4. Conceptual frameworks & theories Class Activity 2 EDN6015F Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams 3-8 February 2014

Identifying potential explanations Once you have isolated the key PHENOMENON you want to MEASURE, UNDERSTAND and/or EXPLAIN, you can investigate what THEORIES other researchers used to MEASURE, UNDERSTAND and/or EXPLAIN the same or a similar phenomenon

An example I am interested in understanding how and under what circumstances university students use Facebook for academic purposes We have already located at least two articles in the previous class activity – let’s interrogate them more deeply.

Click here to UCT Library Google Scholar search on concept theory “technology acceptance” facebook 78 results Click here to UCT Library

Theory explicit from the title

Theory explicit from the abstract

Copy and paste title in search bar on UCT Library page Google Scholar search on concept theory “technology acceptance” facebook 78 results Copy and paste title in search bar on UCT Library page

Conceptualisation NOT clear from title or abstract Conceptualisation NOT clear from title or abstract. Analytical model is clear. Analytical model

Conceptualisation only clear in article!

Click and this opens up directly to one of the online platforms Google Scholar search on concept theory “technology acceptance” facebook 78 results Click and this opens up directly to one of the online platforms

Hyperlink to article

Now you do the same for the phenomenon that you are planning to investigate!

Written by Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za in 2014 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.