through questioning. However, the meaning of research is more complicated than inquiry
because it does not center mainly on raising questions about the topic, but also on carrying
out a particular order of research stages. Each stage of the research process is not an
individual task because the knowledge you obtain through each stage comes not only from
yourself but other people as well. Thus, similar to inquiry, research involves cooperative
learning.
 Central to research is your way of discovering new knowledge, applying knowledge
in various ways as well as seeing relationships of ideas, events, and situations. Research then
puts you in a context where a problem exists. You have to collect facts or information, study
such data, and come up with a solution to the problem based on the results of your analysis. It
is a process requiring you to work logically or systematically and collaboratively with others.

To sum up your concepts about the nature of research, the following will give you the
characteristics, purposes, classification, types of, and approaches to research. (Badke 2012;
Silverman 2013; De Mey 2013)

Characteristics of Research

1. Accuracy. It must give correct or accurate data, which the footnotes, notes, and
bibliographical entries should honestly and appropriately documented or
acknowledged.
2. Objectiveness. It must deal with facts, not with mere opinions arising from
assumptions, generalizations, predictions, or conclusions.
3. Timeliness. It must work on a topic that is fresh, new, and interesting to the present
society.
4. Relevance. Its topic must be instrumental in improving society or in solving problems
affecting the lives of people in a community.
5. Clarity. It must succeed in expressing its central point or discoveries by using simple,
direct, concise, and correct language.
6. Systematic. It must take place in an organized or orderly manner.

Purposes of Research

1. To learn how to work independently

2. To learn how to work scientifically or systematically
3. To have an in-depth knowledge of something
4. To elevate your mental abilities by letting you think in higher-order thinking strategies
(HOTS) of inferring, evaluating, synthesizing, appreciating, applying, and creating
5. To improve your reading and writing skills
6. To be familiar with the basic tools of research and the various techniques of gathering
data and of presenting research findings
7. To free yourself, to a certain extent, from the domination or strong influence of a single
textbook or of the professor's lone viewpoint or spoon feeding

Types of Research

1. Based on Application of Research Method

Is the research applied to theoretical or practical issues? If it deals with
concepts, principles, or abstract things, it is a pure research. This type of re-search
aims to increase your knowledge about something. However, if your intention is to
 apply your chosen research to societal problems or issues, finding ways to make
positive changes in society, you call your research, applied research.

2. Based on Purpose of the Research

Depending on your objective or goal in conducting research, you do any of
these types of research: descriptive, correlational, explanatory, exploratory, or action.

Descriptive Research - This type of research aims at defining or giving a verbal

portrayal or picture of a person, event, group, situation, etc. This is liable to
repeated research because its topic relates itself only to a certain period or a
limited number of years. Based on the results of your descriptive studies about a
subject, you develop the inclination of conducting further studies on such topic.
Correlational Research -A correlational research shows relationships or
connectedness of two factors, circumstances, or agents called variables that affect
the research. It is only concerned in indicating the existence of a relationship, not
the causes and ways of the development of such relationship.
Explanatory Research - This type of research elaborates or explains not just the
reasons behind the relationship of two factors, but also the ways by which such
relationship exists.
Exploratory Research - An exploratory research's purpose is to find out how
reasonable or possible it is to conduct a research study on a certain topic. Here,
you will discover ideas on topics that could trigger your interest in conducting
research studies.
Action Research -This type of research studies an ongoing practice of a school,
organization, community, or institution for the purpose of obtaining results that will
bring improvements in the system.

3. Based on Types of Data Needed

The kind of data you want to work on reflects whether you wish to do a
quantitative or a qualitative research.

Qualitative research requires non-numerical data, which means that the

research uses words rather than numbers to express the results, the inquiry, s w or
investigation about people's thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views, and lifestyles regarding
the object of the study. These opinionated answers from people are not measurable;
so, verbal language is the right way to express your findings in a qualitative research.
Meanwhile, quantitative research involves measurement of data. Thus, it
presents research findings referring to the number or frequency of something in
numerical forms (i.e., using percentages, fractions, and numbers).
The data you deal with in research are either primary or secondary data.
Primary data are obtained through direct observation or contact with people, objects,
artifacts, paintings, etc. Primary data are new and original information resulting from
your sensory experience. However, if such data have already been written about or
reported on and are available for reading purposes, they exist as secondary data.
Approaches to Research

After choosing your topic for research, what is your next move? In other words, how are you
going to approach or begin your research, deal with your data, and establish a connection
among all things or activities involved in your research? There are three approaches that you
can choose from.

The first is the scientific or positive approach, in which you discover and measure
information as well as observe and control variables in an impersonal manner. It allows
control of variables. Therefore, the data gathering techniques appropriate for this approach
are structured interviews, questionnaires, and observational checklists. Data given by these
techniques are expressed through numbers, which means that this method is suitable for
quantitative research.
The second approach is the naturalistic approach. In contrast to the scientific
approach that uses numbers to express data, the naturalistic approach uses words. This
research approach directs you to deal with qualitative data that speak of how people behave
toward their surroundings. These are non-numerical data that express truths about the way
people perceive or understand the world. Since people look at their world in a subjective or
personal basis in an uncontrolled or unstructured manner, a naturalistic approach happens in
a natural setting.
Is it possible to plan your research activities based on these two approaches?
Combining these two approaches in designing your research leads you to the third one,
called triangulation approach. In this case, you are free to gather and analyze data using
multiple methods, allowing you to combine or mix up research approaches, research types,
data gathering, and data analysis techniques. Triangulation approach gives You the
opportunity to view every angle of the research from different perspectives. (Badke 2012;
Silverman 2013)
 2nd Semester Practical Research 1
Lesson 2
Nature of Research

Seatwork No. 1

Directions: Do the following activities.

Identify the specific type of research for each given topic by entering the letter
of the research type in the correct column. Likewise, below the letter representing
your answer, write the importance of such research in your day-to-day life.

Action Pure Applied Descriptive Explanatory Correlation

a. Theory of Relativity
b. University Belt Street Foods
c. Landline vs. Cellphone
d. Reasons Behind Tuition Fee Increases
e. Manila Flash Flood Solutions
f. College Assessment Practices
g. Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking in Learning-Teaching Situations
h. The Why and How of Internet Use
i. Effects of Korean Telenovelas on Filipino TV Viewers
j. Digital Age
k. Teaching Through PowerPoint Presentations
l. Archimedes' Principle of Buoyancy
ACTIVITY NO. 1
Assessing the Extent of Concept Learning
Directions: Grade yourself on how well you have learned each topic below. Rank it
from 3.0 (lowest) to 1.0 (highest).
Classification of research types _______________
School reputation vs. Research _______________
Scientific thinking _______________
The role of higher-order thinking in research _______________
Approaches to research _______________
Why people do a research _______________
Inquiry in Research _______________
Triangulation _______________
Determining the quality of research _______________