1. Research Methodology Dr Sng Bee Bee
Taught by Dr. Sng Bee Bee • Singapore Bible College Files in many languages for free download at BibleStudyDownloads.org

2. Writing the Methodology Chapter
Objective of this Lesson:
Learn about two research approaches – qualitative and quantitative
Learn about the Research Methods associated with these Methods
Learn how to establish the Validity of research method and conduct

3. Objectives of this Lesson
Select the appropriate research method based on the research question
Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of research methods

4. Research Design Process
Step 1: Examine the nature of the topic
Step 2: Quantitative?
Step 2:
Qualitative? OR +
Analysis of polls, census conducted in the past
Survey?
Interview
Focus Group
Observation
Arrange meeting for interviews and/or Focus Groups. Face-to-face or online?
Construct questions for survey. Test run questions

5. Qualitative Research Designs
Case Studies
Ethnography
Life History
Field Research
Narrative Research

6. Discussion – Qualitative Research
If you were asked to describe what qualitative research is like, what metaphors would you use?
Would you use the following metaphors? What do you think they may show you about qualitative research? What other metaphors would you use?
- The mirror; The window; The lantern

7. Metaphors of Qualitative Research Shank, G. D
Metaphors of Qualitative Research Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
Mirror
- Reflective-based inquiry into the world was called speculative, after the Latin word ‘speculum’, meaning ‘mirror’

8. Clear and undistorted view of the world out there
Metaphors of Qualitative Research Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
The Window
Clear and undistorted view of the world out there
Generalizability and validity
Transparency

9. Metaphors of Qualitative Research Shank, G. D
Metaphors of Qualitative Research Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
The Lantern
- illumination, insight and understanding

10. Personal Skills Needed for Qualitative Research Shank, G. D
Personal Skills Needed for Qualitative Research Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
Set of basic skills needed to do qualitative research
Observing
Conversing
Participating
Interpreting

11. Personal Skills Shank, G. D
Personal Skills Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
Observing
Focused, refined and directed
Conversing
Listening skills, questioning skills and clarifying skills
Participating
Fieldwork and action research

12. Personal Skills Shank, G. D
Personal Skills Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
4. Interpreting
Qualitative research is about meaning
Basic skills of discerning meaning in any given setting

13. What Does It Mean To Carry Out Qualitative Research Shank, G. D
What Does It Mean To Carry Out Qualitative Research Shank, G.D. Shank (2006), Qualitative Research – A Personal Skills Approach. U.S.A: Pearson
Qualitative research is systematic
It is planned, ordered and public
2. It is empirical
Depends on the world of experience in a basic way. Examines complex phenomenon which is rich, deep, thick, varied, insightful and illuminative

14. Qualitative Approach What appeal to you What seem feasible Concerns 1.2. 3.

15. Choosing the Appropriate Research Methods
Step 1: The review of relevant literature on the research topic will inform and underpin each stage in the research process.
Step 2: Appropriate research methods are chosen
Step 3: Planning of how data will be used once it has been collected
Step 4: Planning of how data will be interpreted and analyzed
Step 5: Drawing conclusions from the data that inform the research question

16. Why Use Interviews? Source: Adapted from Gill and Johnson, 2002, in Gray, D.E. (2009), Doing Research in the Real World (2nd ed.). London: Sage
Interviewing is a powerful way of helping people to make explicit things that have been implicit – to articulate their perceptions, feelings and understandings (Arksey and Knight, 1999)

17. Why Use Interviews? Source: Adapted from Gill and Johnson, 2002, in Gray, D.E. (2009), Doing Research in the Real World (2nd ed.). London: Sage
There is a need to attain highly personalized data
Opportunities for probing are required
A good return rate is important

18. Interviews Face-to-face Interviews
Data is more rich and detailed. Interviewer can clarify responses and doubts. S/he can also probe into responses. Responses can also be verified by observing interviewees’ non-verbal language.
B. Telephone Interviews
These are more appropriate for questions which require more neutral, direct and factual answers

19. Stages in the Conduct of Interviews
Analysis of interview data
Description of interview data

20. Stages in the Conduct of Interviews
Set the interview time and location with the person (or people) you will be interviewing
Write your interview questions: Open and/or Closed-ended questions
Decide how to record the interview
Request for subjects to record the interview

21. Considerations in the Conduct of Interviews
Choice of Setting
Choice of interviewees
Sample size
Relationship between
interviewer and interviewee
Attitude of the interviewer

22. Considerations in using interviews as a research method
Choice of Setting
Affects the interviewees:
Comfort level
Openness to disclose
Information
Degree to which they
feel they’re in control
of interview situation

23. Considerations in using interviews as a research method
Choice of interviewees
How are they involved in the issue you’re investigating: as experts; participants in the
issue or observers
Gender; age group;
race and nationality

24. Considerations in using interviews as a research method
Sample size
Are you seeking a fair representation
of the population you’re examining?
Are you doing an in-depth study?
BREADTH
DEPTH

25. Considerations in using interviews as a research method
Relationship between
interviewer and interviewee
Issues:
Imposes obligation on both parties
How tightly the interviewer controls the interview
To what extent does the interviewer
make the interviewee feel comfortable in disclosing information

26. Considerations in using interviews as a research method
Attitude of the interviewer
Does the interviewer ask open
or closed ended questions?
What kinds of questions are asked? Are they bias? Are they leading questions?
What is his/her non verbal language,
i.e eye contact, posture, tone of voice?
What attitude does s/he convey about
the subject matter of the interview?

27. Examples of Open-ended and Close-ended Questions Parsigian, E. K
Examples of Open-ended and Close-ended Questions Parsigian, E.K. (1992), Mass Media Writing. New Jersey, Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers
Open-ended question
What is your opinion about youths’ addiction to computer gaming?
Closed-ended question
When did you lose your job?
How many incidents of product tampering were reported?
Have you gone to the movies lately?

28. Types of Questions (for both Interviews and Surveys)
List Question
Category Question

29. Types of Questions
Ranking Question
Scale Question

30. Types of Questions
Continuum Scale

31. Evaluate your Interview Questions Parsigian, E. K
Evaluate your Interview Questions Parsigian, E.K. (1992), Mass Media Writing. New Jersey, Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers
What exactly do I want the interviewee to tell me?
What are the facts and/or details I need to know about this issue or event from this interviewee?
Would this interviewee have the answer?
What answer might this interviewee give?

32. Evaluate your Interview Questions Parsigian, E. K
Evaluate your Interview Questions Parsigian, E.K. (1992), Mass Media Writing. New Jersey, Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers
Do I use simple, precise, unbiased words to achieve the question’s objective?
What words may be unfamiliar, too general or ambiguous, or imply something that defeats the purpose of the question?
What word adjustments and clarifications are needed to improve the contextual meaning of the question?

33. Online Interviews
, instant message or through social networking sites like Facebook
Describe your purpose clearly, i.e, that you are conducting a piece of research for one of your courses.
Request permission from your participants
to write about their responses and promise them you will maintain anonymity
Give a time period for your participants to respond, e.g one or two weeks

34. If you are using social networking sites like
Facebook, you may want to create a special
account for your research group so that the
rest of your friends will not get to see the responses

35. Interviewee data summary (to be adapted according to your research topic)
Date of Interview: ___________________
Place of Interview: ___________________
Duration of Interview: ________________
Interviewer: _____________________
Identifier number for interviewee: _______
Gender of interviewee: ______________
Age of Interviewee: ________________
Job role of Interviewee: ________________
Qualification of Interviewee: _____________
Professional training of Interviewee: ________________
Source: Adapted from Gill and Johnson, 2002, in Gray, D.E. (2009), Doing Research in the Real World (2nd ed.). London: Sage

36. Structured Interviews Semi-structured Interviews
Interview Approaches Source: Adapted from Gill and Johnson, 2002, in Gray, D.E. (2009), Doing Research in the Real World (2nd ed.). London: Sage
Structured Interviews
Semi-structured Interviews
Focused interview
Non-directive Interviews
Informal conversational interviews

37. Focus Group Discussion
Design 3-4 questions based on your research topic
You can conduct either a one-to-one semi structured interview or a focus group with 3 persons.
Take turns to ask your questions
After the interview, take brief notes of your interviewees’ responses or use your handphone to record the interview.
What benefits can you observe of using interviews and FG in research?
Would you be able to use interviews or FG for your topic?
Briefly present your research questions and notes in class.

38. Benefits of Using Focus Group as a Research Method
Unobtrusive
Spontaneous
Able to stimulate discussion
Can observe interaction between group members
Group members encourage one another to contribute input

39. Criteria for judging the trustworthiness of quantitative and qualitative research
Internal validity
Credibility
Examining the study design and methods used to derive findings.
External validity
Transferability
Exploring the degree to which findings are context bound, so assessed by examining the characteristics of sample.
Reliability
Dependability
Evaluating reliability of study’s conclusions
Objectivity
Confirmability
Addressing the degree to which the steps of the study can be audited, confirmed or replicated.
Source: Adapted from Gill and Johnson, 2002, in Gray, D.E. (2009), Doing Research in the Real World (2nd ed.). London: Sage

40. Video on Interview http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/videos/01fe333.shtml
Homeless People, a program hosted by Diana Ser -
– Illegal downloading of videos

41. Methods - Interviews
Where you try to find out deeper issues on your topic by interviewing people.
You can interview:
1. People experiencing a problem you’re studying
2. Experts

42. Large numbers of respondents must be reached
Methods - Surveys
need to find out what people think or prefer
tabulate data easily and show the majority responses on the research topic.
Better reliability of data is desired
Large numbers of respondents must be reached
quick answers from a large number of people on a research topic.

43. Surveys Characteristics Wide and inclusive coverage – breadth
At a specific point in time – ‘bring things up to date’
Empirical research – ‘going out’ to investigate what’s ‘out there’

44. TYPES OF SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Send out self-completion questionnaires
Subject to attrition rate - people not responding
Disadvantages – data collected may lack detail and depth on research topic
- respondents may not give honest answers
- questions have to be carefully designed to get the desired responses. Questions are subject to misinterpretation

45. Steps in Conducting a Survey
Decide what you want to find out – what your hypothesis is
Define your population
Write your questions
Test your questions
Tally the results
Seek patterns in the raw data

46. SURVEYS POPULATION Every instance included SAMPLE
small portion of the whole

47. SURVEYS Sample has to be carefully selected Random Sampling
Selection of people at random
Population studied is large
Most likely to provide a representative cross-section of the whole.

48. SURVEYS 2. Systematic Sampling
Sample chosen based on every ‘nth’ member
3. Stratified Sampling
Every member in the population has an equal chance to be selected in relation to their proportion within the total population. For e.g. in selecting voters for a study on voting behaviour, the researcher selects equal number of subjects from each age group and gender.

49. SURVEYS 4. Cluster Sampling
Focus on naturally occurring clusters of the research issue that the researcher is studying.
For example, to study young people aged between 11 and 16 years, a secondary school will form a natural cluster.

50. SURVEYS 5. Purposive Sampling
Sample is ‘hand picked’ for the research. The researcher already knows the people or events s/he wants to study and select those that will produce the valuable data.
Allows the researcher to home in on the characteristics that s/he is studying.

51. SURVEYS 6. Convenience Sampling
Sample is chosen according to the people the researcher is in direct contact with or find the most convenient to approach.

52. Are the Samples Representative
A geographer is investigating shopping trends in the capital. She interviews 40 shoppers outside a major department store on Saturday morning.
A political party wants to find out if the voters support their policies. It sends out a survey to all its members.
A medical student wants to find out how many children have colds in winter. In January, she decides to go to a local pre-school and see how many children have colds.
The government needs to know the rate people are moving from farms into the cities. They interview 200 people in the capital.
An economist wants to find how earnings relate to qualifications within a large manufacturing company. He puts all the names of the employees in a hat and selects twenty to interview.

53. Methods – Examining Records
Looks at past records e.g. past police records of accidents, crimes etc.; population census of religious and ethnic makeup; educational levels and employment trends for e.g.

54. Document Analysis 3. Documents
Examine documents related to research topic.
Examples of documents: minutes of meetings; reports; research articles; census reports; newspaper articles etc.

55. Observation Observing the phenomenon as it occurs
Is unobtrusive – that is, does not intrude into or manipulate the phenomenon being observed
Need to be carried out in a systematic way. Plan an observation form.

56. Methods - Observation
Involves the researcher observing a person or situation without his presence being known.
e.g. a psychologist observing the behaviour of a person who is suffering from a behaviour disorder, e.g
Autism, ADHD, etc.
You observe how megachurches use
technology in their worship.

57. Methods - Experiments Involves studying two groups:
1 – control group, all conditions remain as the same; the norm
2 – make one change, called variable
Study what happens when the change is made.
The study is very accurate, compared with all the above methods, but not all research topic can be carried out through experiments.

58. What Methods Will You Use?
Problems faced by church members who belong to the low income group
The use of corporal punishment to promote learning
Common causes of conflicts in a church
Leadership training in a church
Causes of stress among pastors and
church leaders
Temptations faced by church
leaders

59. Research Ethics
What ethical considerations, e.g. confidentiality, do you need to take into account when conducting your research?
Why is it important to protect your subjects?
What steps will you take to protect your subjects?

60. Methods Chapter
How are you going to find out answers to your research question?
Read two research papers in Handbook, pp , ‘An Assessment of Dating’ and pp , ‘Exercise and Blood Pressure’:
Analyze the rationale for choice of research methods
Describe the conduct of the research methods, the strengths.
Discuss weaknesses of the research methods.

61. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
What method you use and why.
E.g. This study made use of surveys to find out if students feel the teaching methods used in the University was helpful in their learning. Survey was used as a method because it allowed the researcher to study a large number of students.

62. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
3. Describe the steps you carried out in the study:
in paragraphs
use past tense
use passive voice

63. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
3. Report the procedure of how you conducted the study.
E.g. A survey was conducted on 20 students on political science to find out how secure they think Singapore is against terrorism. 40 questions were designed consisting of both closed and open ended questions. The responses were tabulated and analyzed using the SPSS software.
Past tense passive voice

64. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
4. Record how you analyzed the data.
E.g. The frequency of the responses were recorded in a table. The responses were grouped according to a few themes in accordance with the research questions.
Variations of these themes
were noted and analyzed.

65. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
Justify your research methods and sample size:
Why did you choose your methods? E.g. you use qualitative methods, namely, interviews, because you’re concerned to find out people’s thinking, feelings, or controversial views about your research topic.
You use quantitative methods as you’re concerned to measure a certain phenomenon, or you want to establish validity through statistical measurement.

66. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
Justify your research methods and sample size:
How did you determine your sample size. You need to prove that your sample size is representative. You need to explain how you got your sample. Was it by convenient sampling; random sampling etc? You need to prove that your sample is not bias, that is, you did not select people for your study who’re more inclined towards a particular point of view.

67. Writing Up Your Method Chapter
Justify your research methods and sample size:
You need to explain the rationale for the research method/s you’ve chosen - about the validity, advantages and disadvantages of the method/s. You need to explain how you overcome the weaknesses of the method in your study, by using another method that will address those weaknesses, i.e triangulation.

68. Ending your Method Chapter
End your Method Chapter by a summary of what you have covered in the Chapter and a forecast of the next Chapter. E.g
‘This Chapter has therefore described the method used in this study and the next Chapter will describe the data gathered after the conduct of the method’.

69. Black

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