Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION IV-A CALABARZON
CITY SCHOOLS DIVISION OF DASMARIÑAS
PALIPARAN II INTEGRATED HIGH SCHOOL

MODULE 4.1: Understanding Data and Ways to Collect Data

Research Design

Research Design - describes whether your study is qualitative or quantitative.

Qualitative Research - makes use of first person/textual/discursive in nature.
Quantitative Research - makes use of third person – past tense/researcher is not the one
who determines the variables, but it is the subject itself.

Research Design

The research design states to the whole approach that you decide on to add the different
components of the study coherently and logically, thereby, ensuring you will effectively
address the research problem; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement,
and analysis of data. Note that your research problem determines the type of design you
should use.

a. Qualitative Research: A systematic subjective approach used to describe life

experiences and give them meaning. To gain insight; explore the depth, richness, and
complexity inherent in the phenomenon.
• Ethnography - you immerse yourself in the target participants’ environment to
understand the goals, cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes that emerge.
• Narrative - weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or two
individuals to form a cohesive story.
• Phenomenological - is an appropriate qualitative method when you want to describe
an event, activity, or phenomenon.
• Case Study - a way of explaining an organization, entity, company, or event which
involves a deep understanding through multiple types of data sources.
• Grounded Theory - Whereas a phenomenological study looks to describe the essence
of an activity or event, grounded theory looks to provide an explanation or theory
behind the events. You use primarily interviews and existing documents to build a
theory based on the data. You go through a series of open and axial coding techniques
to identify themes and build the theory. Sample sizes are often also larger—between
20 to 60—with these studies to better establish a theory. Grounded theory can help
inform design decisions by better understanding how a community of users currently
use a product or perform tasks.

What are typical qualitative research questions?

Qualitative research, sometimes also referred to as naturalistic inquiry, is a distinct

field of research with its own research philosophy, theory and methodology.
If your desire is to perform a qualitative study, it will probably be a lot easier to
develop your research question if you first become familiar with some of qualitative
research’s basic principles.
The qualitative paradigm suggests that there are multiple realities, and what we
are researching are constructs. In qualitative research, generally the phenomenon is
studied in its natural setting and the focus is on the participants’ (and also the
researcher’s) view of the world. In other words, qualitative research usually does not
happen in a lab, or while sitting at a desk. It generally requires going out, talking to
people, observing what they do, as well as how they perceive and interpret things. Also,
it does not aim to generalize findings to entire populations. Therefore, the research
question that you ultimately choose guides your inquiry and reflects this stance. The
 vocabulary of your questions will usually suggest to the reader your intent to explore a
certain phenomenon in its natural context.

The process of developing qualitative research questions

It is very unlikely that your first attempt to develop a good research question will
be without hurdles. Every question usually undergoes a process of reflection and
refinement before you get your question to its final version. It is usually helpful to share
your draft question with others (mentor, advisor, colleagues, other students) so they can
comment on it and help you improve and reach better clarity.
For instance, a question ‘What challenges are encountered by people who switch
careers later in life?’ could guide a qualitative inquiry, but this question would most
likely require some further clarification. As it stands, it refers to a broad group of people
who might be difficult to capture in one single study. People can change careers for
different reasons (e.g. illness, difficulty finding a job in their primary profession, new life
stage, joining a family business) so even a big sample of people could have experiences
that vary significantly. We might want to consider narrowing this question down and
focusing only on one group, for example: What special challenges are encountered by
people who switch careers later in life due to not being able to perform their primary
profession anymore because of age- related health issues? This group of participants
could then be narrowed down even further to distinguish between different sub-groups
of health issues (mental health, physical illness, accidents, etc.). The first question could
serve as the overarching question, followed by sub-questions referring to different
examples of health problems.

The process of crafting a good research question can begin with writing down a
qualitative purpose statement regarding your research. When accomplishing this try
using words such as explore, understand, discover. Your purpose statement can also
mention the participants and the research site. An example of a purpose statement
would be: The purpose of this study is to explore how online tools can help with dieting.

The purpose statement can then be used to develop your research question, which
narrows down your purpose statement and makes it more specific. For the previous
statement, the research question could be:

What are the experiences of women aged 30 to 40 using smartphone applications for
dieting?

b. Quantitative Research: An objective, systematic empirical investigation of observable

phenomena through the use of computational techniques. It highlights numerical analysis
of data hoping that the numbers yield unbiased results that can be generalized to some
larger population and explain a particular observation.

• Survey Research - uses interviews, questionnaires, and sampling polls to geta sense
of behavior with intense precision
• Correlational Research - tests for the relationships between two variables.
• Causal-comparative - research looks to uncover a cause-and-effect relationship.
This research is not conducted between the two groups on each other.
• Experimental Research - is guided specifically by a hypothesis.

What are typical quantitative research questions?

Quantitative research questions are generally used to set the scene for an entire study or
industry report. For quantitative business research it is imperative that the research
questions used allow your respondents to answer succinctly. With that in mind there are
three common types of quantitative research questions:

1. Descriptive research questions

2. Comparative research questions
3. Relationship-based research questions
Let’s take a look in greater detail at the typical formats you can use when preparing
quantitative market research questions.

Descriptive research questions

Descriptive survey questions are designed to uncover a respondent’s response towards a
particular question or variable. Put simply, it’s the easiest way to quantify the particular
variable(s) you’re interested in on a large scale. Common descriptive research questions will
begin with “How much?”, “How regularly?”, “What percentage?”, “What time?”, “What is?”

Primarily, a descriptive research question will be used to quantify a single variable, but
there’s nothing stopping you covering multiple variables within a single question.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

Question Variable Demographic

How often do you buy mobile Number of mobile apps Smartphone users
apps for fitness purposes? bought Fitness enthusiasts
How much would you be The cost respondents Men aged 18-40
willing to pay for a men’s would be willing to pay for
lifestyle magazine? a men’s lifestyle magazine
How regularly do you go Number of times Families & adults
abroad for a holiday? respondents go on holiday aged 18-and-over
abroad

Comparative research questions

Comparative survey questions are designed to help you identify clear differences between two
or more groups based on one or more variables. For instance, a typical comparative research
question will begin by asking respondents for the “difference between” a particular variable
e.g. mobile apps bought between two or more groups e.g. teenage boys and teenage girls.

On the whole, a comparative research question will only be used to quantify a single variable,
but depending on the needs of your market research it’s plausible to use two or more if
necessary.
Here are few examples for you to consider:

Question Variable Demographic

What is the difference in the daily Daily calorific intake Men based in London
calorie intake between men and Women based in London
women in London?
What are the differences in Attitudes towards Millennial adults
attitudes towards online banking online Adults born prior to 1982
between banking
Millennial adults and older
people?
What is the difference in the Number of landline Millennial adults
number of landline telephone telephone calls made Adults born prior to 1982
calls made
between Millennial adults and
older people?

Relationship-based research questions

A relationship-based research question can be misleading to some as it doesn’t mean you’ve
got to ask respondents about their love life!

Here, the term relationship is used more to describe an association or trend between two or
more variables within one or more demographic groups.

Examples of relationship-based research questions include:

Question Dependent Independent Demographic
variable Variable
What is the relationship Gender A Level exam 6th Form
between gender and A Level results students
 exam results amongst 6th Form
students?
What is the relationship Disposable Location Young adults
between disposable income and income
location amongst young
adults?
What is the relationship Job satisfaction Salary London
between job satisfaction and residents
salary amongst London
residents?

Sampling is a process through which the researcher selects a portion or segment from the
population at the center of the researcher’s study. The population is a group of persons or
objects that possess some common characteristics that are of interest to the researcher, and
about which the researcher seeks to learn more.

Two groups of population:

• Target population is composed of the entire group of people or objects to which the
researcher wishes to generalize the findings of the study.

• Accessible population is the portion of the population to which the researcher has
reasonable access.

• Subjects are individuals or entities which serve as the focus of the study.

• Respondents are individuals or groups of people who actively serve as sources of

information during data collection.

• Elements refer to subjects of the study who are not people.

To come up with the chosen design whether quantitative or qualitative research, think of
which best suits the given title or topic to explore the collective ideas and picture out to
reveal better understanding.
NAME : ___________________________________________ SECTION: ________________

MODULE 4.1 - Understanding Data and Ways to Collect Data (Research Design)

Practice Task 4.1

A. Connecting to Research Problem

1. State the problem of your study.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___

2. After the discussion of the types of research, identify what type of research method is
relevant to the current research problem.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___

B. Identification of appropriate research design.

Why there is a need to identify research method that is appropriate to your study? Give
your justification/s.

1. _______________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________

C. Charting the Differences of Research Designs

Make a Venn Diagram that illustrates the significant difference and similarities of
quantitative and qualitative research.

Use appropriate graphic organizer to compare and contrast the kinds of qualitative
/quantitative research.

ASSESSMENT:
I. Identification Instruction: Provide the correct answer of each item by using the blank
provided before each number.
___________1. It is a research which is primarily expository.
___________2. It generates numerical data data that can be transformed into usable
statistics.
___________3. Here, the researcher immerse in the target participants’ environment to
understand the goals, cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes that
emerge.
___________4. This approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just one or
two individuals to form a cohesive story.
___________5. This describes an event, activity, or phenomenon
___________6. It provides an explanation or theory behind the events
___________7. It involves a deep understanding through multiple types of data sources.
Case studies can be explanatory, exploratory, or describing an event.
___________8. It is used to develop your research question, which purpose is to explore how
online tools can help the dieting,
___________9. “How does a good everyday life come about when living with chronic rheumatic
conditions?” is what kind of qualitative research question?
___________10. “What are the attitudes of elderly people with stroke towards the daily use of
assistive devices and technologies?” is an example of what qualitative
methodology?
___________11. Using this as the method of research, an organization conducting survey
ask different survey questions from the respondents using the various types
like online surveys, online polls paper questionnaires, etc and then collect
data and analyze collected data in order to produce the numerical results.
___________12. It is used to draw conclusions with respect to the cause and effect equation
between the two or more than two variables, where the one variable will be
dependent on other variables which will be independent.
__________13. This analysis is done for the purpose of proving or for disproving the
statement. It is generally used in the field of natural sciences or in the field
of social sciences as in those areas various statements are there which
required to be proved as right wrong.
__________14. This is conducted for establishing a relationship between the two closely
associated entities for knowing the impact of one on other and the changes
which eventually observed. It is carried for giving value to the naturally
occurring relationships. For this research minimum, two different groups will
be required.
__________15. These are designed to uncover a respondent’s response towards a particular
question or variable.
__________16. These are designed to help you identify clear differences between two or more
groups based on one or more variables.
__________17. It is a research question that can be misleading to some as it doesn’t mean
you’ve got to ask respondents about their love life.

II. Enumeration.
Instruction: Enumerate the items asked.
What are the kinds of research designs?
18.________________________________
19. ________________________________
20. ________________________________

What are the kinds of Qualitative research?

21. ________________________________
22. ________________________________
23. ________________________________
24. ________________________________

Enumerate the the top four types of Quantitative research.

25. ________________________________
26. ________________________________
27. ________________________________
28. ________________________________

III. Essay. Instruction: Answer the following questions briefly.

a. Why is it important that a researcher has to have in-depth understanding of research
designs?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

b. When is qualitative/quantitative research used?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

c. What factors should be considered in the preparation of research design?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

d. When is descriptive research design used? Historical? Case Study or experimental?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

e. Write in your own words one (1) paragraph description of either quantitative or
qualitative research design. Include its relevance in your research problem and how
it will assist you to qualify the data gathered.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________