Practical Research 2

Prepared by:

Reymark A. Batbatan
 UNIT 1 Nature of Inquiry and
Research

Introduction.

There are many things that we need and we want to know in this world. People, things,
places, events-their chracteristicsor qualities make us wonder continuously, frequently, or
intermittently. Marveling at them, you need to immerse yourself in a situation where you seem to
be grappling with a problem or a puzzle. Questions after questions on the many aspects of the
object of your curiosity prod you you to move, act, or do something to find answers to your
questions or to discover truths about your inferences or speculations on such object. Behaving
like an investigator, asking and seeking answers to some questions about the thing you find
puzzling indicates the true nature of inquiry or research.

Lesson 1

Inquiry vs. Research: A Review

Nature of Inquiry and Research

Inquiry, a term that is synonymous with the word “investigation”.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) strategies:

1. Inferential- a guess or opinion that comes from the information that you have.

2. Analytical-examining or liking to examine things in detail, in order to discover more
about them
3. Critical-Another way to form ideas is to use critical thinking. This involves a person
using his own knowledge or point of view to decide what is right or wrong about
someone else's ideas. This is sometimes called "having a mind of your own." It means
that a person doesn't have to believe or accept everything that someone else says or
writes. For example, a friend decides that Babe Ruth is the best baseball player who ever
lived. But another friend may feel that Mark McGuire deserves that title, and he may
have lots of facts to support his position.
In addition to evaluating other people's ideas, critical thinking can also be used to
evaluate things. A person does this when he is deciding which new telephone or book to
buy. Of course, critical thinking can sometimes be carried too far. Nobody likes the
person who argues about everything and only feels his point of view is right. If used
reasonably, however, critical thinking can help a student be successful in school and
elsewhere.
 4. Creative- Creativity can be measured by its fluency, flexibility, originality, and
elaboration. The most creative minds are those for whom creative thought is fluid. The
most creative thinkers are also flexible within their creating — they are willing and able
to manipulate their thinking to improve upon that which they are creating. Creative
thinkers are able to elaborate on their creation, largely because it is their creation and not
one that has been borrowed. When creative thinkers are at the peak of their creative
process, they may enter a state of concentration so focused that they are totally absorbed
in the activity at hand. They may be in effortless control and at the peak of their abilities.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to this fluid and elaborative state of mind as
"flow." Finally, creative thinkers are original; they do not "copy" the thinking of others
but rather build their thinking from the ground up.

Creativity is usually thought of as divergent thinking — the ability to spin off one's
thinking in many directions. But creative thinking is also convergent, for when someone has
created something, his thinking may converge only on ideas and information that pertain to that
particular invention.

5. Appreciative Thinking- To learn appreciative thinking is to learn to appreciate, to learn to

see the value of things. More or less the opposite of critical thinking.

Characteristics of Research

Research- is a scientific, experimental, or inductive manner of thinking.

Research Activities

1. Identifying the Topic or Problem

2. Gathering Data
3. Making Theories
4. Formulating Hypotheses
5. Analyzing Data
6. Drawing Conclusions

Cognitive Driven Terms

1. Empirical
2. Logical
3. Cyclical
4. Analytical
5. Critical
6. Methodical
7. Replicable
Methods of Research

To be a researcher is to be a scientist, who must think LOGICALLY or

SYSTEMATICALLY; you must follow a certain order like, INDUCTIVE THINKING
meaning from specific ideas first, and then move to more complex concepts like conclusions or
generalization. Or do the opposite which is the DEDUCTIVE THINKING that lets you start
from forming generalizations to details or specific ideas about the subject matter. There are also
other approaches that we can use in planning a research work; it depends on the topic and
purpose.
Take note! Other approaches are in Practical Research 1

The cardinal principle in research is to give acknowledgment to owners of all sources of

knowledge involved in your research work.

Inquiry vis-à-vis Research

One scholarly activity that greatly involves inquiry is research. Similar to inquiry that
starts from what you are ignorant about, research makes you learn something by means of a
problem-solving technique. Both inquiry and research encourage you to formulate questions to
direct you to the exact information you want to discover about the object of your curiosity.
Although the core word for both inquiry and research is investigation or questioning, they are not
exactly the same in all aspects. 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)

Activity 1 (Comprehension Check)

Directions: Explain your understanding of inquiry and research by answering the following
questions.

1. Compare and contrast Inquiry and Research.

2. Which is easier to carry out: Inquiry or Research? Give reasons for your answer.
3. Have you had an application of Inquiry and Research in your day-to-day life? Explain

Activity 2 (Concept Elaboration)

Directions: Determine whether Inquiry or Research is applicable to the given situations. Check
the corresponding column of your answer.
 Situation Inquiry Research
A person wants to know the
occupant of one
condominium.
A student wants to know the
medicinal effects of guava
leaves.
Mr. Cruz wants to know the
technique to make his electric
fan function instantly.
Professor Gomez wants to
discover the impact of social
networking on his students’
learning abilities.
Aling Rosa wants to know the
reason behind the decrease of
her sales for the day.
A businessman wants to find
out which between these two
marketing strategies: free
tasting and attractive
packaging, could increase
daily sales.

Lesson 2
Quantitative Research
Definition of Quantitative Research

Expressions like numerical forms, objective thinking, statistical methods, and

measurement signal the existence of quantitative research. One word that reflects the true nature
of this type of research is NUMERICAL. This term, numerical, is a descriptive word pertaining
to or denoting a number or symbol to express how many, how much, or what rank things are or
have in this world. Expressing meaning through numerals or a set of symbols indicates
specificity, particularity, or exactness of something.

Quantitative research makes you focus your mind on specific things by means of
statistics that involve collection and study of numerical data. You use mathematical operations of
addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication to study and express relationships between
quantities or magnitudes shown by numbers or symbols. ( Suter 2012; Ruseell 2013)
Characteristics of Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is described as objective research in contrast to qualitative

research that is subjective. Characterized by objectiveness, in which only the real or factual, not
the emotional or cognitive existence of the object matters greatly to the artist, quantitative
research is ANALOGOUS to scientific or experimental thinking. Quantitative research usually
happens in hard sciences like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Medicine; qualitative research, In
soft sciences such as Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, and Psychology, among others.

Classification

Quantitative research is of TWO kinds:

1. Experimental
a. True Experimental
b. Quasi-experimental
c. Single Subject
d. Pre-experimental

Quasi-experimental

 Matched Comparative Group

 Time Series
 Counterbalanced Quasi-experimental

2. Non-experimental
a. Survey
b. Historical
c. Observational
d. Correlational
e. Descriptive
f. Comparative Research

Importance

The importance of quantitative research lies greatly in the production of results that
should reflect precise measurement and an in-depth analysis of data. It is also useful in obtaining
an objective understanding of people, things, places, and events in this world; meaning, attaching
accurate or exact meanings to objects or subjects, rather than inflated meanings resulting from
the researcher’s bias or personal attachment to things related to the research.
Quantitative Research vs. Qualitative Research

Standards Qualitative Quantitative

Mental survey of reality Results from social interactions Exists in the physical world

Cause-effect relationships Explained by people’s Revealed by automatic

objective desires descriptions of circumstances
or conditions
Researcher’s involvement with Subjective; sometimes Objective; least involvement by
the object or subject of the personally engaged the researcher
study
Expressions of data, data Verbal language (words, Numerals, statistics
analysis, and findings visuals, objects)
Research plan Takes place as the research Plans all research aspects
proceeds gradually before collecting data
Behavior toward research Desires to preserve the natural Control or manipulation of
aspects/conditions setting of research features research conditions by the
researcher
Obtaining knowledge Multiple methods Scientific method
Purpose Makes social intentions Evaluates objectives and
understandable examines cause-effect
relationships
Data-analysis technique Thematic codal ways, Mathematically based methods
competence-based
Style of Expression Personal, lacks formality Impersonal, scientific, or
systematic
Sampling technique More inclined to purposive Random sampling as the most
sampling or use of chosen preferred
samples based on some criteria

Activity 1.1 (Concept Elaboration)

Directions: Formulate quantitative research questions out of the given qualitative questions.

1. Which social media networking activity is the most favorable among Filipino college
students?
Lesson 3 Experimental Research
Activity 2.0

Directions: Explain your understanding of the word by writing some details about it in each
quadrant of the map.
Definition/Meaning Characteristics

Depends on the doer’s

leadership, directions, author
Manage, direct, guide
Conduct
Examples ConductNon-examples
Soldiers obeying their head,
servants following orders
Organizing seminars,
managing a class

Definition/Meaning Characteristics

Absolute
Examples Non-examples
Conduct
Definition/Meaning Characteristics

Downplay
Examples
Conduct
Non-examples

Definition/Meaning Characteristics

Disintegrate
Examples
Conduct
Non-examples
 Experimental Research

Definition of Experimental Research

Experimental research is a quantitative research that treats or deals with the object or
subject of the research in a definite or exact manner and determines the extent of the effects or
influence of the treatment on the object/subject, then discovers the causes of such effects.

Two Groups of Experimental Research

1. Experimental Group- the one on which the treatment or influences is applied.

2. Control Group- which does not receive any treatment.

Classifications of Experimental Research

1. True Experimental Research- is done through either laboratory research or field research.
It uses random selection in determining who among the participants should compose the
experimental group or the control group.
2. Quasi-experimental Research- adopts a comparative technique in choosing the subjects.
The treatment or condition is applied is not chosen randomly but matched or compared
with another group whom you, the researcher, believe as having the same characteristics
as the experimental group under treatment.

Research Designs of Non-Experimental Research

Any plan you have about a non-experimental research must have the following aspects
that take place in a sequential manner:

1. Specify the problem or topic of your research.

2. Formulate the research problem or hypothesis.
3. Determine the dependent and independent variables.
4. Selct participants or subjects.
5. Decide on the specific type of experimental research; meaning, whether it will be a true
experimental or quasi-experimental research.
6. Conduct the experiment.
7. Collect, analyze, and interpret the results.
Process in conducting Experimental Research

a. First, give a pre-test to examine the initial condition of both groups in relation to a
variable, condition, or factor;
b. Second, apply to the control group a new condition; and
c. Third, give the latter group a post-test to determine the effects or influence of the
treatment or condition applied on them.

Ways or Methods of Letting Variable, Factor, or Condition that have an Application on the
Subjects

1. Treatment Evaluation
2. Pre-test and post-test

Types of Quasi-Experimental Research

1. Matched Comparison- choosing a treatment group and another group that has similarities
with the treatment group.
2. Time-series Quasi-experimental Research- giving them series of pre-tests and post-tests
3. Single-subject Quasi-experimental Research-controls treatment and condition applied to
just one individual or a group.

Activity 2.1

Directions: Explain your understanding about the text by answering the following questions on
the given lines.

1. Compare and contrast the two basic types of experimental research

2. Why an experimental research is also called a scientific?
3. Which is better between the two types of experimental research? Justify your choice.
Lesson 4 Non-Experimental Research

Activity 2.2

Directions: Give the meaning of the underlined word in each sentence. Be guided by the
contextual clues.

1. How could the light be diffused all over the place, if it was placed between two posts?
2. Give me a concrete evidence of the veracity of that to make me say yes to your offer right
away.
3. A greedy man tends to manipulate things for his own benefit.
4. Being versatile actor, he is able to give an excellent potrayal of varoius character roles.
5. Try to understand the poem in conjuction with the picture near its title.

Non-Experimental
Research

Non-Experimental research is a way of finding out truths about a subject by describing the
collected data about such subject and determining their relationships or connections with one
another. Any treatment or condition is not involved in this type of research. But there is a
measuring of variables here; hence, once you do a non-experimental research, you deal with both
qualitative and quantitative data.

Characteristics of Non-Experimental Research

1. It is incapable of establishing cause-effect relationships; by itself, it is able, if it takes

place in conjuction with other experimental and quasi-experimental research methods.
2. It involves various ways of data analysis:
a. Primary- analysis of data collected by the researcher himself
b. Secondary- examination of data collected by other people
c. Meta-analysis- analysis of data expressed numerically.
 3. It uses research method that applicable to both quantittative and qualitative data.

Definition of Survey Research

Survey research is a non-experimental research, it is the most used non-experimental

research in the field of Sociology, Psychology, and Humanities. Inquiries, investigations, and
experiments also happen in this type of non-experimental research, but in terms of types and
analysis of data, Survey research follows a standard that is applicable to social sciences.

It is a method of research that aims at knowing what a big number of people think and
feel about some sociological issues.

Purpose of Survey Research

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

2. To identify present condition, needs, or problems of people in a short span of time.
3.