How to Write Chapter 3 –Methods of Research and Procedure

This chapter of the research process contains a comprehensive description of the research designs, research
locales, samples and the sampling techniques, the subjects, research instruments, validation of the instruments, data
gathering procedures, data processing methods, and the statistical tools and treatments.

Research Design
When a researcher starts to think about existing educational problems, there seems to be simultaneous concerns
with one or more plans for obtaining the right answers. The plans or research designs, in effect, form the structure and the
researcher’s method of answering his questions and conducting studies. Research design in research is categorized
according to the procedure the researcher collects and analyzes data and his research purpose. The two basic researches
designed based on the way information is collected, synthesized and analyzed are quantitative and qualitative research. It
may be observed that although there are overlapping characteristics in quantitative and qualitative research, they result
from different theoretical perspectives about the overall purpose of research in spite of these difference the two types are
complimentary, and they may be combined in a single research project (Lancy, 1993). The two research perspectives share
from procedural aspects (Hillocks, 1992). Quantitative and Qualitative researchers’ share concerns “in problem finding in
explaining the relationships of data to claim, in theory building, and in explaining particular cases in the light of established
knowledge and theory. However, researcher can focus on various kinds of problems. For examples, quantitative methods
cannot deal directly with historical problems of cause and effect or the interpretation of unique social phenomena. On the
other hand, qualitative researcher finds it quite difficult, if not impossible, to represent the responses of large numbers of
individual to different kinds of stimuli, e.g., different methods of teaching and attitudes towards social and economic
conditions and political events. In the sense that two sets of methods allow researchers to deal with problems of various
dimensions in different context, they are complementary, (Hillocks, 1992)

 Data Collections
 Questionnaires
 Interview
 Quantitative Research

Figure12. Paradigm of Research Design

DESCRPTIVE RESEARCH
 Quantitative Method
 Statistical Desciption

COMPARATIVE RESEARCH
Research Collecting  Statistical Description
Design Information

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
 Analysis of Statistical Data

QUANLITATIVE
RESEARCH

CHARACTERISTICS

Descriptive Research
 Descriptive research seeks to provide information about one or more variables. It is used to answer the question “what
exists?” This question can be answered on one or two ways: using quantitative methods or qualitative methods.

Types of Experimental Design

1. Single-group Design – This involves a single treatment with two or more levels.

Example: an investigator wants to determine the different methods of teaching math.

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the significant difference of the achievement of subjects.

Table 3
Teaching Mathematics in Three methods to a Group of Subject Using the Single Group (Fictitious Data)

TEST RESULTS
Subjects
Method 1 Method 2 Method 3
1 70 75 80
2 80 83 85
3 75 79 80
4 83 85 90
5 81 87 89

2. Two-group Design – The comparable groups are employed as experimental and control groups

Example: An investigator wants to determine the effectiveness of teaching math using the traditional and modern approaches,
the control group (traditional approach), and experimental group (modern approach). The t-test is used to determine the effectiveness
of teaching math using the traditional (control) and the modern approach (experimental)