Introduction to Research Methodology

1. Introduction to Research Methodology Lynn W Zimmerman, PhD

2. What is Research? • endless • sometimes painful • convincing • experiment • findings • consistent • analysis • implications • publish • statistics • never perfect • boring • time consuming • experts • unpredictable University of Hawaii data

3. What is Methodology? • A specific way or method of performing a process • An organized, documented set of procedures and guidelines • A step-by-step approach for carrying out the procedure

4. What is Research Methodology? • Methods to collect data, and the concepts and theories which underlie the methods • A scientific and systematic way to solve a research problem by using various logical steps • Helps to define and clarify the process and the product of the research • Aims to describe and analyze the methods themselves, to clarify their strengths and limitations

5. Influences on Research • Expectations and possibilities concerning research in your field • What do people in education do research on? • Effectiveness of teaching strategies • Student motivation • Effects of testing on learning • Influence on learning of sequence of instruction

6. Three Types of Research

7. Quantitative Research Methodologies • Quantitative research • collect quantitative data • measure variables • verify existing theories or hypotheses or questioning them • data often used to generate new hypotheses • emphasizes the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables, not processes.

8. Qualitative Research Methodologies • Qualitative research • to understand meanings • look at, describe and understand experience, ideas, beliefs and values • seeks answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning • subjects that are difficult to quantify

9. Side-by-Side Comparison Chart

10. Example: Analysis of an Oil Painting

11. Variables • Variable - something that changes • it changes according to different factors • Researchers, especially quantitative researchers are often seeking to measure variables. • The two primary types of variables are • Independent – the variable the researcher wants to measure (the cause) • Dependent – the effect (or assumed effect)

12. Mixed Method • A combination of both - often quantitative to establish baselines and background and qualitative for follow up • triangulate • back up one set of findings from one method of data collection supported by one methodology, with another very different method underpinned by another methodology

13. Why Do Research? • Objectives of research • To discover new facts • To verify or test important facts • To analyze an event, process or phenomenon • To identify a cause/effect relationship • To develop new scientific tools, concepts and theories to solve and understand scientific and nonscientific problems • To find solutions to scientific, nonscientific, and social problems • To overcome or solve problems occurring in our everyday lives

14. Bases for Research by Educators • Practical problems which arise in the classroom • Secondary sources – articles and conference presentations about someone else’s research which may raise questions for further research • Primary research – reports of data which may raise questions for further research

15. Qualitative and Quantitative Research in Education • Educational research • has moved away from relying only on quantitative research and toward more qualitative research • Quantitative methods • developed by the natural science to study natural phenomena. • Examples: surveys, laboratory experiments, numerical methods, etc. • Qualitative methods • developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena. • Examples: Action research, case study research

16. Purpose of Educational Research • Advancement of knowledge of education and learning processes • Development of tools and methods necessary to support them. • May be undertaken at the individual, situational, institutional, and social structural levels of analysis

17. What Educational Researchers Do • Education researchers aim to describe, understand, and explain • how learning takes place throughout the life cycle • how formal and informal processes of education affect learning, attainment, and the capacity to lead productive lives. • Unifying purpose - to build cumulative and sound knowledge about human and social process of fundamental significance to individuals, to groups, and to the larger society 

18. Revisit Your Definition • Research • Is planned, systematic investigation • has testable theories • attempts to study phenomenon through careful description and identification, sometimes controlling and manipulating them to study them in isolation to discover and obtain knowledge.

19. References • Brown, J. and Rodgers, T. (2002). Doing second language research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Perry, Jr., F.L. (2005). Research in applied linguistics: Becoming a discerning consumer. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • Seliger, H. and Shohamy, E. (1989). Second language research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.