The Research Process
Many students start writing their final year research project without taking their time to understand and master the process and techniques involved in conducting a research and producing a quality research report in form of a final project report, research paper for journal publication or conference/seminar presentation.
Today I will be giving an overview of what the research process entails. If you are a beginner or novice in research, these series of actions or steps are very necessary in order to effectively carry out research.
Step 1: Identifying a Research Problem
In one of our post, we have looked at ways or sources of a research problem and how to state the research topic. Identification of a research problem should include evidence on why the problem is important. Evidence can come from following:
• Other researchers and experts as reported in the literature
• Experiences others have had in the workplace
• Personal experiences
Still can’t come up with a topic to write about? see your instructor for advice or contact us at educational research experts.
Step 2: Reviewing the Literature
A literature review is a summary of journal articles, books, and other documents that describes the past and current state of information on the topic of the research study. The purpose of the literature review is to document what the study adds to the existing literature and to ensure you are not “reinventing the wheel.” The literature review informs the researcher on how other research studies have been conducted and help locate models relevant to the study. (Creswell, 2015).
The following are four components to conducting a literature review:
1. Identify key terms related to the research problem.
Note: Topic areas usually consist of two or three key words. Use these as a starting point to start your search and then use the literature to identify other key terms. You can start out using subject specific database searches. Other databases include Google Scholar, Web of Science, e.t.c.
To help further in the literature review, state your topic idea as a question. For example, if you are interested in finding out about use of self-prescribed drugs by college students, you might pose the question, "What effect does use of self-prescribed drugs have on the health of college students?"
Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. In this case they are self-prescribed drugs, health, and college students.
2. Locate literature about a topic by consulting several types of databases.
3. Critically evaluate and select the literature related to the research problem.
Note: It is best to always use primary sources. Primary sources are literature reports by the individual who actually conducted the research (E.g: Empirical scholarly works such as research articles, project report, clinical reports, case studies, dissertations. Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies.e.t.c.).On the other hand, Secondary sources are sources that summarize primary sources. Sometimes secondary sources do not accurately reflect the primary sources. (E.g. Publications such as textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews, commentaries, encyclopedias, almanacs).
It important to know how to locate primary research in the library (online or offline):
1. From the Library homepage, search or select a subject-specific database from the A-Z Databases.
2. Use the Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Journal limiter to narrow your search to journal articles.
3. Once you have a set of search results, remember to look for articles where the author has conducted original research. A primary research article will include a literature review, methodology, population or set sample, test or measurement, discussion of findings and usually future research directions.
In summary, the Literature is all about the collection of scholarly writings on a research topic. This includes peer-reviewed articles, books, dissertations and conference papers. Focus on primary sources, though secondary sources can be valuable as well.
4. Organize the literature by dividing them into broad categories.
Note: I have found it is best to create a diagram or outline of your literature review before implementing the project.
Step 3: Specifying a Research Purpose/Objectives, research questions or hypotheses
Writing purpose statements, research questions, and hypotheses provide critical direction to an educational research study. They identify questions that the researcher will answer through the data collection process.
The purpose statement provides the overall direction or focus of the educational research study . Below you will find purpose statements for the two previous research studies mentioned in this manual.
• The purpose of this study is to identify.
• The purpose of this study is to determine
Research questions narrow the purpose statement. These questions should be developed before identifying the methods of study. There are typically multiple research questions for each study. For example, the following are the research questions used in the
Step 4: Designing a Study/Preparing the research design
This is the point where you deal with the methodology of the research. Any type of research design may be made, depend on the nature and purpose of the study. Research design is use for the purpose of obtaining data to enable the researcher test hypotheses or answer research questions. It is an outline that guides the researcher in his effort to generate data for his study. In simple terms we can think of two designs to investigations in educational research:
Quantitative research is a means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. In this case we use numbers to describe the outcome
Quantitative research methods were originally developed in the natural sciences to study natural phenomena. However, examples of quantitative methods now well accepted in the social sciences and education include:
• surveys
• laboratory experiments;
• correlational study:
Qualitative research is a means for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. It is the best used to understand concepts and phenomenon, especially if little research has been done on the topic and research problem. Qualitative methodology is useful if the researcher does not know important variables to examine. In qualitative research design we use words to describe the outcomes.
Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomenon. Examples of qualitative methods include:
• Action Research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework;
• Case Study Research - a case study is an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context;
• Ethnography- the ethnographer immerses her/himself in the life of people s/he studies and seeks to place the phenomena studied in its social and cultural context.
Populations of the study: When designing a study, the researcher needs to include a detailed description of the participants. This detailed description will include the following:
• Population characteristics (age, gender, year in medical school, etc.)
• Rationale about why the researcher will be selecting these participants
• Participant recruitment and any incentives for completing the study
An example of a description of research participants might be as follows:
The research participants in this study will be 68 third year chemistry students at Federal University of Education, Kano. These students are required to take a Science Skills Assessment (SSA) exam at the end of the third year.
One of these cases will be the research case on developing and acquisition of science process skills. Therefore, only third year chemistry students will participate in this study All 68 students will be asked for their consent to participate in this research project. All students will see the case, but only those consenting to participate in this study will have their data analyzed. Students will not receive any incentives for participating in this study and their grades will not be affected because they chose to or chose not to participate in this study.
Sample and sampling techniques:
You will need to select a sample from the population of the study. But why? Because according to Korb (2012), it is virtually impossible to study every individual in the target population. In most cases, the target population, such as students in JS1, is simply too large for the researcher to plan a quality research study. Collecting millions of questionnaires from every JS1 student would present the following challenges:
• Millions of naira would be spent just to print the questionnaires, let alone transportation costs to distribute the questionnaires to all JS1 students.
• Researchers would have difficulties finding all JS1 students, particularly in village areas.
• Unqualified research assistants would have to be enlisted to assist in data collection, reducing the quality of data received.
• Years would be spent distributing and collecting the questionnaires, let alone coding the questionnaire responses.
• Since it will take so long to collect data from the entire population, the data from the first group of students sampled will likely be outdated by the time the last group of students is sampled.
Does this therefore mean that the target population has to be restricted to such a small group (sample) - such as all JS1 students in Nasara Academy The reason is that the planning and logistics of observation are more manageable with a sample" (Singleton & Straits, 2010). Research methodologists have developed sampling procedures that should identify a sample that is representative of the population, meaning that the sample closely resembles the target population on all relevant characteristics.
Sampling Procedures
There are many sampling procedures that have been developed to ensure that a sample adequately represents the target population. A few of the most common are described below.
Simple Random Sampling: In simple random sampling, every individual in the target population has an equal chance of being part of the sample. This requires two steps:
• Obtain a complete list of the population.
• Randomly select individuals from that list for the sample.
The sampling procedure must reflect the unit of analysis. In a study where the unit of analysis is the student, the researcher must obtain a complete list of every student in the target population to achieve simple random sampling. This is rarely possible, so very few, if any, educational studies use simple random sampling.
The word Random is a technical term in social science research that means that selection was made without aim, reason, or patterns. If any study uses the word random, it means that specific scientific procedures were used to ensure that the sample was selected purely by chance. Scientists have developed a few procedures that must be followed for a study to achieve random, such as the hat-and-draw method, balloting method or a random number table. To be random, participants cannot be chosen because of their intelligence, gender, social class, convenience, or any other factor besides scientifically-agreed upon random procedures.
Stratified Random Sampling
In stratified random sampling, the researcher first divides the population into groups based on a relevant characteristic and then selects participants within those groups. In educational research, stratified random sampling is typically used when the researcher wants to ensure that specific subgroups of people are adequately represented within the sample. For example, a research study examining the effect of computerized instruction on maths achievement needs to adequately sample both male and female pupils.
Stratified random sampling will be used to ensure adequate representation of both males and females. Stratified random sampling requires four steps:
• Determine the strata that the population will be divided into. The strata are the characteristics that the population is divided into, perhaps gender, age, urban/rural, etc.
• Determine the number of participants necessary for each stratum. Perhaps the researcher wants equal representation within the strata: half male, half female; 20 children age 5, 20 children age 6, and 20 age 7; etc. Other times (e.g., large survey research), the researcher might want to use proportionate random sampling. This requires that the researcher first knows the proportion of the group in the entire population and then match that proportion within the sample. For example, a researcher might find the most recent Nigerian census to determine that females represent 53% of the population in Nigeria, so the sample will then include 53% females.
• Split the units of analysis into the respective strata. In other words, if the target population is students and the researcher wants to stratify based on gender, then the researcher will need two lists of the target population: one list of the male students and another list of the female students.
• Randomly sample participants from within the group. Using either the hat-and-draw method or a random number table, randomly select the requisite number of males and do the same for the females.
Purposive Sampling
In purposive sampling, the researcher uses their expert judgment to select participants that are representative of the population. To do this, the researcher should consider factors that might influence the population: perhaps socio-economic status, intelligence, access to education, etc. Then the researcher purposefully selects a sample that adequately represents the target population on these variables.
Multi-Stage Sampling
More frequently, educational researchers use multi-stage sampling. In multi-stage sampling, the sample is selected in multiple steps, or stages. For example, in the first stage, geographical regions, such as local government areas, are selected. In the second stage, perhaps schools may be selected. In the third stage, the unit of analysis - perhaps teachers or students, are sampled. If the unit of analysis is not selected in the first step, then the sampling procedure is multi-stage sampling. In multi-stage sampling, other sampling techniques may be used at the different stages. For example, the first stage may use random sampling, the second stage may use purposive sampling, and the third stage may use stratified sampling.
The steps in multi-stage sampling are as follows:
• Organize the sampling process into stages where the unit of analysis is systematically grouped.
• Select a sampling technique for each stage.
• Systematically apply the sampling technique to each stage until the unit of analysis has been selected.
Developing of Instrument for data collection
The Instrument for the study can be either adopted, adapted, or developed by the researcher. Again, it is clearest for the reader if the procedures for the development of each variable is explained separately. If the same instrument was used to measure multiple variables, make it clear which variables were assessed by that instrument.
Adopted
• If the instrument was adopted verbatim from an original instrument, explain:
• Who developed the measure with specific citation information (include the reference in the References section).
• Other studies that have used the instrument.
• An example description of an instrument that was adopted is given below:
Intrinsic Motivation. A subtest from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Ryan, 1982) was used to assess intrinsic motivation. This assessment has been used in other educational research studies by many others including Plant and Ryan (1985); Nix, Ryan, Manly, and Deci (1999); and Vansteenkitse and Deci (2003).
Adapted
• If the instrument was adapted because substantial changes were made from the original, explain:
• Who developed the measure with specific citation information (include the reference in the References section)
• Exactly what was changed on the instrument, how the changes were made, and why
• How the revision was judged to be a valid amendment
• An example description of an instrument that was adapted is given below:
Positive Affect. Positive affect was assessed using an adaptation of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegren, 1988). The original instrument was pilot tested with a group of 15 university students. They were asked to give a definition of each of the 10 adjectives. If 2 or more students gave an incorrect definition of the adjective, then it was determined that the participants would also not understand what the word meant. Of the ten adjectives, only one was unfamiliar to the pilot sample: jittery. A close synonym was identified as stressed, which replaced the original word jittery. The revised version of the PANAS was pilot-tested on a new group of 15 university students.
Each adjective in the revised version had a correct definition by 14 or 15 pilot participants, so it was judged as an adequate adaptation of the PANAS.
New Instrument
• If a new instrument was created for the purpose of the study, explain:
• The procedure and resources used to develop the measure
• An example description of a new instrument that was adapted is given below:
Socioeconomic Status(SES) is typically defined by a family's level of income, parental occupation, and the parents' level of education. Operationally, SES tends to be measured in the United States by qualification for free or reduced lunches in public school system (e.g., Gonzales et al., 2008). However, Nigeria does not have a nationwide structure of support for students from low SES backgrounds. Therefore, SES was defined in this study as the type of school that children attended. Public education in Nigeria has many infrastructure problems, including a lack of funding and frequent teacher strikes that oftentimes cause 12 years of formal schooling to take 13 or more years to complete. As a result, most parents in Nigeria try to raise the money necessary to pay for the relatively more expensive fees for private schools.
Description of the Instrument
The Instrument section should start with a general overview of the instrument(s) used: the type of instrument (e.g., self-report questionnaire, achievement test scores, interview, behavioral checklist) and the general format of the instrument (e.g., Part A for personal information, and Parts B, C, D for the key variables). An example introduction is below:
The key variables in this study were measured by a self-report questionnaire. The first part of the instrument included demographic characteristics of gender, age, year in school, and type of school (public/private). The rest of the questionnaire assessed the five variables in the research hypotheses.
After a brief introduction, the Instruments section should explain how each variable was measured separately: one paragraph per variable. Oftentimes it is best to label the paragraph with the name of the variable that will be described in the paragraph (see the example below). Each paragraph should contain the following components:
A brief explanation of the construct that it was designed to measure. How participants responded. For example, some items are open-ended where participants are free to write any response. Other close-ended items may use a Likert Scale (e.g., Strongly Agree (4), Agree (3), etc.), tick yes/no, or indicate the frequency of a behavior (e.g., 5=Daily, 4=Weekly, etc.). Still other variables may have unique responses. Regardless, this section must very clearly explain how participants responded to the item.
• Provide at least one sample item from the instrument itself.
• How the variable was scored.
• For Likert Scale-like items, scores on each item that measure the variable are typically either summed or averaged.
• Multiple-choice items on achievement test scores are typically summed. How scores are assigned to essay items on achievement test scores must be clearly explained.
• The marking scheme for all achievement tests or examinations of knowledge must be attached in an Appendix.
An example description of the instrument is provided below:
Socioeconomic Status. Socioeconomic status (SES) is defined as a person's economic standing based on lifestyle, prestige, power, and control of resources (Liu, Ali, Soleck, Hopps, Dunston, Pickett, 2004). In this study, students who attended two private schools were classified as middle SES and students who attended two public schools were classified as low SES. The school name was noted by the researcher on the students' completed exams.
Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a person's interest and enjoyment in a specific task. In this research study, the specific task is mathematics. Participants responded to 7 items, indicating how true each statement was to them on a Likert Scale from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (very true). A sample item is "I enjoyed doing mathematics very much." A total score for intrinsic motivation was calculated for each participant by averaging the responses on each of the seven items.
Positive Affect. Positive affect is the state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement. Participants responded about how they feel while doing mathematics with ten adjectives. They rated how well each adjective described how they feel during mathematics on a five point Likert scale from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). "Excited" and "enthusiastic" are examples of positive affect. Positive affect was scored by averaging the responses on the ten adjectives.
• Note how the paragraph for each variable started with the variable name. This helps to clarify what variable is being measured. Then an explanation of each variable was given, as well as exactly how the variable was measured including both the number of items and how participants responded.
• The sample item helps the reader evaluate whether the items do reflect the definition of the variable as stated at the beginning.
• Finally, how each item was scored aids in interpreting the Results in the next section.
Reliability and Validity
As mentioned previously, reliability and validity evidence are required for each variable of interest. Therefore, the reliability coefficient should be reported for each variable that consists of more than one item. Likewise, validity evidence should also be reported.
Conclusion
Once the Instruments section is finished, the actual instruments themselves must be placed in an Appendix. Note that the instrument in the appendix must be the exact instrument that participants completed. Sometimes I suspect that students change an instrument after the participants complete it for the purpose of appearance in the appendix. This is unethical because it misrepresents the data that participants provided.
Step 5: Carrying out the project
• The execution of the project is a very important step in the research process. It the execution is done well, the data collected will be adequate and dependable.
• Endeavor to see that the project is conducted in a systematic way and on time.
• If you are involving research assistants, train them and also do field checks occasional to ensure that they are doing their assigned job well and efficiently.
• if the data is to be collected using structured questionnaire, they can be easily processed using softwares
Step 7: Collecting the data
Data collection is also a very important aspect of the research process. The collection of data is done though the following.
• Primary Data Collection: Primary data may be from the following. Experiment, Questionnaire, Observation and Interview.
• Secondary data collection includes: Review of literature, Official and non-official reports and Library approach.
Factors that affect the selection of a method of data collection include: nature of investigation, objective and scope of the study financial resources, available time and the desired degree of accuracy. Most importantly is also depends on the ability and experience of the researcher.
Step 6: Data Analysis and Interpretation
When data is collected, it is forwarded for analysis which is the most technical job. Once data have been collected, the researcher should prepare the data for analysis. This includes removing inconsistent or incomplete data and making sure data is in an organized manner to be analyzed by a software program or by qualitative researchers. After the data is organized, it can be analyzed using the methods explained below. As a researcher, check again to make sure you are completing the correct statistical analysis for each research question.
Analyzing Data for Quantitative Methods
• If using quantitative methods, the researcher should conduct descriptive and inferential analysis as appropriate.
• If you use inferential analysis, you will need to determine things like p values, Confidence intervals, e.t.c.
• Once the data are analyzed, the researcher will need to present the results in tables and figures.
• A description of the results should accompany these tables and figures. This requires the researcher to interpret the results for significance.
Analyzing Data for Qualitative Methods
• If using qualitative methods, data may need to be transcribed or organized then analyzed
• If you are using a computer program, there is still a need to make sure themes are valid and reliable.
• After the final analysis, make an interpretation of the results which includes developing comparisons between findings and literature and suggesting limitations and future research.
Step 7 Preparation of the report
• A researcher should prepare a report for the research work he/she has done. He/she must keep in his mind the following points or structure
Report Design in Preliminary pages
• The report should carry a title, abstract, certification, dedication(optional),and acknowledgement. It should also contain a table of contents, list of figures.
Main Text of the Report
• It should contain objectives, hypothesis, explanations and methodology of the research.
• It must be divided into chapters and every chapter explains separate title
• Summary of the findings, conclusion and Recommendation should be included
Closing the Report
After the preparation of report, the last step in educational/social science/business research process contains of bibliography, references, appendices, index and maps or charts for illustration.
References:
Ithaca College Library(2017). Basics Steps in the research Process. Retrieved from https://library.ithaca.edu/sp/subjects/primary.
Katrina A. Korb(2012).Educational Research Steps. Retrieved from http://korbedpsych.com/R06Sample.html
Kothari,C.R. & Garg,G(2014).Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. India: New Age Techno Press.
North Central Library(2016). Research Process. retrieved from http://www.ncl.com
Noth Hennepin Community College(2016).Research Methods. Retrieved from https://www.nhcc.edu/student-resources/library/doinglibraryresearch/basic-steps-in-the-research- process
Wilson Library(2018).University of Leverne. Basics Steps in the research Process. Retrieved from https://laverne.libguides.com/c.php?g=34942&p=222059.
We shall go into some specific details in later post as we progress in this our journey to becoming research experts in the field of education, social science or business management.
Thanks
