PRACTICAL RESEARCH 2

NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH

Inquiry – a term that is synonymous to “investigation” which means to ask questions to probe
or examine something.

Research – is a scientific , experimental, or inductive manner of thinking; it starts from a

particular idea and ends in a more complex idea; it involves execution of varied thinking acts
that ranges from lower order to higher order thinking strategies

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative Research – focuses on specific things by means of statistics that involve

collection and study of numerical data; expressed in numerical forms, objective thinking,
statistical methods and measurements.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research

 Objective type of research

 Analogous to scientific or experimental thinking
 Theorize, hypothesize, analyse, infer and creates problems
 Usually happens in hard sciences

Classifications of Quantitative Research

 Experimental – deals with the subject of the research in a definite or exact manner
and determines the cause of effects of the treatment of the subject, then discovers
the causes of such effects.

a. True Experimental- uses random selection in determining who among the

participants should compose the experimental and control group.
b. Quasi- Experimental – adopts a comparative technique in choosing the
subjects
 Non-experimental – a way of finding out truths about a subject by describing the
collected data about the subject and determining their relationships or collections
with one another

Characteristics of Non-experimental Research

 Incapable of establishing cause-effect relationship

 Involves various ways of data analysis
o Primary – analysis of data collected by the researcher himself.
o Secondary – examination of data collected by other people.
o Meta-analysis – analysis of data expressed numerically
 Uses research methods that are applicable to both quantitative and qualitative data
 Collects data through survey, observation, historical studies and so on.

Types of Non-experimental Research

1. Survey Research
2. Historical
3. Observational
4. Correlational
5. Descriptive
6. Comparative
Importance of Quantitative Research

 Production of results that should reflect precise measurement and an in-depth analysis
of data
 to obtain objective understanding of people, things, places and events
 enables an objective study of the surroundings
 to obtain information about specific personality traits of a member of group as a whole.

QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

STANDARDS QUANTITATIVE
Mental Survey of reality
Cause-effect relationship
Researcher’s involvement
Expression of data, data
analysis and findings
Research plan
Behaviour toward research
aspect/conditions
Obtaining knowledge
Purpose
Data-analysis technique
Style of expression
Sampling technique
QUALITATIVE
Exist in physical world Results from social interactions
Revealed by automatic
Explained by peoples’ objective
descriptions of circumstances
desire
or conditions
Objective Subjective
Numerals, statistics Verbal language
Plans all research aspect Takes place as the research
before collecting data proceeds gradually
Control or manipulation of Desires to preserve natural
research conditions setting
Scientific method Multiple methods
Evaluates objectives and
Makes social intentions
examines cause-effect
understandable
relationship
Thematic codal ways,
Mathematically based methods
competence based
Impersonal, scientific,
Personal, lacks formality
systematic
Purposive sampling or use of
Random sampling
samples based on some criteria

Survey Research – is a method of research that aims to knowing what big number of people
think and feel about some sociological issues; it is the most used non-experimental research in
the field of sociology, psychology and humanities.

Purposes of Survey research

 To obtain information about people’s opinions and feelings about an issue

 To identify present condition, needs or problems of people in a small span of time
 To seek answers to social problems
 To give school officials pointers on curricular offerings, guidance and counselling
services, teacher evaluation and so on.

Planning a Survey Research

1. Explanation of objectives clearly

2. Formulation of research questions or hypothesis to predict relationships of variables
3. Determination of the exact kind of the data referred to by the hypothesis or research,
teacher evaluation, and so on
4. Assurance of the population or group of people to which the findings will be applied to
5. Finalization of the sampling method for selecting the participants
6. Identification of the method or instrument in collecting data; that is, whether it is
questionnaire on paper through phone, via computer or face-to-face.