Nature of Inquiry and Research

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 INQUIRY: DEFINED
◉ Inquiry, a term that is synonymous with
the word ‘investigation’.
◉ When you inquire or investigate, you
tend to ask questions to probe or
examine something.
◉ Thinking in this manner makes you ask
open ended questions to elicit views,
opinions, and beliefs of others in
relation to your research. (Small 2012)

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 RESEARCH: DEFINED
◉ Research
is a scientific,
experimental, or inductive
manner of thinking.

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◉ Research includes more complex
acts of investigation than inquiry
because the former follows a
scientific procedure of
discovering truths or meanings
about things in this world.
(Goodwin 2014; Lapan 2012)

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INQUIRY OR RESEARCH?

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Qualitative researchers TEND to:

• feel that human behavior is context-specific; therefore,

behavior must be studied holistically, in situ, rather than
being manipulated
• employ an 'insider's' perspective; research tends to be
personal and thereby more subjective.
• do interviews, focus groups, field research, case studies,
and conversational or content analysis.
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Purpose: explain; gain insight and understanding of phenomena
through intensive collection and study of narrative data
Approach: inductive; subjective; holistic, process-oriented
Hypotheses: tentative, evolving; based on the particular study
Lit. Review: limited; may not be exhaustive
Setting: naturalistic, when and as much as possible
Sampling: for the purpose; not necessarily representative; for in-
depth understanding
Measurement: narrative; ongoing
Design and Method: flexible, specified only generally; based on
non-intervention, minimal disturbance, such as historical,
ethnographic, or case studies
Data Collection: document collection, participant observation,
informal interviews, field notes
Data Analysis: raw data is words/ ongoing; involves synthesis
Data Interpretation: tentative, reviewed on ongoing basis,
speculative 8
 “
According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2000), quantitative
research is “explainingphenomena by
collecting numerical data that are
analyzed using mathematically based
methods” (in particular statistics).

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Expressions like numerical forms, objective
thinking, statistical methods, and
measurement signal the existence of
quantitative research.
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 Examples:

decrease in the number rise in the rate of

of failing students in youth drug
Mathematics
addiction

decrease in juvenile change in turn-over

crime rates in the, rural rates
areas. Quantitative change in drop-out rates
Research

increase in sales shift in the percentage

of dengue patients

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Some advantages of using quantitative
research are as follows:
• It allows the r esearcher to measure and
analyze data
• It gives reliable results since the study
uses a big sample
• It is replicable since standards are
usually used in choosing the instruments,
sampling procedures, and statistical
treatments.

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The. disadvantages of quantitative research
include the following:
• it ignores the context of the study in such a
way that it does not consider the natural
setting of the conducted study
• it requires more resources since it uses a
large sample for the study
• The results are limited because they are
usually based on the analysis of numbers
and are not obtained from detailed
narratives.

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IMPORTANCE

a. In education, it can be used in measuring the level of performance of

students and teachers, and in assessing the effectiveness of the methods
and the different programs conducted.
b. In business, it can improve the overall marketing strategy, and help the
company make informed decisions on how to be best move forward with a
particular product or services.
c. In medical and health allied services, it yields statistics that can help
improve the rate of recovery of patients with illnesses and sicknesses, and
the efficacy of medicines and drugs, among others.
d. In science and technology, it can lead to a more responsible and
accountable operation of the different components of technology.

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Making something different but BETTER

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THANKS!
Any questions?

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