Ateneo de Zamboanga University

The Jesuit University in Western Mindanao

Since 1912
Senior High School Unit
Department of Research and Immersion

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1 HANDOUT

FOR QUARTERS 3 AND 4
Nature of Inquiry and Research
I. Some Research Ethics Principles

1. Honesty
2. Objectivity
3. Integrity
4. Carefulness
5. Openness
6. Respect for Intellectual Property
7. Trustworthiness
8. Social and Legal Responsibility

Types of Research

Qualitative versus Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

The aim is a detailed description the aim is to classify features, count
them, and construct statistical models in
an attempt to explain what is observed.
Researcher may only know roughly Researcher knows clearly in advance
in advance what he/she is looking what he/she is looking for.
for.
The design emerges as the study unfolds. All aspects of the study are carefully
designed before data is collected.
Researcher is the data gathering Researcher questionnaires or equipment
instrument. to collect numerical data.
Data is in the form of words, pictures or Data is numerical in nature.
objects.
Subjective - individuals’ interpretation of Objective – seeks measurement and
events is important analysis of target concepts.
Qualitative data is more 'rich', time Quantitative data is more efficient, able to
consuming, and not generalizable. test hypothesis.

Researcher tends to become subjectively Researcher tends to remain separated

immersed in the subject matter. from the subject matter.
Qualitative Research and Its Importance in Daily Life
I. Qualitative Research

According to Creswell (1994), as cited by Prieto, et. al (2017), Qualitative

Research is an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem
based on building a complex holistic picture formed with words, reporting
detailed view of informants and conducted in a natural setting.”

II. Characteristics of Qualitative Research

A. It takes place in a natural setting

- Home
- Office
- Institution
- Hospitals
- Community

B. It focuses on the participant’s perception and experiences and the way

they make sense of their lives.
C. Interactive and humanistic, calls for active participation, and sensitive to
the needs of the participants
D. New discoveries during the data gathering process can lead to a total
revision of research questions, among others
E. The researcher is the primary instrument in data collection.
F. Data collected is in the form of words or illustrations rather than numbers,
like the following:
a. Audio recordings
b. diaries
c. field notes
d. memorandums
e. official records
f. personal comments
g. photographs
h. textbook passages
i. transcripts of interview
j. video tapes

III. Uses of Qualitative Research

A. Draw meaningful information

B. Learn directly from people and what is important to them
C. Provide the context required to elicit quantitative results
D. Identify variables important for further studies
E. Determine one’s genre as a primary step to develop a quantitative survey
F. Assess the usability of websites, databases, or other interactive
media/services
IV. Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Research

A. Strengths

a. Provides in-depth information on individual cases

b. Unravels complex phenomena embedded in local context
c. Describes rich phenomenon situated in some exceptional
environments
d. Relays subjects’ experiences and perspectives in unusual details
e. Conveys setting factors related to the situation of interest
f. Allows flexibility in research-related processes
g. Enables data to be collected in natural setting
h. Determines possible causes of a particular event in another
perspective as that given by quantitative research
i. Permits approaches that are responsive to local conditions and
stakeholders’ needs
j. Presents several options in the conduct of the research
k. Tolerates shifts I focus based on research results
l. Accepts unstructured interpretation of the participants, respecting
anything that is in the participants’ context.

B. Weaknesses

a. Data gathering is often time-consuming

b. Analysis of data takes longer time than that in quantitative analysis
c. Interpretation of results is usually biased because it is influenced by
the researcher’s perspective
d. Conclusions are not generalizable because the subjects are few and
sometimes possess unique characteristics compared to typical
respondents.

V. Types of Qualitative Research

A. Case Study - Attempts to shed light on phenomena by studying in depth a

single case example of the phenomena. The case can be experience,
idea, reaction, preference, or perception, of an individual person, an event,
a group, or an institution.
B. Grounded Theory - Theory is developed inductively from a corpus of data
acquired by a participant-observer.
C. Phenomenology - Describes the structures of experience as they present
themselves to consciousness, without recourse to theory, deduction, or
assumptions from other disciplines
D. Ethnography - Focuses on the sociology of meaning through close field
observation of sociocultural phenomena. Typically, the ethnographer
focuses on a community.
E. Historical - Systematic collection and objective evaluation of data related
to past occurrences in order to test hypotheses concerning causes,
effects, or trends of these events that may help to explain present events
and anticipate future events.
 Identifying the Inquiry and Stating the Problem
I. Citation Guidelines (APA Format)

A. In-Text Citation

a. Two Authors. Name both authors in the parentheses. Use “and” between
the authors’ names within the text and ampersand (&) in the parentheses.
Research is. . . (Robinson & Levin, 1997)
Robinson and Levin (1997) discussed. . .

b. Three to Five Authors. Include the entire author’s surname in

parentheses the FIRST TIME the source is cited.
Kim, Song, Chang, Kang, and Park (2013) posited. . .

Learning is. . . (Kim, Song, Chang, Kang, & Park, 2013)

In subsequent citations, only use the first author’s surname followed by “et
al.”

Kim, et al. (2013) stated. . .

c. Six or more Authors. Use the first author’s name followed by et al. in
parentheses.
Choi et al. (2013) reported. . .

If two sources have six or more authors but with some identical surnames,
cite the first author followed by as many names to distinguish one source
from the other.

Orleans, Nueva Espana, Palomar, Camacho, Avilla, Sotto (2014)

suggested. . .

Orleans, Nueva Espana, Palomar, Florentino, David, Abulon (2014)

claimed. . .

In the subsequent citations, the following is observed:

Orleans, Nueva Espana, Palomar, Camacho et al. (2014) argued. . .

Orleans, Nueva Espana, Palomar, Florentino et al. (2014) maintained. . .

d. Associations, corporations, government agencies, etc. as an author.
If the name of an association in the source, it should be cited as follows:
According to the Department of Education (2013) . . .

However, if the association has a well-known abbreviation, the

abbreviation in brackets is included the first time it appears and then only
the abbreviation in later citations.

First citation: Commission on Higher Education [CHED] (2012) . . .

Second citation: CHED (2012) . . .

e. Citing indirect sources. If a source was mentioned in another source,

the citation is as follows:
Smith argued that. . . (as cited in Johnson, 2005, p. 92).
f. Electronic sources. Electronic documents are cited the same way as any
other document by using the author-date style.
Briones (2009) explained. . .
g. Citing websites. Websites are cited the same way as any other source,
using the author-date style if known. If there is no author, the title and the
date are cited as in the in-text citation.

h. For sources with no date, “n.d.” in place of the year is placed.

Andrews, n.d.
i. With no author
Bulacan has become. . . (Provincial Governement of Bulacan, 2007
j. Reference entry:
Provincial Government of Bulacan. (2007). Retrieved from
http://www.bulacan.gov.ph/business/products.php
k. Section of websites with no author
In addition, bamboo. . . (“Philippine Bamboo Bikes Hit”, 2012).

l. Reference entry:
Philippine Bamboo Bikes Hit Market. (2012). Manilla Bulletin. Retrieved
from https://ph.news.yahoo.com/phili. . .html
Types of Plagiarism
I. Plagiarism- It is an act of claiming another’s work or copying a portion of someone
else’s writing. If copying another researcher’s ideas cannot be avoided, proper
citation must be done.

II. Self-Plagiarism- When the researcher reuses their own work or data in a new written
product without letting the readers know that the manuscript already appeared in
another literature.

III. Copyright- For researchers who want their papers to be published in conventional
journals, the usual agreement is for the copyright of the researchers work to be
transferred to the publisher of that journal. In this case, the publisher of the journal
can reproduce and distribute the research legally. However, most journals nowadays
maintain the researcher’s ownership of their work, both parties agreed on the
journal’s right to publish and reuse the manuscript. In case of ‘Open Access’
journals, the researchers agree to allow free dissemination of one’s work without
their permission.

Other Types of Plagiarism

9. Clone – the act of submitting another’s work, word-for-word, as one’s own.

Example:

Student A is running out of time before the deadline of her essay. She submits an
essay published on the internet in 2002. She claimed that she was the one who
composed the essay and got a high grade for it.

II. ctrl+C (Copy-Paste) – the act of writing a study that contains significant portions
of text from a single source without alterations.

Example:

Student B submits an entry for his Chapter I introduction to his teacher. When his
teachers searched for it on the internet to confirm that he did not commit
plagiarism, she was shocked to find out that he just omitted some parts of an
introduction from a research paper authored by Sibayan (2012).
 III. Find-Replace – the act of changing key words and phrases but retaining the
essential content of the source in a paper.

Example:

Student C loves to hang out with her friends and has the tendency to forget that
she has several requirements to accomplish. One of these requirements is her
research paper. She became too lazy to function that she just copied a passage
as an entry for her Review of Related Literature and used the synonyms of
significant words in the passage as substitutes.

IV. Remix – the act of paraphrasing from other sources and making the content fit
together seamlessly.

Example:

Student D was able to collect several sources and tried to mix the passages
together for her composition to seem as if it came from only one source.

V. Recycle – the act of borrowing generously from one’s own previous work without
citation.

Example:

Student E claimed that he was too tired to be able to come up with a new
research. So, he used his previous research and submitted it to his professor. All
he did was change the date of submission.

VI. Hybrid – Hybrid plagiarism happens when a correctly cited source (or sources) is
combined with copied sources that are not cited.

Example:

Student F submits a perfect composition to his instructor. He attains a high mark

for his Chapter II. What his instructor does not know is that even if he perfectly
cited five authors and paraphrased his work, he actually used ten without citing
the other five.

VII. Mashup – the act mixing copied materials from several different sources without
proper citation.
 Example:

Student G, like Student D in case IV, copied passages from several sources, but
did not paraphrase them. The citations were also inaccurate because out of the
several sources, the passage was made to look as if it was only a collaboration
of ideas from two (2) to three (3) although even though there were eight (8).

VIII. 404 error – the act of including nonexistent citations or inaccurate information
about sources.
Example:
Student H is good with words and his confidence lead him to composing his own
passage about a topic given to him by his teacher. The task was to look for
passages from published materials, but he did not follow the instructions. Then,
he discovered that the passages must be properly cited; thus, he came up with
non-existent authors and assigned random publication years.

IX. Aggregator – the act of including proper citations but containing almost no
original work.

Example:

Student I made it seem like she followed all the rules in composing her five-
paragraph introduction, but little did her instructor know that even though authors
properly, all the passages were copied from point-to-point.

X. Re-tweet – the act of including proper citation but relying too closely on the text’s
original wording and/or structure.

Example:

Student J copied a short passage just like Student C in case III, but the
difference is that he did not change significant words, but he changed the tenses
of the passage.
 Ethical Standards on Writing the Related Literature
I. General Principles

A. Voluntary participation and the right to withdraw

B. Protection of research participants
C. Assessment of potential benefits and risks to participants
D. Respecting the privacy of the participants and avoiding deceiving them
E. Obtaining informed consent
F. Avoiding harm

II. Four Ethical Guidelines in Practice

A. Obtaining consent

a. Full information needed to be provided and anonymity guaranteed

b. The information sheets you give to potential participants should be carefully
constructed
c. Your research needs to be fully described in a way that the people
concerned can understand
d. If the consent is given, it can be withdrawn at any time.

B. Research in different cultures

a. Consider the way in which your assumptions and practices maybe different
from those you study (participants/respondents)

III. Research with vulnerable groups

IV. Confidentiality

A. Keeping sensitive information wraps (secure data)

B. Preserving anonymity

V. Ethical Questions for Researchers

A. What am I expecting participants to do?

B. How will I explain my research questions to participants?
C. What will happen to my data (e.g. who will see any transcripts or recordings?
D. Where will I restore my data?
E. How can I try to make my study harm-free?
F. What are the communication barriers between me and my participants (e.g.
culture, age, gender, impairments?)
G. Have I satisfied my accountability to my university, my superior, my
participants, any gatekeepers and the wider research community?
Understanding Data and Ways to Systematically Collect Data
I. Steps in Selecting Appropriate Strategies for Qualitative Inquiry

A. Identify the specific strategy of inquiry that will be used.

B. Provide some background information about the strategy, such as discipline,
origin, applications, and definition.
C. Discuss why it is an appropriate strategy to use in the proposed study.
D. Identify how the use of the strategy will be helpful as to the types of questions
asked, the form of data collection, the steps of data analysis, and the final write-
up.

a. Sampling

1. Population – complete group of people, animals, or objects that possess

the same characteristics.
2. Sample – represents the characteristics of a population.

b. Advantages of Sampling

1. It saves times, effort, and resources.

2. It minimizes casualties.
3. It paves the way for thorough investigations.
4. It allows easy data handling, collection, and analysis.

c. Sampling in Qualitative Research

1. Extreme or deviant case sampling – this strategy tries to select

particular cases that would gather the most information about a given
topic.
Example:

Study: Patients in a psychiatric ward

Sampling: Those who have extreme cases of schizophrenia, or those who

have suicidal tendencies other than those who have common problems of
depression and anxiety.

2. Intensity sampling – similar to the logic in extreme or deviant case

sampling, however, the samples selected are not as extreme.
Example:

Study: Envy
Sampling: the respondent should have an intense experience of with envy
3. Maximum variation sampling – selects a wide range of variation on
dimensions of interest.
Example:

Study: Attitudes towards single parents

Sampling: During the day, the researchers are more likely to encounter
stay-at-home parents and retirees. Therefore, the researchers stagger
survey hours for 8am, 4pm and 8pm in order to include a wide variety of
people.
4. Homogeneous sampling – brings people of similar backgrounds and
experiences.
Example:

Study: Parenting Program

Sampling: all single-parent, female head of households

5. Typical case sampling – focuses on what is typical, normal, and/or

average.
Example:

Study: Development projects in the Third World countries

Sampling: a typical case sampling of “average” villages may be
conducted.
6. Critical case sampling – looks at cases that will produce critical
information.
Example:

Study: People’s understanding of a particular set of federal regulations

Sampling: A group of highly educated people (“If they cannot understand
them, then most people probably cannot”) and/or a group of uneducated
people (“if they can understand them, then most people probably can”)
7. Snowball or chain sampling – is done by asking people if they can know
someone or somebody fitted or willing to participate in a study.
Example:

Study: Views of Prostitutes on Married Customers

Sampling: Prostitute A points out three prostitutes that she personally
knows who can serve as respondents.
 8. Criterion sampling – selects all the cases that meet some
predeterminedcriterion.
Example:

Study: Prisoners with Drug Cases

Sampling: Only prisoners with Drug Cases who fit other
descriptions/requirement such as age, ethnicity, educational attainment,
and other demographics.
9. Operational construct or theoretical sampling – used in grounded
theory in which people or incidents are sampled based on whether or not
they manifest an important theoretical or operational construct.
Example:

Study: Theory of resiliency in adults who were physically abused as

children
Sampling: People who meet the theory-driven criteria for resiliency are
selected.
10. Confirming and disconfirming sampling – seek cases that are both
“expected” and the “exception” to what is expected.
Example:

Study: Factors affecting academic performance

Sampling: Depends on the context and situation
11. Stratified purposeful sampling – focuses on characteristics and
comparisons of particular subgroups of interest.
Example:

Study: Factors affecting academic performance

Sampling: Samples are clustered into below average, average, and above
average learners
12. Opportunistic or emergent sampling – takes advantage of what is
readily available for the researcher and considers other samples that may
be useful as they come.
 13. Purposeful random sampling – looks at a random sample and adds
credibility to a sample when the potential purposeful sample is larger than
one can handle.
Example:

Study: Clients at a drug rehabilitation program

Sampling: 10 out 300 current cases may be selected
14. Convenience sampling – selects cases based on ease of accessibility.
Example:

Study: Students who find TikTok as an avenue for stress relief

Sampling: Classmates because they are the closest to reach.
15. Combination or mixed sampling – combines two or more sampling
techniques.

II. Sample Sizes: Considerations

A. How to determine the number of samples needed in the study?
a. What sample size will reach saturation or redundancy?
b. How large a sample is needed to represent the variation within target
population?

B. Sample sizes prescribed by experts (Creswell, 2013)

a. Phenomenology: 1- 10 subjects
b. Grounded theory: 20-30 individuals
c. Case Study: 4-5 respondents
d. Ethnography: 1 culture-sharing group
VI. The Data and Data Collection
A. Classification of Data According to Source

a. Primary data – refer to data sets that include first-hand information and
experiences about an event.
b. Secondary data- are mostly data consisting of studied objects that are
coded according to their characteristics.

B. Data Collection Instruments

a. Characteristics of a Good Data Collection Instrument

 1. Brief but effective
2. Able to gather information other than what is available
3. Arrangement of questions must be sequenced in increasing difficulty
4. Validated and evaluated for reliability
5. Should be easily tabulated, analyzed and interpreted
Common Data Collection Instruments
I. Documentary analysis
II. Interview
A. Structured interview –prepared and organized questions
B. Unstructured interview – prepared an outline of the topics that will be
personally asked to the interviewee
C. Semi-structured – prepared a set of specific questions but can add follow-up
questions

III. Observation
A. Naturalistic observation – in a natural setting or natural environment
B. Participative observation - the researcher is involved in the usual activities of
the subjects
C. Non-naturalistic observation – “ideal-situation” observation, subjects are
taken-away from their actual environment and are subjected to ideal
conditions determined by the researcher.

IV. Questionnaire
A. Yes or No – questions are answerable by yes or no
B. Recognition – respondents are made to choose from choices given in the
questionnaire
C. Completion (Open-ended Questions) – respondents are requested to supply
the necessary information in the blanks after each statement or question.
D. Coding – respondents are asked to rank or give numerical rating for the
information required them.
E. Subjective – the respondents are free to give their opinions and answers to
the questions.
F. Combination – makes use of one or more type of questions in a single
questionnaire.

V. Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

A. People from similar backgrounds or experiences are gathered and guided by
a moderator who introduces the topics for discussion and motivates the group
to participate actively
Data Analysis
I. Thematic Analysis- the researcher looks across all the data to identify some recurring
issues. Main themes that summarize all the views collected can be derived from these
issues, reads and annotates transcripts, and identifies themes.
There are several themes researchers can identify this stage:
i. Ordinary themes are those that researchers expect to find (e.g., students’
exposure to bullying situations in school).
ii. Unforeseen themes are those that researchers expect to come out in the
investigation (e.g., school policies on bullying that are implemented).
iii. Hard-to-classify themes are those that researchers find difficult to classify
because they overlap with one another or several themes (e.g., students
assemble in the playground).\
iv. Major and minor themes are those that researchers represent as major and
secondary ideas in the database (e.g., major idea—desire to quit smoking;
secondary idea—body’s reaction to smoking).

II. Develop a coding scheme- initial themes can be collected to develop a coding
scheme. This includes the enumerated themes and the codes applicable to the data.
Each broad code has a number of sub codes. It is recommended to use a coding
scheme as soon as initial data have been gathered.

III.Coding Data
There are six basic steps in coding data:
A. Get an idea of the entire data set. After reading the transcriptions carefully,
write down some ideas as they arise in the margins of the transcription.
B. Select one interesting document. Choose the shortest and perhaps the most
interesting transcript, reread it and ask the question, “What is the respondent
talking about?” Discern the underlying meaning and jot it down in the
margins of the transcript.
C. Start the document coding process. Divide the transcript into segments, put
brackets in each of the segments, and give specific code to each phrase or
word that exactly explains or describes the meaning of text segment.
D. List all code words. After coding the whole text, look for redundant codes by
grouping similar ones. Through this process, the list of codes can be reduced
into a more manageable number. It is recommended to limit the number of
codes from the start of the process, so that it is easier to manage the
reduction of code number.
E. Review the list against the data. Apply this preliminary organizing process to
the same transcripts and find out if new codes appear.
F. Categorize the codes for emerging theme or descriptions of the subject or
setting. Themes or categories are the same codes combined together to
 identify major ideas in the data set. Identify five to seven code categories
representing the most discussed responses of the subjects. These few
themes will enable the researcher to write in-depth information about a few
themes, rather than a broad description about many themes.

IV. Narrative Analysis- the researcher looks narratively within each case, so that the
story of a research subject or description of the setting is not lost. The narratives of
the subjects reveal about themselves and their environment. The researcher may
examine in details some cases to see how the themes show relationships in a
particular case. This process uses documents and observations that focus on how
stories are made rather than on the outcome of the narrative.

V. Content Analysis- it enables researcher to focus on human behavior indirectly

through discourse analysis. The written content of documents (reference books,
newspapers, magazine, etc.) can be analyzed using content analysis.

VI. Discovering Patterns- Lofland and colleagues (2006) presented six ways of looking
for patterns in a particular research topic. The following should make sense out of
the data gathered:

A. Frequencies – refer to how often a situation occurred.

Example: How often does bullying occur among selected public schools
under study?
B. Magnitudes – provide the level of the situation.

Example: What are the levels of bullying? How severe are they in the
research locale?

VII. Structures – give information whether types and relationships exist in the given
situation.

Example: What are the different types of bullying? Are they related in any
particular manner?

VIII. Processes – denote if there are order and variation in the given research interest.

Example: Is there any order among the elements of structure? Do bullies

begin with verbal, move to social, then to physical and cyberbullying? Does
the order of the elements differ?
IX. Causes – refer to how common and how often the causes are.
Example: What are the causes of bullying? Is it common in public schools or
private schools? Does it occur more often during break time or after class?
X. Consequences – mean the effect, if there is, in both short-term and long-term
periods and changes that situation caused.
Example: How does bullying affect the students in both short-term and long-
term periods? What changes did it cause to the bullied student?

REFERENCE

Clemente, R., Julaton, A., & Orleans, A. (2016). Science in Today's World Research in
Daily Life 1. Quezon City: SIBS PUBLISHING HOUSE, INC.

Prepared by

Nova Joy Salajug Melophyl C. Baguio Elijah Marvin S. Guangco

Instructor Instructor Instructor

Ateneo de Zamboanga University

Senior High School Unit