UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH knowledge you have about your world bears the influence of your

knowledge you have about your world bears the influence of your cultural, sociological,
institutional, or ideological understanding of the world.
LESSON 1: NATURE OF INQUIRY

INTRODUCTION GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OR FOUNDATION OF INQUIRY

 Inquiry and research are two terms that are almost the same in meaning. Both involve investigative
work in which you seek information about something by searching or examining the object of your Three Educational Theories serving as foundation of inquiry-based learning.
search. 1. JOHN DEWEY’S THEORY OF CONNECTED EXPERIENCES (exploratory and reflective
 INQUIRY – is to look for information by asking various questions about the thing you are curious thinking).
about. 2. LEV VYGOTSKY’S ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD) – stresses the essence of
 RESEARCH – is to discover truths by investigating on your chosen topic scientifically; meaning, provocation (frustration) and scaffolding (support) in learning.
by going through a systematic way of doing things wherein you are to begin from the simplest to 3. JEROME BRUNER’S THEORY ON LEARNERS’ VARIED WORLD PERCEPTIONS – for their own
the most complex modes or patterns of thinking. interpretative thinking of people and things around them.

INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ELEMENTS OF INQUIRY AS A WAY OF LEARNING

1. changing knowledge
MEANING OF INQUIRY 2. creativity
 Learning is your way of obtaining knowledge about your surroundings. This takes place in many 3. subjectivity (bias)
ways, and one of these is inquiry; which many people in the field of education considers effective. 4. socio-cultural factors
 INQUIRY – is a learning process that motivates you to obtain knowledge or information about 5. sensory experience
people, things, places or events. You do this by investigating or asking questions about something 6. higher order thinking strategies
you are inquisitive about. It requires you to collect data, meaning, facts and information about the
object of your inquiry, and examine such data carefully. These can be achieved through the inquiry methods of field work, case studies, investigations,
 In your analysis, you execute varied thinking strategies that range from lower-order to higher-order individual group project and research work.
thinking skills such as inferential, critical, integrative and creative thinking. These are top-level
thinking strategies that you ought to perform in discovering and understanding the object of your BENEFITS OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING
inquiry. Engaging yourself in many ways of thinking, you come to conclude that inquiry is an active 1. Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills.
learning process. 2. Improves student learning abilities.
 Putting you in a situation where you need people to probe (search), investigate, or ask questions to 3. Widens learners’ vocabulary.
find answers or solutions to what you are worried or doubtful about, inquiry is a problem solving 4. Facilitates problem-solving acts.
technique. 5. Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge.
 Solving a problem by being inquisitive, you tend to act like scientists who are inclined to think 6. Encourages cooperative learning.
logically or systematically in seeking evidence to support their conclusions about something. 7. Provides mastery of procedural knowledge.
Beginning with whatever experience or background knowledge you have, you proceed like 8. Encourages higher-order thinking strategies.
scientists with your inquiry by imagining, speculating (guess), interpreting, criticizing and creating 9. Hastens conceptual understanding.
something out of what you have discovered.
 Inquiry elevates your thinking power. It makes you think in different ways, enabling you to arrive Educators, businessmen, and other professionals consider all these benefits of Inquiry-based
at a particular idea or understanding that will motivate you to create something unique, new, or learning in various field of knowledge to be a crucial to the success of anyone in the 21 st century.
innovative for your personal growth as well as for the world. Therefore, knowing the ins and outs of Inquiry-based learning will greatly guide you in
 Inquisitive thinking allows you to shift from one level of thought to another. It does not go in a linear deciding which learning method will guarantee successful learning in the present world, which is tagged
fashion; rather; it operates in an interactive manner. by many as the Era of Globalization, Age of Knowledge Explosion, Age of Consumerism, Digital Age, Age
 Solving a problem, especially social issues, does not only involve yourself but other members of the of Instant World, etc.
society too. Hence, inquiry, as a problem-solving technique, includes cooperative learning because
any knowledge from members of the society can help you to make the solution. Whatever
 2. Objectiveness – it must deal with facts, not with mere opinions arising from assumptions,
generalizations, predictions or conclusions.
3. Timeliness – it must work on a topic that is fresh, new and interesting to the present society.
4. Relevance – its topic must be instrumental in improving society or in solving problems affecting
the lives of people in a community.
5. Clarity – it must succeed in expressing its central point or discoveries by using simple, direct,
LESSON 2: NATURE OF RESEARCH concise and correct language.
6. Systematic – it must take place in an organized or orderly manner.
DOING A RESEARCH IN COLLEGE
 In college, you involve yourself in varied school activities such as academic contests, sports fests, PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
elocution contest, music festivals, college week celebrations, art exhibits, research work, debate 1. To learn how to work independently.
competitions and many more. All of these activities are aimed to let you develop a well-rounded 2. To learn how to work scientifically or systematically.
personality. But one or two of them gave emphasis in honing a particular ability. (e.g. making you 3. To have an in-depth knowledge of something.
excel in mathematics, science arts, music and many more). 4. To elevate your mental abilities by letting you think in higher-order thinking strategies (HOTS) of
 One school activity that every college student has to excel in is RESEARCH. This is a hallmark of a inferring, evaluating, synthesizing, appreciating, applying and creating.
university or college education. Your research abilities reflect the quality of your school. If you 5. To improve your reading and writing skills.
graduate from a school with superb knowledge of research work, you can tell yourself that, “I AM A 6. To be familiar with the basic tools of research and the various techniques of gathering data and of
PRODUCT OF A QUALITY COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY.” presenting research findings.
 Hence the greatness of a higher education institution depends on how knowledgeable its faculty 7. To free yourself, to a certain extent, from the domination or strong influence of a single textbook or
and students are about the INS and OUTS or research; more so, on the application of this to their of the professor’s lone viewpoint or spoon feeding.
everyday life for the progress of the whole world.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
MEANING OF RESEARCH 1. Based on Application of Research Method
 A process of executing various mental acts for discovering and examining facts and information to a. PURE RESEARCH – if the research is applied to theoretical or practical issues. It deals with
prove the accuracy or truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about the topic of your research. concepts, principles or abstract things. It aims to increase your knowledge about
 It requires you to inquire or investigate about your chosen research topic by asking questions that something.
will make you engage yourself in top-level thinking strategies of interpreting, analyzing, b. APPLIED RESEARCH – if the intention is to apply your chosen research to societal
synthesizing, criticizing, appreciating or creating to enable you to discover truths about the many problems or issues, finding ways to make positive changes in society.
things you tend to wonder about the topic of your research work. 2. Based on the Purpose of the Research
 It is analogous to inquiry, in that, both involve investigation of something through questioning. a. DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH – it aims at defining or giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a
However, the meaning of research is more complicated than inquiry because it does not center person, thing, event, group, situation, etc. This is liable to repeated research because its
mainly on raising questions about the topic, but also on carrying out a particular order of research topic relates itself only to a certain period or a limited number of years. Based on the
stages. Each stage of the research process is not an individual task because the knowledge you results of your descriptive studies about a subject, you develop the inclination of
obtain through each stage comes not only from yourself but other people as well. Thus, similar to conducting further studies on such topic.
inquiry, research involves COOPERATIVE LEARNING. b. CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH – it shows relationships or connectedness of two factors,
 Central to this is your way of discovering new knowledge, applying knowledge in various ways as circumstances or agents called variables that affect the research. It is only concerned in
well as seeing relationships of ideas, events and situations. indicating the existence of a relationship, not the causes and ways of the development of
 It puts you to the context where the problem exists. You have to collect facts or information, study such relationship.
such data, and come up with a solution to the problem based on the results of your analysis. c. EXPLANATORY RESEARCH – it elaborates or explains not just the reasons behind the
 It is a process requiring you to work logically or systematically and collaboratively with others. relationship of two factors, but also the ways by which such relationship exists.
d. EXPLORATORY RESEARCH – its purpose is to find out how reasonable or possible it is to
CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH conduct a research study on a certain topic. Here, you will discover ideas on topics that
1. Accuracy – it must give correct and accurate data, which the footnotes, notes and bibliographical could trigger your interest in conducting research studies.
entries should honestly and appropriately documented or acknowledged.
 e. ACTION RESEARCH – it studies an ongoing practice of a school, organization, community 3. HEALTHY CRITICISM – the researcher is always doubtful as to truthfulness of the results.
or institution for the purpose of obtaining results that will bring improvements in the 4. INTELLECTUAL HONESTY – an intelligent researcher is honest to collect or gather data or facts in order
system. to arrive at honest results.
3. Based on Types of Data Needed 5. INTELLECTUAL CREATIVITY – a productive and resourceful investigator always creates new researches.
a. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH – it requires non-numerical data, which means that the
research uses words rather than numbers to express the results, the inquiry, or THE RESEARCH PROCESS
investigation about people’s thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views and lifestyles regarding the 1. Defining the problem
2. Defining the hypothesis (not included in qualitative research)
object of the study. These opinionated answers from people are not measurable; so, verbal
3. Planning out the study to test the hypothesis (not included in qualitative research)
language is the right way to express your findings in a qualitative research.
4. Defining the variables
b. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH – it involves measurement of data. Thus, it presents research
5. Forming all operational definitions
findings referring to the number of frequency of something in numerical forms (i.e., using 6. Carrying out the study
percentages, fractions, numbers). 7. Collecting all data
8. Interpreting the data
Primary Data – are obtained through direct observation or contact with people, objects, artifacts, paintings, 9. Presenting the data
etc. These are new and original information resulting from your sensory experience. 10. Drawing the conclusions
11. Communicating the results
Secondary Data – if such data have already been written about or reported on and are available for reading
purposes. ETHICS OF RESEARCH
 Ethics should be applied in all stages of research from PLANNING, to GATHERING OF DATA, to ANALYSIS AND
INTERPRETATION and in the EVALUATION (ORAL EXAMINATION) of the research.
 To ensure this, the following must be strictly observed:
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
1. Researchers should AVOID ANY RISK OF CONSIDERABLY HARMING PEOPLE, THE
 After choosing your topic for research, what is your next move? In other words, how are you going
ENVIRONMENT or PROPERTY unnecessarily. They should DESIST (stop) FROM SUBJECTING
to approach or begin your research, deal with your data, and establish a connection among all things PERSONS TO ANY EXPERIMENT or research procedure that is known before hand to cause harm,
or activities involved in your research? There are three approaches that you can choose from. stress or pain with no overwhelming benefit.
2. Researchers must not use DECEPTION (dishonesty) on people participating.
1. SCIENTIFIC OR POSITIVE APPROACH – in which you discover and measure information as well as 3. Researchers must obtain INFORMED CONSENT from all involved in the study. Informed consent
observe and control variables in an impersonal manner. It allows control of variables. Therefore, means the knowing consent of an individual without undue inducement or any element of force,
the data gathering techniques appropriate for this approach are structured interviews, fraud, pressure, or any other form of constraint or coercion. Sufficient information must be presented
(in understandable language) so that the potential subject can make an informed judgment about
questionnaires and observational checklists. Data given by these techniques are expressed through
participation. Making an informed decision about participating in research includes having an
numbers, which means that this method is suited for quantitative research
understanding of the possible risks and benefits to their involvement and knowing absolutely that
2. NATURALISTIC APPROACH – it uses words. This research approach directs you to deal with they do not have to volunteer and can withdraw at any time.
qualitative data that speak of how people behave toward their surroundings. These are non- Informed consent documentation is required whenever there are human participants
numerical data that express truths about the way people perceive or understand the world. Since involved in research. Whenever necessary, informed consent documents should be modified based
people look at their world in a subjective or personal basis in an uncontrolled or unstructured on the research being conducted. Informed consent documentation should be developed in
manner, a naturalistic approach happens in a natural setting. conjunction with the research ethics protocol.
3. TRIANGULATION APPROACH – combining the two approaches (SCIENTIFIC and NATURALISTIC). 4. Researchers must preserve PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY whenever possible by not using or
releasing data and information revealed to them in confidence.
You are free to gather and analyze data using multiple methods, allowing you to combine or mix up
5. Researchers must take SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS WHEN INVOLVING POPULATIONS OR ANIMALS
research approaches, research types, data gathering, and data analysis techniques. It gives you the
which may not be considered to understand fully the purpose of the study.
opportunity to view every angle of the research from different perspectives. 6. Researchers must not PLAGIARIZE the work of others, that is, not to present portions of another’s
report or data as their own, even if the other work or data source is cited occasionally and gives
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RESEARCHER proper acknowledgment and credit to resource/ funding sources of their research.
1. INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY – a researcher undertakes a deep thinking and inquiry of the things and 7. GRANT AND LIMIT AUTHORSHIP to those who made a significant contribution to the research
situations around him. endeavor.
2. PRUDENCE – the researcher is careful to conduct his research study at the right time and at the right place 8. Ensure THAT RESEARCH RESULTS ARE ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC once the research is
wisely, efficiently and economically. concluded or as soon as is reasonable.
 9. Researches must NOT TWIST THEIR CONCLUSIONS based on funding.  A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of a qualitative research. As you go
10. Researchers must not FALSIFY RESEARCH, thus, ensure the accuracy of all data that they have through the research process, you find the need to amend or rephrase interview questions
gathered and/or used in their research. and consider varied ways of getting answers, like shifting from mere speculating to
11. Researchers must ENSURE THAT ONLY THE CORRECT DATA, INFORMATION AND RESEARCH
traveling to places for data gathering. You are not fixated to a certain plan. Rather, you are
RESULTS SHALL BE REPORTED in journals, conferences and reports to clients in case of
commissioned research.
inclined to discover your qualitative research design as your study gradually unfolds or
12. Respect the CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY RIGHTS OF PEERS, COLLEAGUES AND reveals itself in accordance with your research objectives.
STUDENTS whose material are reviewed for publication, presentation or funding by a grant. 3. MULTIPLE RESEARCH APPROACHES AND METHODS
13. RESPECT CULTURAL, INDIVIDUAL AND ROLE DIFFERENCS among research participants and  Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your study in varied ways. You are
consumers, including those based on age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, free to combine this with quantitative research and use all gathered data and analysis
ethnicity, disability, language or socio-economic status. techniques. Being a multi-method research, a qualitative study applies to all research
types.
4. SPECIFICITY TO GENERALIZATION
 Specific ideas in a qualitative research are directed to a general understanding of
something. It follows an inductive or scientific method of thinking, where you start
UNIT II: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN DAILY LIFE thinking of particular or specific concept that will eventually lead you to more complex
ideas such as generalizations or conclusions.
LESSON 3: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 5. CONTEXTUALIZATION
 A qualitative research involves all variables, factors or conditions affecting the study. Your
DEFINITION OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH goal here is to understand human behavior. Thus, it is crucial for you to examine the
 As a curious student, you want to know so many things about your surroundings as well as the context or situation of an individual’s life – the WHO, WHAT, WHY, HOW and other
people, places and things you find interesting, intriguing, mysterious, or unique. circumstances – affecting his or her way of life.
 Try looking at the people around you. Perhaps you are interested in knowing these people’s ideas, 6. DIVERSIFIED DATA IN REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS
views, feelings, attitudes or lifestyle. The information these people give you reflect their mental,  A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural setting like observing people
spiritual, emotional or social upbringing, which in turn, show how they view the world. Resulting as they live and work, analyzing photographs or videos as they genuinely appear to people,
from internal aspects, people cannot measure worldviews but can know them through numbers. and looking at classrooms unchanged or adjusted to people’s intentional observations.
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH – obtaining world knowledge in this manner direct you to do this. A 7. ABOUNDS WITH WORDS AND VISUALS
research type that puts premium or high value on people’s thinking or point of view conditioned by  Words, words and more words come in big quantity in this kind of research. Data
their personal traits. It usually takes place in soft sciences like social sciences, politics, economics, gathering through interviews or library reading, as well as the presentations of data
humanities, education, psychology, nursing and all business-related subjects. analysis results, is done verbally. In some cases, it resorts to quoting some respondents’
 Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an individual or a group under study, but answers. Likewise, presenting people’ world views through visual presentation (i.e.,
also for you, the researcher because of your personal involvement in every stage of your research. pictures, videos, drawing, and graphs) are significantly used in qualitative research.
For instance, during interviews, you tend to admire or appreciate people’s ideas based on their 8. INTERNAL ANALYSIS
answers or your observations and analysis of certain objects. By carefully looking at or listening to  Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the subject individuals (i.e.,
the subject or object in a natural setting, you become affected by their expressions of what they emotional, mental, spiritual characteristics). You study people’s perception on views
think and feel about a topic. about your topic, not the effects of their physical existence on your study. In case of objects
 In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society and people’s intentions are involved (e.g., books and artworks) that are subjected to a qualitative research, the investigation
in explaining cause-effect relationships. Things are studied in their natural setting, enough for you centers on underlying theories or principles that govern these materials and their
to conclude that qualitative research is an act of inquiry or investigation of real-life events. usefulness to people.

CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. HUMAN UNDERSTANDING AND INTERPRETATION 1. CASE STUDY
 Data analysis results show an individual’s mental, social and spiritual understanding of a. It usually takes place in the field of social care, nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers,
the world. Hence, through their worldviews, you come to know what kind of human being education, etc.
he or she is, including his or her values, beliefs, likes and dislikes. b. This involves a long-time study of a person, group, organization, or situation.
2. ACTIVE, POWERFUL AND FORCEFUL c. It seeks to find answers to why such things occur to the subject.
 d. Finding the reason/s behind such occurrence drives you to also delve (investigate) into 1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that those involve in the
relationships of people related to the case under study. research understand things based on what they find meaningful.
e. Varieties of data collection methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observations and 2. It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in their natural setting.
documentary analysis are used here. 3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
2. ETHNOGRAPHY 4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality as it demands the researcher’s careful and attentive
a. Falling in the field of anthropology. stand toward people’s world views.
b. It is the study of a particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its 5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
organizational set-up, internal operation and lifestyle. 6. It increases the researcher’s interest in the study as it includes the researcher’s experience or
c. A particular group reveals the nature or characteristics of their own culture through the background knowledge in interpreting verbal and visual data.
world perceptions of the cultural group’s members. 7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about something.
3. PHENOMENOLOGY
a. Coming from the word, “PHENOMENON” which means something known through sensory DISADVANTAGES OR WEAKNESSES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
experience. 1. It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis.
b. It refers to the study of how people find their experiences meaningful. 2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
c. Its primary goal is to make people understand their experiences about death of loved ones, 3. Its open-ended questions yield “DATA OVERLOAD” that requires long-time analysis.
care for handicapped persons, friendliness of people, etc. 4. It is time-consuming.
d. In doing so, other people will likewise understand the meanings attached to their 5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the researcher’s view or
experiences. interpretations.
e. Those engaged in assisting people to manage their own lives properly often do this kind
of research. LESSON 4: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE
4. CONTENT AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
a. It is a method of qualitative research that requires an analysis or examination of the SUBJECT AREA RESEARCH APPROACHES
substance or content of the mode of communication (letters, books, journals, photos, video  Research studies happen in any field of knowledge, Anthropology, Business, Communication,
recordings, SMS, online messages, emails, audio-visual materials, etc.) used by a person, Education, Engineering, Law and Nursing, among others, turn in a big number a research studies
group, organization, or any institution in communicating. that reflect varied interests of people.
b. A study of language structures used in the medium of communication to discover the  Belonging to a certain area of discipline, you have the option to choose one from these three basic
effects of sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the content makes research approaches: POSITIVE or SCIENTIFIC, NATURALISTIC and TRIANGULATION or MIXED
it a discourse analysis. METHOD.
c. In studying the content or structures of the material, you need a question or a set of  The scientific approach gives stress to measurable and observable facts instead of personal views,
questions to guide you in your analysis. feelings or attitudes. It can be used in researches under the hard sciences or STEM (Science,
5. HISTORICAL ANALYSIS Technology, Engineering, Medicine) and natural sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry). The positive
a. Central to this qualitative research method is the examination of primary documents to or scientific approach allows control of variables or factors affecting the study.
make you understand the connection of past events to the present time.  To become positivist or scientific in conducting your research study, you must collect data in
b. The results of your content analysis will help you specify phenomenological changes in controlled ways through questionnaires or structured interviews. For instance, in the field of
unchanged aspects of society through the years. medicine, to produce a new medicine, a medical researcher subjects the data to a controlled
6. GROUNDED THEORY laboratory experiment. These factual data collected are recorded in numerical or statistical forms
a. It takes place when you discover a new theory to underlie your study at the time of data using numbers, percentages, fractions and the like.
collection and analysis.  QUANTITATIVE DATA – type of data expressed in measurable ways.
b. Through your observation on your subjects, you will happen to find a theory that applies  The naturalistic approach is people-oriented. Data collected in this case represent personal views,
to your current study. attitudes, thoughts, emotions and other subjective traits of people in a natural setting. Collecting
c. Interview, observation and documentary analysis are the data gathering techniques for data is done in family homes, playground, workplaces or schools. In these places, people’s personal
this type of qualitative research. traits or qualities naturally surface in the way they manage themselves or interact with one another.
The naturalistic approach focuses on discovering the real concept or meaning behind people’s
ADVANTAGES OF STRENGTHS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH lifestyles and social relations.
 The naturalistic approach lets you present things qualitatively through verbal language.
  QUALITATIVE DATA – using words rather than numbers as unit of analysis. One type of data that
exists in abundance in social sciences, which to others exist as soft sciences.
 Considered as soft sciences are ANTHROPOLOGY, BUSINESS, EDUCATION, ECONOMICS, LAW,
POLITICS and all subjects aligned with business and all those focused on helping professions such
as NURSING, COUNSELING, PHYSICAL THERAPY, and the like.
 Having the intention to collect data from people situated in a natural setting, social researchers use
unstructured interviews and participant observations. These two data gathering techniques yield
opinionated data through the use of OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS and actual participation of the
researcher in the subjects’ activities. Collecting data through these subjective-prone research
methods indispensably results in the gathering of qualitative data.
 All in all, from a social science researcher’s viewpoint, these qualitative data resulting from
naturalistic approach of research serves as the basis for determining universal social values to
define ethical or unethical behavior that society ought to know, not only for the benefit of every
individual and community but also for the satisfaction of man’s quest for knowledge.
 In the field of Humanities, man’s social life is also subjected to research studies. However,
researchers in this area give emphasis not to man’s social life, but to the study of the meanings,
significance, and visualizations of human experiences in the field of Fine Arts, Literature, Music,
Drama, Dance and other artistically inclined subjects.
 Researches in these subjects happen in any of the following humanistic categories:
o LITERATURE AND ART CRITICISM – where the researchers, using well-chosen language
and appropriate organizational pattern, depend greatly on their interpretative and
reflective thinking in evaluating the object of their study critically.
o PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH – where the focus of inquiry is on knowledge and principles
of being and on the manner human beings conduct themselves on earth.
o HISTORICAL RESEARCH – where the investigation centers on events and ideas that took
place in man’s life at a particular period.

HARD SCIENCES vs. SOFT SCIENCES

 Just like in other subjects under soft sciences such as marketing, man’s thoughts and feelings still
take center stage in any research studies.
 The purposes of any researches in any of these two areas in business are to increase man’s
understanding of the truths in line with markets and marketing activities, making him more
intelligent in arriving at decisions about these aspects of his life.
 Research types that are useful for these areas are the basic and applied research.
 A quantitative or qualitative kind of research is not exclusive to hard sciences or soft sciences. These
two research methods can go together in a research approach called TRIANGULATION or MIXED
method approach. This is the third approach to research that allows a combination or a mixture of
research designs, data collection and data analysis techniques.
 There is no such thing as a clear dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative research methods
because some authorities on research claim that a symbiotic relationship, in which they reinforce
or strengthen each other, exists between these two research methods.
 Moreover, any form of knowledge, factual or opinionated, and any statistical or verbal expression
of this knowledge are deduced from human experience that by nature is subjective.