CIC: Culture and Dialogue

Research Seminars
2017-2018

1
 Outline

What is a Research Design?
The Importance of a Research Design.
The Elements of Research Design.
Types of Research design.
References.
 A Research Design

 “A research design is a plan, structure, and strategy
of investigation so conceived as to obtain answers to
research questions and Problems” (Kerlinger, 1986)

 Research design is a model or an action plan upon

which the entire study is built; dictates the manner in
which a study is conducted and provides the road
map of a study in terms of the sample, data
collection instruments and analysis procedure.
 Why Is Research Design
Important?

 Helps the investigator to organize his ideas.
 Guides the research in the right direction.
 Helps the researcher to prepare himself to carry out
research in a proper and a systematic way.
 Better documentation of the various activities while the
project work is going on.
 Gives an idea regarding the type of resources required in
terms of money, time, and efforts.
 The key elements of a
research design

Research design can be defined as a blue-print to
conduct a research study, which involves the
description of the research approach, study setting,
sampling size, sampling technique, tools and method
of data collection and analysis to answer a specific
research questions or for testing research hypothesis.
 The key elements of a
research design

 The key elements of good research design are:
 The title of your study.
 The research questions.
 The research hypotheses.
 Purpose of the study.
 The sample of the participants.
 The research settings.
 The date collecting methods.
 The data analysis.
 Types of Research Design

 Generally research designs are classified into two
broad categories, and several subtypes.
1. Quantitative research design.
2. Qualitative research design.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education,

4-7
Inc.
 
The relevance of hypotheses to the study is the main
distinctive point between deductive and inductive approaches.
Deductive approach tests the validity of assumptions (or
theories/hypotheses) in hand, whereas inductive approach
contributes to the emergence of new theories and generalizations.
Abductive research, on the other hand, starts with ‘surprising
facts’ or ‘puzzles’ and the research process is devoted their
explanation.
 Quantitative Vs Qualitative
research design

Quantitative RD
 Deals with numbers and
statistics.
 Works very well with
deductive research approach
and not well with inductive
research approach.
 This design examines
relationships among variables.
Qualitative RD
 Deals with sentences and
questions
 Works very well with inductive
and abductive research
approaches.
 This design examines
relationships among entities.
 
1. Generating primary data.
 e.g. surveys, experiments, case studies, programme
evaluation, ethnographic studies, Correlational Studies,
field studies.

2. Analyzing existing data.

 e.g. discourse analysis, content analysis, textual
criticism, historical studies, secondary data analysis.
 References

 Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative,
and mixed methods approaches. Retrieved from
http://www.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Creswell-Cap-10.pdf

 Congdon, D. J. and Dunham, E. A. (1999). Defining the beginning:

the importance of research design. Retrieved from
https://mtsg.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/14-defining-the-beginning.pdf