How to decide upon a methodology

1. Definition of key terms:

- Research methodology
• The philosophy or the general principle which will guide your research
• A theory of how inquiry should occur
• 2 main research philosophies:
o Positivistic: reality is objective (quantitative)
o Phenomenological: reality is subjective, can be changed, influenced by what
we think (qualitative)
- Research approach:
• A plan and the procedure for research that spans the decisions from broad
assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis.
• Involves the intersection of philosophical assumptions, designs, and specific methods.
o Quantitative approach
o Qualitative approach
o Mix-methods approach
- Research design:
• A type of inquiry within a qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach that
provides specific direction for procedures in a research study.
o Quantitative approach: experimental cross-sectional, etc.
o Qualitative approach: narrative, case study, etc.
- Research methods = research instruments
• The tools you to gather data:
o Questionaires
o Interview
o Focus group
• The forms of data collection, analysis, and interpretation that researchers propose for
their studies.
2. Three approaches to research:
Should: quanti > quanli
a. Quantitative:
- Focuses on testing theories and hypotheses
- Analyzed through math and statistical analysis
- Mainly expressed in numbers, graphs, and tables
- Requires many respondents
- Closed (multiple choice) questions
- Key term: testing, measurement, objectivity, replicability
- Ex:
• Rationalism: “That human beings achieve knowledge because of their capacity to
reason”
• Structured/ rigid/ predetermined methodology
• To quantify extent of variation in a phenomenon, situation, issue, etc.
• Emphasis on some form of either measurement or classification of variables
• Emphasis on greater sample size
 • Narrow focus in terms of extent of inquiry, but assembles required information from a
greater number of respondents
• Reliability and objectivity (value-free: free from personal values)
• Explain prelevance, incidence, extent, nature of issues, opinions and attitude,
discovers regularities and formulate theories
• Subjects variables to frequent distributions, cross-tabulations or other statistical
procedures
• Organization more analyitical in nature, drawing inferences and conclusions, and
testting magnitude and strength of a relationship
- Quantitative designs:
• Types of study design:
o Number of contacts:
▪ One: Cross-sectional studies
• Only ONE contact with the study population
• Find out the prevalence of a phenomenon, situation, problem,
attitude, etc.
• Most commonly used in the social sciences
• Comparatively cheap to undertake and easy to analyze
• Cannot measure change
• Ex:
o The atitudes of students towards the facilities available
in their library
o Consumer salisfaction with a product
o The reasons for homelessness among young people
▪ Two: Before-and-after studies
• 2 cross-sectional data sets, the second being undertaken after a
certain period;
• Measure the extent of change in a phenomenon, attitude, etc.
• Assess the impact of an intervention by comparing the
difference in the variable(s) before & after intervention
• Higher cost, longer time, attrition, extraneous variables,
maturation / reactive (Hawthorne) / regression effect.
• Ex:
o The effect of an ad on the sale of a product
o The impact of sex edu on sexual behavior among
schoolchildren;
▪ Three or more: Longitudinal studies
• A series of repetitive cross-sectional studies
• Measure the pattern if change in relation to time
• Obtain factual information requiring collection on a
regular/continuing basis
• Same as B-and-A studies + conditioning effect
• Example:
 o Similarities and differences between identical twins
who are brought up together versus identical twins who
were not.
o Reference period:
▪ Retrospective:
• Investigate a phenomenon, situation or issue that happened in
the past
• Conducted on:
o The data available for that period
o Respondents’ recall of the situation
• Ex:
o The utilisation of land before the Second World War in
Western Australia
o A historial analysis of migratory movements in Eastern
Europe between 1915 and 1945.
▪ Prospective:
• Establish the outcome of an event or what is likely to happen
• Common with experiments
• Ex:
o To establish the effects of a counselling service on the
extent of marital problems.
o To find out the effect of parental involvement on the
level of academic achievement of their children.
▪ Retrspective – propestive:
• Examine past trends in a phenomenon and study it into the
future
• Collect part of the data retrospectively from exercising records
before the intervenrion => ascertain the impact of the
intervention on the study population
• Common with before-and-after studies (without CG), trend
studies
• Ex:
o The effect of an advertisement on the sale of a product
o The impact of maternal and child health services on the
infant mortality rate.
 o Number of the investigation:
▪ Experimental:
• The after-only experimental design;
• The before-and-after experimental design;
• The control group design;
• The comparative design;
• The “matched control” experimental design;
• The placebo design
• The pretest-posttest control and experimental group design
• The two control groups and one experimental group pretest-
posttest design
• The posttest control and experimental group design
• The post-test two experimental groups design
• The pretest-posttest two treatment design
• The matched pairs design
• The factorial design
• The panametric design
• Repeated measures designs
▪ Non-experimental:
• Ex post facto research
• Correlational research
• Survey research
▪ Semi-experimental:
• Pre-experimental designs:
o The one-group pretest-posttest design
o The one-group post-tests only design
o The non-equivalent posttest only design
• Pretest – posttest non-equivalent group design
• One-group time series
b. Qualitative: Học kỹ mỗi research design:
- Focuses on exploring ideas and formulating a theory or hypothesis
- Analyzed by summarizing, categorizing, and interpreting
- Mainly expressed in words
- Requires few respondents
- Open-ended questions
- Key-terms: understanding, context, complexity, subjectivity
- Ex:
• Empiricism: “The only knowledge that human beings acquire is from sensory
experiences”
• Unstructured/ flexible/ open methodology
• To describe variation in a phenomenon, situation, issue, etc.
• Emphasis on description of variables
• Fewer cases
• Cover multiple issues but assembles required information from fewer respondents
• Authencity but does not claim to be value-free
 • Explores experiences, meanings, perceptions and feelings
• Subjects responses, narratives or observational data to identification of themes and
describes these
• Organization more descriptive and narrative in nature
- Kinds of qualitative methods:
• Narrative research aims to explore the stories and personal account of individuals to
understand their experiences and how they construct meaning.
• Grounded theory: Researchers collect data through interviews or observations and
iteractively analyze and code the data to identify emergent themes and patterns that
form the basis for theory development.
• Enographic research involves immersing the researcher in the culture or context of a
specific group or community to understand their social practices, beliefs, and
behaviors
• Case study might involve examining the organizational culture and management
practices of a particular company to understand how they have led to its success or
challenges in the market.
• An enographic study of language preservation and shift among the Hmong people in
the Northern Highlands of Vietnam
• Phenomenological research seeks to understand the essence and structure of human
experiences. It explores how individuals perceive and make sense of a particular
phenomenon.
• A phenomenological study might investigate the lived experiences of cancer patients
to explore how they understand their illness and the impact it has on their lives.
• A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single case or a small number of cases
to gain a comprehensive understanding of a specific phenomenon, often within its
real-life context.
• A narrative study might involve collecting and analyzing personal life stories from
individuals who have overcome adversity, such as suvivors of a natural disaster, to
understand how they made sense of their experiences and developed resillience.
• An enographic study might involve a researcher living in a rural village for an
extended period to understand the daily life, rituals, and social dynamics of the
community and how they adapt to changing economic condition.
• Personal stories of survival: A narrative inquiry into the lives of VNese residents
affected by Typhoon Yagi.
• Grounded research aims to generate a formal set of ideas to explain why sth happens
through the collection and analysis of data.
• Feminist research is focused on issues affecting women with considering broader
social inequalities.
• Research topic: “Enhancing English speaking proficiency through collaborative
learning in EFL classroom: An action research design”
Procedure: (1) identifying specific speaking challenge, (2) applying collaborative
learning techniques, (3) evaluating their effectiveness, and (4) refining instructional
practices based on student performance and feedback.
• In case study research, the researcher often utilizes multiple sources of evidence to
explore a phenomenon within its real-life context. These sources may include
 interviews, observations, documents, reports, physical artifacts, and more. This
triangulation helps in validating the findings, ensuring their reliability and validity.
• Feminist research critiques traditional research for ignoring the subjective
experiences of women and marginalized groups.
• An essential step in the phenomenological research process: Describing the shared
essence of experiences among a group of people.
• Methods used in phenomenological research: In-depth, open-ended interviews.
• Narrative research primarily focuses on documenting and analyzing people’s stories
and life experiences.
• Narrative research regards the temporal sequence of events in favor of thematic
analysis.
• In grounded theory, the literature review is conducted after data collection begins.
• The goal of ethnography is to understand cultural practices, not necessarily to test
hypotheses.
c. Mixed-method approach:
- Collec quantitative + qualitative data
- Ex:
• (1) interviews => survey
• (2) survey => interviews
- Provide a more complete understanding of a research problem
- “Triangulation” = qualitative + quantitative forms of inquiry
• Participant observation
• Online survey results
• Depth interviews
3. Criteria for selecting a research approach:
- The research problem and questions:
• Quantitative: identifying factors or the best predictors of outcomes, using an
intervention, testing a theory or explanation;
• Qualitative: exploring new concepts/phenomena
• Mixed: Generalizing the findings + developing a detailed view of the
concept/phenomenon
- Personal experience
• Quantitative: uncomfortable to challenge accepted approaches, more comfortable
with the highly systematic procedures;
• Qualitative: more creative, literacy-style writing, enjoying conducting personal
interview + making up-close observations;
• Mixed: enjoying both the structure of quantitative research + the flexibility of
qualitative inquiry;
- Audience: Writing for audiences (editors, readers, faculty committee, attendees,
colleagues) that will accept your research.