11-GA-B-Module 5:

UNDERSTANDING DATA AND WAYS TO SYSTEMATICALLY COLLECT DATA

This module will cover the following lessons:
LESSON 1: Qualitative research design
LESSON 2: Sampling
LESSON 3: The data and data collection
LESSON 4: Writing your research methodology
LESSON 5: Gathering your data
After reading this module, you will be able to do the following:
• Choose a relevant qualitative research design, CS_RS11-IVa-c-1
• Describe a sample and know the process of sampling, CS_RS11-IVa-c-2
• Plan on how to collect data, CS_RS11-IVa-c-3
• Apply the steps in writing a research methodology, CS_RS11-IVa-c-4

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN

What is a research design?
Similar to building a house, a research design is your guide for you to
finish your research. This may include answering the 5W’s: What? Why? Who?
Where? When?
Dawson (2002) explains the importance of these questions on how you are
going to get the answers for your research questions.
1. What is your research all about? What do you want to find out? What
problems do you want to solve? It is important to have answers to
these questions in the very beginning of your research. Answers to
these questions will give you guide on how you are going to approach
your research topic.
2. Why do you want to do your research? This question should be answered
at the significance of the study. It may be that you want to do your
research because it is a requirement. However, there are other reasons
as to why you chose that specific topic. Whatever the reason may be,
it is important to have a clear vision on why you want to continue
your research. Who will take part in your research?
3. Who will participate in your study? You should have a clear indication
on the specific type of people that will take part in your study (age,
gender, economic status, etc.).
4. Where will you gather all information needed for your research? This
part of your research should take into consideration your capabilities
as a researcher. If you think that your data and participants in
research will be too far away, then it’s much better to change your
topic. You will learn more about this in the following discussions.
5. Finally, when are you going to start gathering information for your
research? When will you do interviews? When will you interpret and
analyze your data? This should be answered immediately knowing that
you only have a short time in completing your work.

Choosing the appropriate research design There are 4 approaches in research

design:
● Ethnography - From the word ethno=people and graphy= writing. Ethnography
translates to writing about people. This type of approach to qualitative
research aims to study a particular group of people in their natural
settings. This particular study wants to describe and interpret the
behavior of different kinds of people, culture or population. This can
pertain to a specific type of culture, community, school, or workplace
● Case Study- If you want to learn deeper and more specific details of a
certain situation, group of people or an individual, you may want to use
case studies. The difference of case study with other approaches to
qualitative research is that it gives a more in-depth analysis to a topic
with a use of more data gathering procedures at the same time. The problem
with case studies is that it’s more difficult to use especially if it is
your first time making a research paper.
● Phenomenology- This type of approach to qualitative research wants to
study the phenomenon or experiences of people. The purpose of this approach
is to give an idea on how individuals or a group of people react or
experience a certain phenomenon.
● Historical Approach- To give you a proper explanation of this type of
approach, think of the 1986 EDSA Revolution; think about World War II or
the past presidential elections. Historical approach is a systematic
collection and evaluation of information which have occurred in the past. T

SAMPLING
In gathering data for your research using different data gathering
instruments, you would want to choose only a few people to interview or be
part of your study. That is the concept of sampling.
Population - the complete group of people, animals or objects that have the
same characteristics that the research needs
Sample - a group of individuals that represent the population. The process
of choosing a sample is called sampling.

STEPS IN SAMPLING
1. Identify the population of interest If you want to focus your study on
the reasons why teenagers are dropping out from schools, then what
will be your population of interest? When choosing your population of
interest, you should think WHO will be directly affected from this
study and WHO will be the potential respondents. In this case, your
population of interest should be teachers and out of school youths.
However, it still too broad to say that teachers and youths will be
your population because there are lots of schools in our province
alone. Therefore, we need to proceed to the next step.
2. Specify a sampling frame It’s very difficult to say that your
population will be teachers and out of school youths. Teachers from
what school? Out of school youth from what place? If we simply say
those are your population, then it will be difficult for us to
identify who will be your respondents. Therefore, we need to specify
WHO we want to include in our study. You may want to choose your
sampling frame to a place where you are residing so that it will be
easier to gather respondents.
3. Specify a sampling method There are many types of sampling method for
qualitative research. Here are some of the most common and easiest
sampling methods to be used. You can either choose one method to use
or have a mix of two or more methods:
3.1 Snowball sampling- this is done by asking relevant people if they
know someone who will be willing to participate in your research.
You can put criteria or other qualifications for your
 respondents. You can use social media for “crowd sourcing” or ask
someone in your community on who is willing and qualified to
participate in your research.
3.2 Opportunistic Sampling- this is a type of sampling that takes
sample or respondents that are readily available. For example,
you may choose respondents in your community where you can just
pick anyone within a close range. Refer to the image below:
3.3 Convenience Sampling- using this kind of sampling technique
involves selecting people that are the most convenient for you as
a researcher. You may use someone you already know as a
respondent because it will save you time and effort in looking
for someone who will participate in your study.
4. Determine your sample size A book on high school research by Clemente
R. F., Julaton A. B. E. and Orleans, A. V. discusses how to determine
your sample sizes. There can be two approaches to determine your
sample size:
4.1 a. You determine your sample size depending on whether your data
will reach its saturation point. What does saturation point of a data?
When you conduct face to face interviews with your respondents, you
may notice that there will be patterns and similar answers to your
questions as you increase the number of people that you are
interviewing. If you realize that there are no new answers and the
pattern seems to be the same on, let’s say, the 10th interview, then
it can be assumed that it will be your sample size because you have
reached the saturation point of your data.
4.2 b. Another way to choose sample size depends on the type of
approach that you are going to use for your research. It was cited
from Creswell (2013) that 1-10 subjects are recommended for
phenomenology. Dukes (1984) stated that there should be 20- 30
individuals for grounded theory and Charmaz (2006) indicated that
there should be 4-5 respondents for case studies and a single culture-
sharing group for ethnography.
5. Implement the plan That’s it! If you follow the steps correctly, with
a little help and guidance, you can now implement your sampling techniques
and select respondents that can be a part of your research. It is important
to take note of all the details because you need to write it down in your
research paper.

THE DATA AND DATA COLLECTION

What is data?
Your data is all the information that you will gather throughout your
research.
How do we collect our qualitative data?
One way to collect qualitative data is to gather your data from
different sources of information. Some of these sources can include
books, encyclopedias, websites and firsthand information from people.
There are two classifications of data based on their use and source.
PRIMARY DATA- refers to first-hand information based on actual
experiences or observations. This kind of data is more reliable to use
because it is gathered by the actual researchers. Say you want to ask
people in the community if they agree to a certain law that is being
implemented by the local government. Their answers can be considered
as primary data.
Examples of primary data includes: data taken personally through
interview, personally observing people to get visual data.
SECONDARY DATA- are data that are gathered from secondary sources,
meaning it is not you that have obtained the information but rather,
it comes from previous research, audio recordings or books. One
advantage of secondary data is that it is readily available to use,
comparing it to primary data where you have to gather the information
yourself. Examples of secondary data includes: information from your
barangay census on the number of population in the area.

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

-These are the tools that you need to use so that you can gather your
primary data when you conduct your research. You can even choose one
or more instruments to use.
1. Ine In qualitative research, doing interviews is the most common
type of instrument that is being used. Interviews are done by having a
set of questions to your respondents and letting them answer as
truthfully as possible. There are mainly three types of interviews:
• 1.1 Structured Interview- this type of interview has a set of
predetermined questions that are ready to use. If you are using a
structured interview as your instrument to gather data, take note that
you should not ask beyond what is written in your interview questions.
• 1.2 Unstructured Interview- this type of interview is the opposite
of structured interview. You are not required to make a set of pre-
made questions, but rather make an OUTLINE or what kind of questions
you want to ask your respondents. Dawson (2002) calls this type of
interview as life history interview. That is because you want to
understand the point of view of your respondents, hence it is not
advisable to use a pre-made questions. You want them to tell you a
story, your respondents are free to talk about what they want to share
with a little guide question from you as a researcher.
• 1.3 Semi-structured Interview- this type of interview is a mix of
structured and unstructured interview. It may be one of the most
common types of interviews. You have to prepare a set of questions;
however, you are also free to ask to follow up questions to your
respondents if you want to clarify something or add information that
is not available to you. This type of interview is also flexible that
is why it is preferred to be used by most researchers.

2. Observations Another data gathering instrument that is being used

most in ethnography is observations. This happens when a researcher
observes and takes notes of the behavior of people that they want to
be a part of their research. There are three types of observations:
2.1 Naturalistic Observation- this happens when a researcher observes
the behavior of a group of people in their natural setting. For
example, you want to observe the behavior of students inside a
classroom without putting any external disturbances on them then you
are using naturalistic observation.
2.2 Participative Observation- this observation happens when a
researcher takes part on the activities of the group of people that
 they are observing. Say for example you want to study the daily
routine of a Lumad community. To have a better understanding of what
their everyday activities are, you as a researcher decided to join a
community so that you can immerse yourself in their daily life. This
is utilizing participative observation. 2.3 Non-naturalistic
Observation- this type of observation happens when you take your
respondents out of their natural environment and put them in an
environment of your choice. You observe how people behave when they
are not in their usual settings. One situation for this is taking a
group of high school students and letting them attend one or two
college classes where you must observe their learning behaviors. Non-
naturalistic observation is where you as a researcher decides what is
the “ideal” environment for you to complete your research.
3. Questionnaires Questionnaires are also one of the most common types
of instruments that is being used by qualitative researchers. This is
somewhat similar to interviews based on the format of questions that
is being used. There are three types of questionnaires:
3.1 Closed-ended questionnaires- this type of questionnaire is similar
to a structured interview. This is mostly used when you want to
conduct surveys on your respondents. This is mostly for statistical
purposes and the questions are already prepared for your respondents
to answer. These types of questionnaires usually have boxes for the
respondents to put a check mark.
3.2 Open-ended questionnaires- unlike close-ended questionnaires, this
type of questionnaire leaves a blank space for the respondents to give
their point of view about a specific question.
3.3 Combination of both- this type of questionnaire combines both the
close-ended and open-ended questionnaires. For example, you may want
to ask a yes or no question to your respondents and also want them to
explain why they have answered yes or no.

5. Focus Group Discussion This type of data gathering instrument focuses

on groups of people being interviewed at the same time. This relies on
the respondents to give a discussion amongst themselves on the
questions that you, the researcher, give. You will serve as the
moderator or facilitator. Put three or more people around a table and
give them guide questions for them to discuss among themselves. Your
role as the researcher and facilitator is to take note of their
discussions.

GATHERING YOUR DATA

There are several steps in the observation process as discussed by
Creswell (2007)
● Select where you want to conduct your observation. This can be a
classroom, community or a home where you want to observe the different
behavior of the participants for your research. To do this, you need
to make a communication letter to the concern authorities so that you
will be allowed to have access to a particular place of observation.
● Find the means to gather your observed data. This can include
recording devices like cameras or phones or the more traditional
recording devices like taking down notes on what you, as the
researcher, have observed first-hand.
● Take your time to write down the important details. You may be
overwhelmed the number of things that you will be observing. Try to
focus on the important details that relate to your research question.
Make sure that you have your field notes with you where you will need
to write the things that can be useful for your research.
● What kind of observation will you be using? Will it be a
naturalistic observation? Non-naturalistic? Or participative
observation? You need to have a clear indication on what will be your
role as an observer.
● Politely thank the participants.

How do we conduct a proper interview?

• Find out what type of interview you will be using. If you think that
there is still lacking data from your observation, try to find out if
you may need to use other interview methods so that you can gather
more information for your research. You may choose to use either
structured, unstructured, or semi-structured interview.
• Secure a letter of communication to the people that you want to
interview. With the same protocol for the observation method, you need
to have a formal letter asking for permission to conduct an interview
with the participants.
• Make sure that you have your interview questions. Do not forget to
prepare your guide questions before conducting a proper interview.
These guide questions should be based on your research questions so
that you can get all the information that you will need for your
study.
• Have the right equipment. Make sure that you have audio recording
devices that are fully charged. You cannot take note of every answer
of the participants so it’s better to have devices that can record the
exact answer of your participant.
• Let the participant choose where they want the interview to be
conducted.
• Politely thank the participants afterwards.
How to establish a good relationship and communication with your
participants?
• Treat your participants with respect.
• Wear proper and formal outfit during the interview.
• Maintain eye contact and do not be afraid to engage in a
conversation with your participant.
• Do not ask personal questions that are not related to your research.
• Do not forget to thank them for their time and participation.

Prepare by: TINALYN D. RAYANDAYAN

Adviser