Research Design. Selecting the Appropriate Research Design A research design is basically a plan or strategy for conducting one’s research. It serves.

Research Design

Selecting the Appropriate Research Design

A research design is basically a plan or strategy for conducting one’s research.

It serves as a blueprint or plan of the study.

Purpose of the Research Design

• The goal of a good research design is to provide credible answers to research questions.

• According to Beiger and Gerlach (1996), the research design enables the researcher to develop a set of methods and procedures that lead him to answer the research problems and test research hypotheses with a high degree of confidence.

• The study has to be designed so that it will yield the strongest possible evidence to support or refute a knowledge claim

• The researcher needs to develop procedures that will allow him to conclude confidently that the results he obtained were due to the variables he was studying and to relevant or extraneous factors.

Factors to Consider in the Choice of a Research Design

• Type of Data to be Collected

• Nature of the Data to be Analyzed

• Research Questions to be Answered

• Research Goal or Objective

Type of Data to be Collected

• Five types of data:

1. Normative Survey or Descriptive Data2. Historical Data3. Analytical Survey Data4. Critical Data5. Experimental Data

Normative Survey or Descriptive Data

These are observations that a researcher makes directly at the scene of the occurrence and they

relay as facts.

Historical Data

These are written records of past happenings or events.

Analytical Survey Data

These are observations that are quantified and exist in the form of numerical concepts.

They are also called statistical data since they are expressed in the language of

mathematics and are interpreted by means of appropriate statistical procedure.

Critical Data

These are literary productions and are sometimes called literary data.

Experimental Data

These are observations of certain differences and likeness that arise from comparison or contrast of one

set of observations with another set of similar observations.

Research Design Based on the Types of Data to be

Collected:

• Descriptive Survey Method

• Historical Method

• Experimental Method

Descriptive Survey Method

• It is appropriate for data derived from simple observational situations, whether these are actually physically observed or observed through the use of a questionnaire or poll technique.

Historical Method

• It is appropriate for those data that are documentary in nature or literary in form.

Experimental Method

• It is appropriate for data derived from an experimental control situation or pretest-posttest design, in which two separate groups or one group, from which data are derived at two separate intervals, are involved.

Nature of the Data to be Analyzed

• In terms of the nature of data to be analyzed, data can either be quantitative or qualitative.

• Quantitative data are numerical measurements of traits, characteristics or attributes of things.

• Qualitative data are those that involve meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols and descriptions of things.

Quantitative Research Designs:

• Correlational• Ex-Post Facto• Experimental

Research Questions to be Answered

• When the question is one of relationship, a correlational design is appropriate.

• When the question is descriptive in nature, a descriptive research design is needed.

• When the question involves comparison or difference, the researcher has to use experimental or causal-comparative design.

Research Goal or Objective

• Action Research. This is appropriate to use when the researcher is interested in finding out whether something will work or in solving a problem in a local setting.

• Descriptive Research. This design is used when the researcher’s concern is to understand the nature, characteristics, components or aspects of a situation or phenomenon.

• Explanatory Research. This design is utilized when the researcher seeks to explain the relationship between two or more variables and predict relationship between and among these factors.

• Exploratory Research. When the investigator is after the uncovering data on a phenomenon little is known about, the exploratory research design is appropriate to use.

• Correlational Research. When an investigator is interested in looking into the significance of relationship or association between two or more characteristics or factors, without necessarily probing into casual reasons underlying them, then the design is correlational.

• Evaluation Research. This type of research design is appropriate when the researcher intends to assess the impact, effect, result or outcome of operations, policies and programs.

• Policy Research. When the researcher is concerned about generating information relevant to the development and formulation of policy and the assessment of the effect or impact of such policy, this kind of research design is deemed relevant.

• Ex-Post Facto or Casual-Comparative Research. This research design is appropriate to use when the researcher is after observing existing conditions and looking back through the data for plausible causal factors.

• Historical Research. When the researcher is attempting to solve certain problems arising out of a historical context through the gathering and examining of relevant data from the past, the historical design is apt to use.

• Experimental Research. This type of research design in applicable when the researcher aims at probing into the cause of an effect which can be manipulated or controlled.

• Ethnographic Research. This design is relevant when the researcher is to come up with a holistic description of a phenomenon or situation with the use of multiple data collection techniques.