Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VI – Western Visayas
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF PASSI CITY
Passi City, Iloilo

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1

Learning Competencies:
1. Share research experiences and knowledge. (CS_RS11-IIIa-1)
2. Explain the importance of research in daily life. (CS_RS11-IIIa-2)
3. Describes characteristics, processes and ethics of research. (CS_RS11-IIIa-3)
4. Differentiates quantitative from qualitative research. (CS_RS11-IIIa-4)
5. Provide examples of research in areas of interest. (CS_RS11-IIIa-5)

Research
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.
IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH IN DAILY LIFE

1. To Gather Necessary Information

Research provides you with all necessary information in field of your work, study
or operation before you begin working on it.

2. To Make Changes
Sometimes, there are in-built problems in a process or a project that is hard to
discover. Research helps us find the root cause and associated elements of a process.
The end result of such a research invokes a demand for change and sometimes is
successful in producing changes as well

3. Improving Standard Of Living

Only through research can new inventions and discoveries come into life. It was
C.V Raman’s research that prompted invention of radio communication. Addicted as we
are to mobile phones, we need to understand that all the luxuries and the amenities that
are now available to us are the result of research done by someone. And with the world
facing more and crisis each day, we need researchers to find new solutions to tackle
them.

4. For A Safer Life

 Research has made ground breaking discoveries and development in the field of
health, nutrition, food technology and medicine. These things have improved the life
expectancy and health conditions of human race in all parts of the world and helped
eradicate diseases like polio, smallpox completely. Diseases that were untreatable are
now history, as new and new inventions and research in the field of medicine have led to
the advent of drugs that not only treat the once-incurable diseases, but also prevent
them from recurring.

5. To Know the Truth

It has been proved time and again that many of established facts and known
truths are just cover ups or blatant lies or rumors. Research is needed to investigate and
expose these and bring out the truth.

6. Explore Our History

Research about our planets history and human history has enabled us to learn and
understand more about our forefathers and helped us learn from their mistakes and
absorb good things from their life. Research about the planet’s history and existence has
told us a lot about how things will shape up in years to come and how we need to respect
our planet and work closely together to stop global warming and other scenarios of
destruction.

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.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

The research process described in the following section is a much generalized

model of carrying out research. In reality, the process is much less 'neat', and you will
generally find that you will not usually follow the process stage by stage, but will often
move continually back and forth between the elements, or carry out two or more~ of .the
elements. Concurrently, especially if you are undertaking a more interpretative or
qualitative study.
It is important to remember that these are not isolated, discrete stages, but are
actually part of one overall process. As we said earlier, it may also be the case that for
certain methodological approaches the order of the stages may be somewhat different;
for example a qualitative research project may involve a continual integration of
reviewing the literature and data collection. Thus, you should be prepared to be flexible,
depending upon the nature of the research being undertaken. Whatever approach you
take, however, it is important that you maintain a sense of coherence within the overall
research project, or what some refer to as a 'golden thread', or 'vertical thread'. This
thread should be the research question, and everything within the research process
should be related to answering that question.
(Figure 3.1)
Selection of topic

Reviewing the literature

Development of theoretical and conceptual frameworks

Clarification of research question/hypothesis

Research design
 Data collection

Data analysis

Drawing conclusions

Stage 1. Selection of topic

The stage that will take up most, if not all of your time at the beginning is that of
selecting a topic, and developing a preliminary research question and set of objectives.
The selection of your research question is a crucial stage, as an inappropriate topic or
question will often lead to irretrievable difficulties later in the research, so it is worth
dealing with this stage carefully.
Stage 2. Reviewing the literature
A literature review essentially consists of critically reading, evaluating and
organizing existing literature on the topic to assess the state of knowledge in the area.
The literature review is generally done alongside the development of the theoretical and
conceptual frameworks (stage3 of the research process). Reading widely may also alert
you to other helpful factors, such as whether similar research has already been carried
out, show you the types of findings that you could expect, or provide descriptions of the
theoretical frameworks and previous methodologies adopted by others doing similar
research.
Stage 3. Development of theoretical and conceptual frameworks
As you read the literature, you should be continually developing and refining your
theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Your theoretical framework refers to the
underlying theoretical approach that you adopt to underpin your study, for example
social learning theory, or theories of self-efficacy. The conceptual framework defines and
organizes the concepts important within the study.
Stage 4. Clarification of the research question
Stages1, 2 and 3 of the research process will initially, in many cases, become a
circular process, whereby initial research questions are chosen, investigated and often
rejected for a number of reasons, for example:
The question lacks sufficient focus. The conceptual framework has identified
problems in either defining and/or measuring the appropriate concepts. There are too
many moderating or intervening variables. The project is unfeasible in terms of
complexity, access, facilities or resources. Stages1 to 3 can take longer than initially
anticipated, and you may well become discouraged by a lack of success in identifying a
good research question or hypothesis. There are no easy methods to come up with an
appropriate question, and it can be very much a case of perseverance. Once you have
developed a good, focused research question, then the rest of the research process is
based upon answering that specific question. The importance of developing a clearly
focused question and set of research objectives at this stage cannot be overstated. A
common fault is the lack of clarity over the overall aim of the research. Without
this, it is difficult to maintain your vertical thread.
Stage 5. Research design
Once the focused research question has been ascertained, the next stage is to
consider two questions:
 What data do I need to collect to answer this question?
 What is the best way to collect this data?
Breaking this down into more detail, the issues faced by the researcher are:
 Will I need to collect primary data, or will there be suitable secondary data to use?
 What methods, for example interviews, questionnaire surveys and so on, will be
the best ones to collect the primary data?
 Who should participate in the research, and how will I gain access to them?
 What are the exact procedures that I should adopt in my data collection to ensure
reliability and validity?
Stage 6. Data Collection
Once the issues identified in stages4 and 5 of the research process have been
addressed, then you should have a clear idea of what data to collect, and how to collect
it. You have to consider which methodology to choose, and which methods to utilize
within the methodology.
Stage 7. Data Analysis and Discussion of the Findings
The data you collect in stage 6 needs to be analyzed to provide answers to your
research question. Methods of data analysis should always be related to the objectives of
the research, that is your analysis should answer the research question or hypothesis. In
your discussion of the results, reference should also be made back to the literature
reviewed in stage 2; for example, how do the findings add to this literature? Do they
support the literature? If not, what are the possible reasons why? A common fault is to
discuss the findings with no reference back to the literature reviewed as part of stage 2
of the development of the conceptual framework.
Stage 8. Drawing Conclusions
This should relate back to the focused research question. Here, the answer to the
research question(s) should be clearly stated. You can evaluate how successful you have
been in achieving your research objectives, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses
of the research. You may also want to make recommendations for further research.

BASIC RULES FOR ETHICAL RESEARCH

The professional integrity of the researcher becomes at stake when research is

carried out without considering moral issues on what ought to be done and what not
ought to be done.
Brinkmann (2012) lists some ethical questions as guide for the researcher at the
start of the research project:
 What are the beneficial consequences of the study?
 How can informed consent of the participants be obtained?
 How can confidentiality of the participants be protected?
 What are the consequences of the study for the participants?
 How will the researcher’s role affect the study?
In the context of social science, Murphy and Dingwall (in Flick, 2011) have
developed an “ethical theory” based on four principles:
1. Non-maleficence- researchers should avoid harming participants
2. Beneficence- research on human subjects should produce some positive
identifiable benefit rather than simply be carried out for its own sake.
3. Autonomy or self –determination- research participant’s values and decisions
should be respected
4. Justice- all people should be treated equally.
To expound more on these ethical concerns, the succeeding discussion offers more
succinct ideas pertaining to ethical considerations in research.
1. Integrity of the researcher- researchers must act professionally in the pursuit
of truth. A very basic ethical rule is to acknowledge the source of information or
data used throughout the text. Knowledge or information taken from another
source must be acknowledged by citing the name of the author/authors and the
reference material where such ideas were taken.
2. Deception or misinterpretation- must be avoided. As expected of every
researcher, it is his or her duty to discuss with the participants the consequences
of the study, both the positive and negative consequences. The participants who
refuse to participate can’t be forced. It is necessary to get the participants’
consent prior to gathering of data.
3. Informed consent- is the principle that is fundamental to the notion of human
rights (Descombe, 2002). This means that it is absolutely essential to seek the
voluntary consent of the human subject. The person should have the legal
capacity to give consent; should be able to exercise free power of choice without
any intervention or force; and must have sufficient knowledge and comprehension
of the subject of research to enable him to make an enlightened decision. In
the case of the children participants or other vulnerable members of the society,
consent must be given by the parents or legal guardian or another person who has
a direct, formal responsibility for the welfare of the child or other vulnerable
participant. Teacher-advisers in school, acting in loco parents or in lieu of parents,
might take on this role.
4. Privacy, Confidentiality and Anonymity- the researcher should take measures
to safeguard the confidentiality of information and ensure the non-disclosure of
identities of those participating in the research.
 QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is a traditional, positivist, scientific method which refers to a
general set order by disciplined procedures to acquire information (de Belen, 2015).
According to Cristobal & Cristobal (2013), quantitative research utilizes a
deductive reasoning to generate predictions that are tested in the real world.
It is “systematic”. It means that the researcher progresses logically through a
series of steps according to a pre-specified plan of action.
Quantitative researchers gather empirical evidence- evidence that is rooted in
objective reality and gathered directly or indirectly through the senses.
The evidence for a study is gathered according to the established plan through
structured instruments. Usually the information gathered is such study is quantitative
i.e., numeric information that that results from some type of formal measurement, and
is analyzed with statistical procedures.
To assess the quality of quantitative studies, the commonly used the degree to
which research findings can be generalized to individuals other than those who
participated in the study. It is based on eh concepts of manipulation and control of
phenomena and verification of results validating empirical data. It frequently uses a
deductive or theory-testing approach.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research deals with the understanding of human behavior in a natural
setting. It is naturalistic in nature because it studies human behavior and the reasons
that govern it, (Sanchez, 2003). The emphasis is on the complexity of humans and their
ability to shape and create their own experience. Naturalistic investigations place heavy
emphasis on the understanding of human experience as if lived, usually through
collections and analysis of data that are narrative and subjective.
Qualitative research focuses on;
1. Gaining insights on and an understanding of the individual’s perception of events;
2. Concerned with in-depth descriptions of people on events and their interpretation of
experiences;
3. Data are collected through unstructured interviews and participant observation.
4. The research is to synthesize the patterns and the theories in the data.
5. Not limited by existing theories but must be open to new ideas and theories.
The limitations of this model are;
1. It is reductionist, it reduces human experience to just few concepts under
investigation;
2. The subjective nature in naturalistic inquiry, which sometimes causes concerns
about the nature of conclusions, and
3. Most naturalistic studies involve a relatively small group of people.