Reviewer Practical Research 1

Inquiry is a learning process that motivates you to obtain knowledge or information about people,
things, places, or events.
Research is a process of executing various mental acts for discovering and examining facts and
information to prove the accuracy or truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about the topic of
your research.

Characteristics of Research
1. Accuracy. It must give correct or accurate data, which the footnotes, notes, and bibliographical
entries should honestly and appropriately documented or acknowledged.
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,
concise, and correct language.
6. Systematic. It must take place in an organized or orderly manner

Types of Research:
Pure Research deals with concepts, principles, or abstract things.
Applied Research apply research to societal problems or issues, finding ways to make positive
changes in society

Descriptive Research – This type of research aims at defining or giving a verbal portrayal or
picture of a person, thing, event, group, situation, etc. This is liable to repeated research because
its topic relates itself only to a certain period or a limited number of years. Based on the results of
your descriptive studies about a subject, you develop the inclination of conducting further studies
on such topic.
Correlational Research – A correlational research shows relationships or connectedness of two
factors, circumstances, or agents called variables that affect the research. It is only concerned in
indicating the existence of a relationship, not the causes and ways of the development of such
relationship.
Explanatory Research – This type of research elaborates or explains not just the reasons behind
the relationship of two factors, but also the ways by which such relationship exists.
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Exploratory Research – An exploratory research’s purpose is to find out how reasonable or
possible it is to conduct a research study on a certain topic. Here, you will discover ideas on topics
that could trigger your interest in conducting research studies.
Action Research – This type of research studies an ongoing practice of a school, organization,
community, or institution for the purpose of obtaining results that will bring improvements in the
system.

Qualitative research requires non-numerical data, which means that the research uses words
rather than numbers to express the results, the inquiry, or investigation about people’s thoughts,
beliefs, feelings, views, and lifestyles regarding the object of the study. These opinionated answers
from people are not measurable; so, verbal language is the right way to express your findings in a
qualitative research.
Quantitative research involves measurement of data. Thus, it presents research findings referring
to the number or frequency of something in numerical forms (i.e., using percentages, fractions,
numbers)

Approaches to Research
Scientific or Positive approach in which you discover and measure information as well as
observe and control variables in an impersonal manner. It allows control of variables. Therefore,
the data gathering techniques appropriate for this approach are structured interviews,
questionnaires, and observational checklists. Data given by these techniques are expressed through
numbers, which means that this method is suitable for quantitative research.
Naturalistic approach uses numbers to express data, the naturalistic approach uses words. This
research approach directs you to deal with qualitative data that speak of how people behave toward
their surroundings.
Triangulation approach gives you the opportunity to view every angle of the research from
different perspectives.

Types of Qualitative Research

1. Case Study - This type of qualitative research usually takes place in the field of social care,
nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers, education, etc. This involves a long-time study of a
person, group, organization, or situation. It seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs to the
subject. Finding the reason/s behind such occurrence drives you to also delve into relationships of
people related to the case under study. Varieties of data collection methods
2. Ethnography - Falling in the field of anthropology, ethnography is the study of a particular
cultural group to get a clear understanding of its organizational set-up, internal operation, and
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lifestyle. A particular group reveals the nature or characteristics of their own culture through the
world perceptions of the cultural group’s members.
3. Phenomenology - comes from the word “phenomenon,” which means something known
through sensory experience, phenomenology refers to the study of how people find their
experiences meaningful. Its primary goal is to make people understand their experiences about
death of loved ones, care for handicapped persons, friendliness of people, etc. In doing so, other
people will likewise understand the meanings attached to their experiences. Those engaged in
assisting people to manage their own lives properly often do this qualitative kind of research.
4. Content and Discourse Analysis - content analysis is a method of quantitative research that
requires an analysis or examination of the substance or content of the mode of communication
(letters, books, journals, photos, video recordings, SMS, online messages, emails, audio-visual
materials, etc.) used by a person, group, organization, or any institution in communicating. A study
of language structures used in the medium of communication to discover the effects of
sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the content makes it a discourse
analysis. In studying the content or structures of the material, you need a question or a set of
questions to guide you in your analysis.
5. Historical Analysis Central - this qualitative research method is the examination of primary
documents to make you understand the connection of past events to the present time. The results
of your content analysis will help you specify phenomenological changes in unchanged aspects of
society through the years.
6. Grounded Theory - takes place when you discover a new theory to underlie your study at the
time of data collection and analysis. Through your observation on your subjects, you will happen
to find a theory that applies to your current study. Interview, observation, and documentary
analysis are the data gathering techniques for this type of qualitative research.

Additional Info:
Hard science
Any of the natural or physical sciences, as chemistry, biology, physics, or astronomy, in which
aspects of the universe are investigated by means of hypotheses and experiments.
Soft science
Any of the specialized fields or disciplines, as psychology, sociology, anthropology, or political
science, that interpret human behavior, institutions, society, etc., on the basis of scientific
investigations for which it may be difficult to establish strictly measurable criteria.