How to organize the Methodology Chapter (section) Lynn W Zimmerman, PhD

What is the methodology chapter? Why has the research study been undertaken? How has the research problem been defined? In what way and why has the hypothesis been formulated? How were data collected? What data have been collected? What particular method has been adopted? Why the particular technique of analyzing data has been used?

Data collection method Primary data can be collected through an experiment, through surveys, or through qualitative methods. Experiment Observes some quantitative measurements, or the data, with the help of which he examines the hypothesis. Survey or qualitative methods by observation through personal interviews through telephone interviews by questionnaires

Analysis of Collected Data An extremely important step Qualitative Patterns Intertextual Interpretative Quantitative Different statistical methods are used to make a proper inference

Overview of Typical Components Methodology Research questions/hypotheses Theoretical framework Approach Justification Materials Field equipment Surveys, questionnaires Human subjects Tape recorder Methods Data collection Population sample Procedures Variables Statistical treatment Coding

Methods Section three pages or less brief introductory paragraph paragraph giving details about the participants paragraph giving details about the materials paragraph about the procedure

Introductory Paragraph What kind of small research project you did How many people participated in your project and whether they were teachers and/or students What you plan to do with the information from your project (basically, just say you will analyze it in order to show the situation here in Albania)

Paragraph: Participants If students What level? How old? How many boys and girls? If teachers What subject? What level For how long has each been teaching? What kind of school (general or specialized)? Why did you decide to include these particular people in your study?

Paragraph: Materials How did you record the responses of your participants? Did they write their answers on a paper? Did you take notes? Did you audio or video record them? Did you use the internet to email a questionnaire? If a questionnaire, what kinds of questions were on it?

Paragraph: Procedure Describe the exact steps you took to get the information. Did you write the questions yourself? Did you take them from a source? Did you give it to people in person? Did someone else help you? Did you stay with them while they wrote the answers? Did you collect them later? Describe everything you did with enough detail that someone else could follow your same steps if they wanted to.

Avoid Methods section does not contain the results of the study. is not the place to explain classroom teaching methods. does not contain first person, if at all possible