PRACTICAL RESEARCH 2 so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long

successive ages.” (Seneca, Natural Question)

L1: MEANING OF INQUIRY (THE NATURE OF - acquisition of new knowledge through a purposive,
INQUIRY) organized, and designed program of activities
Example of Research:
INQUIRY
- No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health (who)
- search for truth through questioning (How People Learn,
1999) Basic Research
- conducted solely to come up with a new knowledge or to
How Inquiry begins?
have a fuller understanding of a particular subject for its own
> Infant
sake
- grasping surroundings
- ex: a study to look at the effects of social media on teenagers
- gathering information or data through senses
> Child Applied Research
- forming own concepts and interpretation - done to find an application of the knowledge, whether it to
- creating own meaning based on a given stimulus be old or new
> As an Individual - ex: a study to stimulate students’ interest in Mathematics
- making sense of the world around him or her by inquiring
Aims of Research:
Importance of Inquiry - produce new knowledge or information
- nowadays, many are overwhelmed by the so called - utilize new knowledge
INFORMATION REVOLUTION (widespread of info.) - validate existing knowledge
- the source of knowledge is constantly increasing. for an - improve the investigator or researcher
individual to transfer knowledge, he or she must not simply
gather information but go beyond and apply the relevant Source of Research Topics:
information > People
- fundamental process in acquiring knowledge and - scientists, educators, students, businessman, farmers, lawyer
understanding > Places
- promotes critical thinking - laboratory, school, classroom, rice field, office, house
- promotes curiosity and engagement > Event
- facilitates lifelong learning - experimentation, graduation, product launch, harvest season,
- encourages independent learning exam days, case hearing
- enhances problem-solving skills > Objects
- books, contract, bills, reports, medicine, documents\
Application of Inquiry
* inquiry can be applied in various contexts, including:
- problem solving
L3: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
- education
- scientific research QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
- professional practice - “explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are
- policy development analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular
statistics)” (Aliaga and Gunderson, 2000)
Outcome of Inquiry
- phenomenon – peculiar incident that can happen anywhere,
- new knowledge and understanding
with any discipline or in any organization
- improved skills
- informed decisions Characteristics of Quantitative Research:
- innovation and progress - formal, objective, and systematic process for obtaining
- empowerment and confidence quantifiable information about the world
- presented in numerical forms, and analyzed through the use
of Statistics
L2: RESEARCH (AN OVERVIEW) - used to describe and to test relationships
- used to examine the cause-and-effect relationships
RESEARCH
- the word research is a combination of the prefix re (do again) Strengths and Weaknesses
and the root word search (to seek, explore, and investigate)
STRENGTH WEAKNESS
- “The time will come when diligent research over long
study findings can be many kinds of information
periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A
generalized to the are difficult to obtain
single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would population about which through structured data
not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject … And information is required collection instruments,
 particularly on sensitive requires many respondents requires few respondents
topics such as domestic closed (multiple choice) open-ended questions
violence questions
samples of individuals, many groups such as drug key terms: testing, key terms: understanding,
communities, or users, illegal immigrants, measurement, objectivity, context, complexity,
organizations can be squatters, and ethnic replicability subjectivity
selected to ensure that the minorities are always data collection methods: data collection methods:
results will be representative difficult to reach, but the survey, experiments, interviews, focus groups,
of the population studied problems are often greater observations ethnography
for QUANT data collection
method
structural factors that self-reported information Rule of Thumb
determine how inequalities obtained from - use quantitative research if you want to confirm or test
are produced can be questionnaires may be something (a theory or hypothesis)
analyzed inaccurate or incomplete - use qualitative research if you want to understand something
clear documentation can be studies are expensive and (concepts, thoughts, experiences)
provided regarding the time-consuming, and even
content and application of the preliminary results are
the survey instruments so usually not available for a
that other researchers can long period of time L4: CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
assess the validity of the
VARIABLE
findings
- any factor or property that a researcher measures, controls,
standardized approaches research methods are
and manipulates
permit the study to be inflexible because the
replicated in different areas instruments cannot be - entity that can take on different values
or over time with the modified one the study - aspect of theory that can vary or change as part of the
production of comparable begins interaction within the theory
findings - anything that can affect or change the results of a study
it is possible to control for reduction of data to numbers - anything that can vary can be considered a variable (there are
the effects for extraneous results in lost information needed to understand differences)
variables that might result in
misleading interpretations of A variable may take different forms
casualty - gender, lifestyle, temperature, iq level, age

Classification of Variable
Advantages and Disadvantages 1. Numeric Variables
> Advantages - variables with values that describe a measurable numerical
- allows the researcher to measure and analyze data quantity
- gives reliable results since the study uses a big sample - “how many” or “how much”
- replicable since standards are usually used in choosing the a. continuous variables – assume any value between a certain
instruments, sampling procedures, and statistical treatments set of real numbers depending on the scale (time, weight,
> Disadvantages temperature, height, age)
- ignores the context of the study in such a way that it does not b. discrete variables – can only assume any whole values
consider the natural setting of the conducted study; within limits of the given variables (attendance, number of
- requires more resources since it uses a large sample for the children in the family, number of establishments)
study 2. Categorical Variables
- results are limited because they are usually based on the - variables with that values that describe a quality or
analysis of numbers and are not obtained from detailed characteristics of a data unit
narratives - “what type” or “what category”
a. ordinal variables – can take a value which can be logically
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research ordered or ranked
b. nominal variables – values which cannot be organized in
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
logical sequence
focuses on testing theories focuses on exploring ideas
and hypothesis and formulating a theory or c. dichotomous variables – represent only 2 categories
hypothesis d. polychotomous variables – have MANY categories
analyzed through math and analyzed by summarizing, 3. Experimental Variables
statistical analysis categorizing, and - variables that determine casual relationship
interpreting - independent variable – cause
mainly expressed in mainly expressed in words - dependent variable – effect
numbers, graphs, and tables
 Considerations in Formulating Research Problems:
a. External Criteria
a. control variable - novelty
- help to identify the possible differences in the outcomes as a - availability of subjects
result of controlling certain variables - administrative support
b. moderator variable - availability and adequacy of facilities and equipment
- delineates how a relationship of interest changes under - ethical considerations
conditions b. Internal Criteria
c. extraneous variable - experience, training, and professional qualifications
- any variable that you’re not investigating that can potentially - motivation, interest, intellectual curiosity, and perceptiveness
affect the outcomes of your research study of the researcher
4. Non-Experimental Variables - time factor
- cannot be manipulated by the researcher - costs and returns
a. predictor variables – change or affect other variables in a - hazards, penalties, and handicaps
non-experimental study
b. criterion variables – influenced by the predictor variable in Exercises to come up with Variables:
a non-experimental study 1. think of an issue or concern you are confronted with
2. think other concepts related to the issue or concern
3. select the concepts that influence or are influenced by the
L5: RESEARCH IN DAILY LIFE issue or concern
* you can temporarily use the title you formed for you
RESEARCH TITLE problem
- summarize the main idea of the paper
- be a concise statement of the main topic Creating a Research Title
- include major variables a. identify your problem
- show the relationship of the main variables of the study - Carlock’s book Developing Information Literacy Skills
- include the main task of the researcher about the major b. mind mapping
variables under study - narrow your topic to something manageable
- mention the participants (in general manner) and the settings c. narrow down your topic
- identify topic
Reminders:- - explore specific topics
- in formulating the title, the researcher should avoid using - consider only one aspect
words that serve no useful purposes and can mislead indexers - consider population group
- in many cases, the general problem or even the specific - identify setting
question that the researcher intends to answer, when rewritten - identify period
in a statement form, can serve as the title d. apply the wh-question guide
- must have 10 to 15 words - what, who, when, where
Sources of Research Problems
1. a feeling of discomfort
2. perceived difficulties in the management and leadership
3. gap between theory and practice
4. daily experience of a person that requires further inquiry
5. a pattern or trend
6. a literature review

Instances that can give an idea that something is

Researchable:
1. solutions are available but not yet tested and not known by
the practitioner
2. no solutions are available to answer the gap or the problem
assessed
3. answers, solutions, or results are seemingly not tested or are
factually contradictory
4. a phenomenon exists which requires explanation
5. there are several possible and plausible explanations for the
existence of an undesirable condition