Lecture 1: What is

Research? Introduction

This lecture is intended to introduce students to the field of research, its importance in

academia and people's life, how it is conceived by educationalists and experts, and how it has

developed throughout the years. Many people have defined or described research and

research methodology from different perspectives. Some of these definitions and portrays

may give a clear picture of the whole course and its scope of interest.

1. 1 Definitions of Research

Walliman (2001), in defining research, highlights the idea that students at university

should know well what the term "research" means, i.e. they should leave out any

misunderstanding or confusion because the term is used in many fields. He states that

research "is a term loosely used in everyday speech to describe a multitude of activities, such

as collecting masses of information, delving into esoteric theories, and producing wonderful

new products"(p. 6). So, Walliman tries to introduce the term "Research" as a concept from

an academic point of view, distinguishing it from what it might have as meanings or

connotations in other domains and disciplines.

Hancock and Algozzine (2006) find that the core of research is "about answering

questions as we attempt to understand the world around us!", and that in developing theses

and dissertations "research involves systematic actions that help the researcher add credibility

to the questions and answers engaged in his or her research" (p. 3). That is, we may all be

considered as researchers owing to our search for answers and solutions; however, in

academic circles research is more methodical, the fact that raises its reliability and validity.

Research methods and research procedures are then distinctive features of real research; they

require the researcher to put forward a research question, to prepare a specific design,

to select an appropriate population and sample, and to verify the findings (ibid, p. 4).

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 Researchers are not concerned with research at the tertiary level merely for the sake of

research. They are concerned with research as a necessary component in creating a tradition

of performance in their context, one that is primarily based on improving faster and better

problem-solving activities which, in their turn, increase the students' achievement and

learning outcomes. This distinction can be clearly explained by the following definitions:

Booth et. all (2003, p. 10) say

"In the broadest terms, we do research whenever we gather information to answer a question

that solves a problem"

Bassey, M. (1998) defines research as "systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which

aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and wisdom"(Qtd in Costello, 2003,p. 3)

Singh (2006, p. 1) observes the following about research:

"Research simply seeks the answer of certain questions which have not been answered so far

and the answers depend upon human efforts. It may be illustrated by taking an example of the

moon. Some years ago man did not know what exactly the moon is? Was this problem which

had no solution? Man could only make some assumptions about it but the man now this time

by his efforts, he went to the moon brought the soil of the moon and studied it"

In The Research Methods in Education Handbook for the Open University

Masters Programme (n.d, p.6), "Research" is considered to be "used to cover a wide range

of activities that differ substantially in all sorts of ways; and there is considerable

disagreement about what should and should not count as research. At one extreme, the term

covers forms of educational inquiry designed to contribute to disciplinary knowledge in, for

example, the psychology or sociology of education. Equally, though, educational research

may be primarily intended to inform policy making or practice, or it may take the form of

inquiries carried out by policy makers, school managers, or teachers, in order to further their

own activities".

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1. 2 Objectives of Research

From a very broad perspective, research is used as the main tool in almost all fields

to acquire knowledge. Research is used, for example, in many scientific fields such as

psychology, biology, medicine, and physics where it has proved to make valuable

contributions to what we already know about several things (Marczyk, DeMatteo &

Festinger, 2005, p. 1). For novice researchers, according to Booth et. all (2003, pp. 4-5), it

may provide the following immediate and practical benefits:

a. Learning to do research will help students to understand better the material they

cover.

b. Doing research is an experience that enables students to evaluate carefully what they

read through a process full of discoveries.

c. Writing the report of one's own work will help them to understand what is behind

what they read as books and what other people (experts) tell through these books.

d. Research gives students insights into the nature of knowledge, i.e. the kind of

knowledge which results from asking proper questions and offering pertinent answers.

e. Research offers students the opportunity to learn skills which they need now and in

further studies. These skills are said to persist when students leave the university or

institution they are studying or working in.

f. One more practical benefit of research is the pleasure it offers in solving puzzles and

discovering things that other people do not know, and which contributes to the

prosperity of human knowledge.

Though there are benefits when doing research, there are times when researchers undergo

hardships. Therefore, they should keep in mind the hope that their research will bring some

change to their life and the people they are living with and, meanwhile, these researchers

should be ready to "undertake studies on topics that are not of their personal choosing, but

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because they pay the rent or may take them on to the next stage of their career" (Blaxter,

Hughes & Malcolm, 2006, pp. 10-11). That is, doing research is not always personal, but it

may be a kind of duty fulfillment.

1.3 Motivation in Research

The more students are motivated to learn, the more their academic achievement

increases. Students' motivation can stem from external sources (extrinsic) such as

expectations of parents, as it can stem from internal sources (intrinsic) such as the desire for

academic recognition and status (Jordan, Carlile & Stack, p. 154). Intrinsic motivation has

been considered to be more important than extrinsic motivation, for success, for example in

learning, "will be more enhanced if the students come to love the learning process"

(Harmer, p. 51). Therefore, students' commitment and perseverance in any task such as

research is already justified by their interest and need for gaining something. Motivation, and

more specifically intrinsic motivation, is then an important factor that enables students

to discover new things, to solve problems, to conduct projects, and to maintain information;

that is, it is part and parcel of today's new learning requirements. Sprenger (2005) stated that:

Our classrooms must be student centered rather than teacher centered.

Discovery learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning, and
inquiry learning have found their place in our schools. In order for any
information to be stored in the brain, it must be received through sensory
memory. It therefore behooves us to take into consideration attention,
motivation, learning styles, emotion, and meaning (pp. 8-9)

Intrinsic or internal motivation, as it is sometimes called, has to do with what people

want to achieve without any intention to receive a reward from the others. The only reward

that one needs is his or her success. "Research has found that when people are motivated by

their own wants and needs they are almost always successful" (Brown, 2002, p. 20).

Moreover, according to Nesbit (Cited in, Burton, S. & Steane, P, 2004, p. 97), researchers

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should bear in mind that there are no strategies to follow so that they can motivate themselves

and reach what they want, except for the efforts they make. Hence, motivation in research

can be summarized by the following desires:

1. The desire to get academic recognition and status;

2. The desire to learn how to face difficulties and solve problems;

3. The desire to get a job or gain some respect in society;

4. The desire to conduct projects and serve people in a way or another.

1.4 Significance of Research

The significance of research lies in its main function which is" to improve research

procedures through the refinement and extension of knowledge" (Singh, pp. 4-5). This latter

is associated with many other aspects of social studies (ibid):

a. The function of research is to help making decisions concerning the refinement or

extension of knowledge in a particular area.

b. The function of research is to improve students' learning by solving classroom problems,

i.e. helping teachers to implement more effective techniques.

c. Another function of research is to aid staff and administrators to improve the education

systems. Research here contributes to facilitating the teaching learning process.

Research is also very helpful in business and economy, for it provides information

about needs and how to meet these needs. Many more matters in life require research;

problems of industry, working conditions are all matters necessitating research (Kothari,

1990, pp. 5-6).

Self-Assessment Exercise

1. Some scholars argue that research is about answering questions …………………………...

2. Students' motivation ……. external sources (extrinsic) such as....................internal sources

3. One function of research is...............................................to improve the education systems.

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Lecture 2: Methods and Methodology

Introduction

Fundamentally, in the social sciences, the goal of conducting research is to solve a

problem or remedy a situation, intending to improve some practices. Therefore, deciding on

the appropriate overall research methodology must be at the planning stage because it enables

the researcher to consider the feasibility, the ultimate findings, and all the attendant evils

which might come out in the course of the research.

2.1 Types of Research

It is important for novice researchers to distinguish, from a broad perspective, between

qualitative and quantitative research. One way to make a clear distinction between the two is

to consider the following distinctive features (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006, pp.7-9):

1. If there are only a few resources and the research is limited by time, then a quantitative

approach is more appropriate. This is due to the use of tools such as tests to measure specific

variables. However, a qualitative approach requires more time and more resources, for it

utilizes interviews, focus groups, observations, and so forth.

2. If there is an intention to identify a large number of influential variables, a qualitative

approach will be more useful. That is, a qualitative approach will help to know more about an

issue rather than putting a finger on only a few variables.

3. Because quantitative research can be carried out with a small number of participants,

researchers prefer it to qualitative research which entails an easy access to the participants in

the study.

4. Sometimes, the research findings are preferred in the form of words not numbers. In this

case, a quantitative approach may be the best choice.

5. If there is a need to understand a problem or a situation from the participants' perspective

and not the researcher's perspective, the qualitative research type is more suitable.

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 Based on the above literature, it has become clear that qualitative and quantitative

research approaches differ at many levels. Each type has its own features and is used

depending on many criteria. Sometimes, researchers employ a combination of these two

approaches in the same study.

2.2 Research Approaches

Many other types of research have been identified (Walliman, 2001, pp. 88-96). Some of

these types are listed as follows:

1. Historical Research: It has as a major concern the exploration of the relationships of

events, relying on primary historical data such as records and writings. It tries to investigate

why and how some events took place.

2. Comparative Research: In this type of research, researchers may compare people's

experience in the past or in the present. They may conduct studies on classes or groups of

people, or on individual experiences. This type of research is based on the belief that

phenomena are best understood when they are compared with other similar phenomena

because it becomes easy to reveal their origins and development.

3. Descriptive Research: Descriptive research employs observation to collect data. It

attempts to establish norms through examining situations, i.e. it enables researchers to predict

what might happen again under similar circumstances. In this type of research, interviews,

questionnaires, and visual records can be utilized.

4. Correlation Research: Correlation research is primarily quantitative. It is used to measure

the association or the relationships between two phenomena or variables. Statistics are used

to analyze the numerical data, and the greater the number of cases is, the more reliable results

are attained.

5. Experimental Research: This type of research differs from the preceding research

approaches, especially in terms of the researcher's control over the variables. Control here

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refers to the researcher's efforts to isolate the conditions which determine the events or

changes in order to be able to watch and experience the effects in different situations. That is,

the experimental approach deals mainly with the "cause and effect" phenomenon which

involves several stages before the conduction of the experiment.

6. Evaluation Research: This type is considered to be descriptive, for it is generally designed

to deal with social issues. It does not only seek to get facts, but it also tries to explain deeper

aspects of the elements being investigated. It aims, for instance, to study projects from the

perspective of what they might cost and bring as benefits with the intention of improving and

developing a situation.

7. Action Research: This type looks like the experimental research, except for the fact that it

is conducted in a real world situation, and not in a laboratory. In this type, the researcher does

not intend or try to isolate the variables from where they are naturally functioning; the

researcher depends heavily on observation and behavioural data.

From the literature above, one may understand that there are many types of research.

Each one of these types is dictated by the nature of the problem to be solved, the type of data

to be collected, the methods to be used in collecting the data and in their analysis, and the

scope of the study and its objectives. These conditions, among others, must be weighed

carefully by researchers.

2.3 Research Methods versus Methodology

Any research requires the collection and analysis of data, which is generally done

through reading documents, observing people and phenomena, asking questions, or using a

combination of these ways. The latter are known as research methods, i.e. "all those methods

which are used by the researcher during the course of studying his research problem"

(Kothari, 1990, p.8). Whereas, research methodology

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 may be understood as a science of studying how research is done
scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by
a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind
them. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research
methods/techniques but also the methodology (ibid)

The most frequently used research methods have been described by Blaxter, Hughes

and Malcolm (2006, pp. 167-179) as follows:

1. Documents: This method is used by almost all researchers because they need to read,

interpret, and analyze what others have written. Researchers should know more about their

problems through consulting various sources.

2. Interviews: When they employ this method, researchers are supposed to question and

discuss topics with people. The interview can be more useful in getting data than the

observation or the questionnaire.

3. Observation: When using this method, researchers may be involved (participant) as they

may not. The researcher is supposed to watch, records, and analyzes the vents. This method is

time consuming both in collecting the data and in analyzing them.

4. Questionnaires: are widely used as social research techniques. They are used to elicit from

people opinions or ideas about their experience and, thus interpreting the results is not as easy

as one might think. Researchers must be very careful in putting questions which will yield the

needed data. The questionnaires can be e-mailed, sent by post, or administered over the

phone.

Questionnaires, interviews, observation and documents are then available tools for the

social researcher to collect empirical data. They are considered to be very helpful to get

evidence about the researcher's problem, and to provide him with an obvious image of and

exact measurement of things (Denscombe, 2007, p. 133). Researchers, in social sciences,

have the opportunity to use different methods within the study. "The principle behind this is

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that the researcher can get a better understanding of the thing that is being investigated if

he/she views it from different positions" (ibid, p. 134)

2.4 Research and the Scientific Process

In life, we ask questions all the time because we need to know what makes a lot of our

surroundings be or look like as we find them. We just need to know the truth. This need or

desire to find an answer is what makes everyone a researcher (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006,

p. 3). But, conducting good research requires the application of some research procedures

(ibid, p.4) which can be itemized as follows:

1. What we want to study (the research question)

2. How do we want to study it (the design)

3. Whom we want to study (the “case,” “cases,” or “sample”)

4. How best to acquire information (the data-collection techniques)

5. How best to analyze or interpret the information that we acquire (the data analysis)

6. How and with whom to share our findings (the dissemination process)

7. How to confirm our findings (the verification process).

Through scientific research, researchers attempt to obtain accurate and reliable

information to solve important issues and problems. Scientific research is then associated

with the application of systematic methods and techniques to understand different

phenomena. The steps which make up a scientific process (Lodico, Spaulding & Voegtle,

2006, p. 4) are described below:

1. First, the researcher asks a question;

2. Next, he/she collects new data;

3. Then, he/she analyzes the data;

4. After that, he/she interprets and reports findings;

5. Finally, he/she generates a new question to investigate next.

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 Research, in many fields, uses inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. In inductive

reasoning, the researcher uses systematic observations to come up with generalizations from

the analysis of data; however, in deductive reasoning, the researcher relies on a general

statement and then seeks evidence that would support or disconfirm that statement. The

former is known as the "bottom-up" approach, and the latter is referred to as the "top-down

approach" (ibid, p. 5)

Content Review

1. What features are necessary to consider so as to distinguish between qualitative and

quantitative research?

2. Identify the major research approaches. Give examples if it is possible.

3. What makes research methods different from research methodology?

4. In a few lines compare and contrast between research and the scientific process (method).

Self-Assessment Exercise

1. If …….. a few resources and the research is limited ……., then a …… is more appropriate.

2. Sometimes, the ……. are preferred ……….. words not numbers. In this case, a ……… the

best choice.

3. Researchers, in social sciences, have the opportunity to use.......................within the study.

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Lecture 3: The Research Process

Introduction

Academics at all levels devote their time and efforts to research. Research takes place

almost everywhere: "in laboratories and libraries, in jungles and ocean depths, in caves and in

outer space. It stands behind every new technology, product, or scientific discovery-and most

of the old ones"(Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2003, p.9)

3.1 How Social Research is done

To conduct research is to inquire into some aspects of the world around us, and research

as such is supposed to be very academic; i.e. it must be systematic, critical and scientific. Any

work will have to meet some requirements to convince the public or readers

(Swetnam, 2004, p. 1). Namely, the readers must find grounded recommendations and

conclusions (ibid).

3.2 The Research Process

Before tackling any problem, the social researcher faces a variety of choices of how to

conduct his or her research. In fact, each choice or direction has advantages and

disadvantages, that is, there is no right or wrong direction and it all depends on whether the

selected approach fits the investigation and its purposes (Denscombe, 2007, p. 3). To ensure

starting on a firm and solid path, there are some criteria and conditions to be taken into

consideration. The social researcher must feel confident to answer "yes" to, at least, the

following questions (ibid, p.5):

1. Does the research have significance in relation to some practical or theoretical issue?

2. Is there sufficient time for the design of the research, data collection and data analysis?

3. Will an adequate number and a suitable diversity of people, events, etc. be included?

4. Will the data be precise and detailed?

5. Can I avoid being biased because of my personal values, beliefs and background?

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6. Can I avoid any deception or misrepresentation in my dealings with the research subjects?

3.3 Criteria of Good Research

According to Kothari (1990, p. 20), good research is one that is systematic (it rejects

guessing and intuition), logical (it is characterized by logical reasoning), empirical (it relies

on concrete data), and replicable (its results can be verified by other researchers). Sometimes,

it is worth assessing the reliability, the validity, and the generalizability of the research to

answer the question "Is it a good research?" (Swetnam, 2004, p. 23). If it is reliable, the same

procedures or actions would lead to the same results; if it is valid, the researcher is observing

or measuring the right phenomenon; and if it is generalizable, the work is useful to other

people or situations. Checking the above criteria is also required to maintain academic

integrity.

3.4 Problems often Encountered by our Students

3.4.1 Choice of a Topic

Choosing one's research topic is perhaps the main single decision that a researcher is

supposed to take. It requires some focus on one's interests, professional and future life, and

on the objectives of this piece of research, and what the latter might bring to the researcher's

institution or workplace (Blaxter, Hughes & Malcolm, 2006, p. 22). Then, what must be

mentioned here is that after having read enough literature, and in order to conduct research,

students "need to start by identifying a question which demands an answer, or a need which

requires a resolution, or a riddle which seeks a solution, which can be developed into a

research problem: the heart of the research project"(Walliman, 2001, p. 20). That is, there

must be a clear and suitable problem to address. Suitability is meant to indicate that the

problem is interesting and significant (ibid, p. 21).

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3.4.2 The Literature Review and its Importance

Literature reviews are distinctive features of research and are conducted in many

different ways. All of these are characterized by the incorporation of more interaction with

material through critical evaluation (Finn, 2005, pp.89-90). The aim and importance of a

literature review derive from the need to understand and justify a research question in a given

research area, but not to just summarize concepts, theories, applications and the like

(ibid, p. 90). When students carry out a literature review, they aim to find out the people

speaking about what they are interested in, specifically their research objectives, and to show

their supervisors that they have read in depth about their topics (Biggam, 2008, p. 50).

3.4.3 Qualitative and Quantitative Research

It is very crucial and very strategic for beginning researchers to understand the

differences between qualitative and quantitative research because the selection of an

appropriate approach depends mainly on the goals and preferences of the researcher

(Hancock & Algozzine, 2006, p. 7). If the researcher wants to describe the state of affairs

from a distance, then the qualitative approach seems to be the best choice, and if he seeks to

discover relations between variables, the quantitative will be more fitting. This is only

because "Qualitative research approaches collect data through observations, interviews, and

document analysis and summarize the findings through narrative or verbal means" (Lodico,

Spaulding & Voegtle, 2006, p. 15); whereas, "All quantitative research approaches

summarize results numerically" (ibid, p. 12) with some differences in the goals and the ways

they collect data.

Self-Assessment Exercise

1. Good research is one that is..............................................................................and replicable

2. The aim and importance of a literature review derive from..........................................., but

not to just summarize concepts, theories,..............................and the like.