INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH
Introduction to Research methods in Education and Social Sciences
Definition of Research
The term research is often loosely used with misleading meanings. The word comes from two other words,re and search. Therefore, it connotes the finding of an item or information. It is also used to mean the act of informing oneself about what one does not know or of exploring through available sources to retrieve a bit of information.
Research is a process through which we attempt to achieve systematically and with the support of data the answer to a question, the resolution of a problem, or a greater understanding of a phenomenon. In its technical sense, Research is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to increase our understanding of a phenomenon. The task of the researcher in this process is to contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon under study and to communicate that understanding to others. Therefore, the role of research is to provide a method for obtaining answers by inquiringly studying the evidence within the parameters of a scientific method.
Any research process has an approach, through which information is processed to provide solution to a problem or give meaning to a phenomenon. Some of the distinguishing features of a research process (methodology) includes, but not limited to, the following:
- Research originates with a question or problem.
- Research requires a clear articulation of a goal.
- Research follows a specific plan of procedure.
- Research is guided by the specific research problem, question, or hypothesis.
- Research accepts certain critical assumptions.
Research requires the collection and interpretation of data in an attempt to resolve the problem that initiated the research.
Differentiating the Paradigms
Disagreements have emerged in social science research among researchers of the nature of social reality and how best it can be studied (Ogula, 1998). Researchers thus implore different methodologies in order to describe, explore and understand the world. Although not mutually exclusive, Research methods are generally divided into two broad paradigms Quantitative and qualitative.
Quantitative methods are often associated with the positivistic tradition, deductive and predictive in approach. Another feature of quantitative research is that they depend on experimental designs and statistical correlations. Researchers of this approach usually concern themselves about quantifying social phenomena, collection and analyses of numerical data, and they focus on links among a smaller number of attributes across many cases (Ogula, 1998). Quantitative researchers represent their data mostly in numerical terms.
Qualitative methods, on the other hand, emphasise personal experiences and interpretation. Qualitative research is an umbrella concept covering several forms of inquiry that helps in the understanding and explanation of the meaning of social phenomena with as little disruption of the natural setting as possible. This research approach thus investigates social phenomena and their occurrence in naturalistic settings. The focus is on understanding the phenomenon in its entirety. It provides an explanation to a phenomenon as perceived by the people. Qualitative researches are often inductive employing naturalistic designs to generate rather than test theories. In general, qualitative research is concerned with understanding the meanings of social phenomena and focus on links among a larger number of attributes across relatively few cases. Qualitative methods are built on a post-positivistic, phenomenological world view. According to McMillan and Schumacher (2001) Qualitative research assumes that reality is socially constructed through individual or group definitions of the situation. The authors contend that the purpose of such research is to understand the current situation from the participants perspective. Hence, they conclude that it is vital for the researcher to be immersed in the phenomenon of interest. In quantitative research, the emphasis is on collecting data that lead to dependable answers to important questions, reported in sufficient detail and which is meaningful to the reader. Ethnography is an example of a qualitative study. While very different in many aspects, both qualitative and quantitative approaches involve a systematic interaction between theories and data.
Qualitative research expands the range of knowledge and understanding of the world beyond the researchers themselves. It often helps us see why something is the way it is, rather than just presenting a phenomenon. For instance, a quantitative study may find that students who are taught composition using a process method receive higher grades on papers than students taught using a product method. However, a qualitative study of composition instructors could reveal why many still use the product method even though there is an awareness of the benefits of the process method.
Quantitative and Qualitative research are systematic in design. Having a system or following a process or a pattern is a defining principle of all research. In general, quantitative research is thought to be objective whereas qualitative research involves a subjective element. It is thought that in gaining, analysing and interpreting quantitative data, the researcher can remain detached and so be objective. Adherents of this approach argue that their findings are more objective and reliable since the findings could be scrutinised and validated by another group of researchers. Often this is not possible with qualitative research where the researcher may actually be involved in the situation of the research. Quantitative research is inclined to be deductive. That is it tests theory. This is in contrast to most qualitative research which tends to be inductive. In other words it generates theory.
Quantitative research designs produce generalizable results, assuming that the research was conducted in an appropriate manner using appropriate sampling techniques. Qualitative studies, on the other hand, tend to produce results that are less easy to generalise. This has to do with the problem of the sample used at the time. This is so because human feelings about situations can change dependent on our particular set of circumstances. Even if the researcher encountered the same group of subjects on another instance, they may find different results. Generally, it is difficult to generalise with qualitative results.
Finally, the most obvious difference between quantitative and qualitative research is that quantitative research uses data that are structured in the form of numbers or that can easily be transposed into numbers. Data that cannot be structured in forms of numbers are considered qualitative. Therefore, objectivity, deductiveness, generalizability and numbers are features often associated with quantitative research.
