RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MODULE 1
PRE-TEST QUESTIONS
1. False
2. True
3. False
4. False
5. False
6. False
7. False
8. True

? Can you extract your own definition based from your understanding about research?
-A research is a detailed study of a subject or a problem that has not yet given a definite answer
in order to discover new information or reach a new understanding about the subject that would lead
to the solution of the problem.

? How is research connected to development? Did you ever wonder why these two words most
often go together?
- In every successful research that’s being published and applied to the world for use, there is a
relative development arising. These two words are connected in a way that a research is conducted for
the development of the subject.

EXERCISE A
1. B
2. G
3. E
4. C
5. A
6. J
7. H
8. F
9. I
10. D

? Can you think of a situation to illustrate the scientific method as viewed in a researchable area?
-A psychologist observes that a lot of college sophomores has an hair color, while freshmen
students has not. He observes that some have blond and brown hair, while others have the other
colors. He also observes that most sophomore students are in a relationship. In addition, he notices
that most of the colored hair sophomores are more liberated. He explains these observations by
theorizing that students becomes rebellious after their first year in college. Based on this theory, he
develops a hypothesis that a freshman student changes a lot when he becomes a sophomore. He
then conducts an experiment to test his hypothesis. In his experiment, he has twenty people go to a
party, ten who are sophomores and ten who are freshmen. He makes observations and gathers data
by watching what happens at the party and how the two groups of student behaves differently. If,
contrary to his hypothesis, he’ll have to think about why this occurred and revise his theory and
hypothesis. If the data he collects from further experiments still do not support the hypothesis, he’ll
have to reject his theory.

EXERCISE B
1. Deductive Method
2. Scientific Method
3. Inductive Reasoning
4. To determine the consequences that are expected if the hypothesis is true.
5. To verify, reject, or modify the hypothesis
6. Scientific Method
7. John Dewey
8. Hypothesis
9. Deductive Method
10. Inductive

ASSIGNMENT
Prepare your own illustration to show that indeed the research process integrates deductive and
inductive method of acquiring knowledge.

THEORY
PREDICTIONS HYPOTHESIS

HYPOTHESIS GENERALIZATIONS

CONFIRMATION/ OBSERVATION
DEDUCTIVE INDUCTIVE

POST-TEST
1. Critical
2. Empirical
3. Logical and Systematic
4. Replicability
5. Reduction
6. Universal
7. Inductive Reasoning
8. Deductive Method
9. Charles Darwin
10. John Dewey

MODULE 2
PRE-TEST QUESTIONS
1. False
2. True
3. True
4. True
5. True
6. True
7. True
8. True
9. False
10. False
11. False
12. True
13. True
14. True
15. True

? Can you also give your own observation as possible inputs for a research problem.
- I observed that some overachiever students in high school becomes a low-key person during
college.

CHECKPOINT 1: Do you know what a theory is? Can you give an example of theory?
- A theory is an explanation that organizes separate pieces of information in a
coherent way. Based on what I stated above as my observation, I could theorized that
achievements of a student in high school will never determine how well you perform
in college.

CHECKPOINT 2: What possible topic can you derive from your readings?
-School-based drama interventions (Joronen, Rankin & Astedt-Kurki, 2008). The
social cognitive theory was used for this research.

CHECKPOINT 3: What do you think are the classifications of research objectives?

- Research objectives is generally classified into two- the general and specific
objectives.

CHECKPOINT 4: Do these assumptions show relevance to the hypothesis?

- Yes, the stated assumptions shows relevance to the hypothesis.
CHECKPOINT 5:
A. What make a problem researchable?
A problem becomes researchable when;
 There is no known answers or solution to it such that a gap in knowledge exists.
 There are possible solutions the effectiveness of which is unknown yet.
 There are answer or solutions the possible result of which maybe seen or may be
factually contradicting.
 There are several possible and plausible explanations for the undesirable conditions,
and when the existence of a phenomenon requires a solution.

B. What are the sources and characteristics of good research problem?

-Research problems could be based from personal experience, or from other materials such
as books, journal, theses, dissertations, or mass media. A good research problem should be of
great interest to the research, relevant and useful to a specific group of people, should possess
the element of newness or freshness. It must be well-defined or specified, measurable, or time-
bound. A good problem research shall contribute to the refinement of certain important
concepts, creation, of improvement or research instrument as analytical system, and will permit
generalization. Lastly, a good problem research must be on the basic of the researcher’s
capability to meet what it requires: manpower, money, time and expertise.

C. Why define a research problem? How does one go about defining a research problem?
-A research problem should be defined and narrow it down so as to make it manageable
rather than formidable. The first to to define a research problem is for the researcher to see to it
that the major concepts or terms are clearly defined. The next step is to limit the scope of the
study in terms of issues or concerns, area/coverage, subjects/respondent, period or time, and
type of data- qualitative, quantitative or a combination of the two.

D. In justifying a research problem, what considerations are to be remembered?

-In justifying a research problem, the following questions should be considered;
 Is the problem a current and timely one?
  Is it pervasive or widespread?
 Does it affect a special group of people?
 Does it relate to ongoing programs?
 Does it relate to broad social, economic and health issues?
 Who else is concerned about the problem?
 What are its direct and indirect, short and long range contributions to the welfare of
the group of people or to the whole society?

E. What are the characteristics of good research objectives?

-A good research objectives should have the following characteristics:
 They should be simple in language;
 They are measurable concepts;
 They are attainable;
 They are result-oriented; and
 They are time-bounded.

F. What are the major types of hypothesis? What is the difference between the two?
-The two major types of hypothesis is the null and the alternative form. The null hypothesis
is a denial of existence, an attribute, a relationship, a difference or an effect. In contrast, the
alternative hypothesis states the very opposite of what the null hypothesis predicts.

G. What are the characteristics and uses of good hypothesis?

-A good hypothesis must be reasonable, testable, and should conform with the findings of
previous study. A good hypothesis provides guide and direction to the research, indicates the
major independent and dependent variables being considered, suggests the type of data that
must be collected, suggests the type of analysis to be made, and indicates the type of statistical
measures appropriate to various test to be conducted.

H. Why is there a need to define the key terms of one’s research?

-The key terms of a research must be defined because it establishes the rules and
procedures the investigator will use to measure variables and it provides unambiguous meaning
to terms that otherwise can be interpreted in different ways.

I. What are the major types of definitions? How does one differ from another?
-The major types of definitions is the conceptual and the operational. The conceptual
definition is universal in that it is the meaning understood by people. These are usually from
dictionary, which is the reference book of everyday language. Unlike the conceptual definition,
the operational definition is the meaning of the concept or term as used in a particular study. It is
concrete that it is subject to measurement.

J. What are the major types of variables? What is the distinguishing feature of each?
-The major types of variables are independent, dependent, and the intervening. The
independent variable is the presumed cause of the dependent variable, which is the presumed
effect in a relational study. The status or behavior of the dependent variable is influenced by the
independent variable. The intervening variable comes between the independent and the
dependent variables. It either strengthens or weakens the influence or effect of the independent
variable on the dependent variable.

K. In stating the significance or importance of the study, what aspects or contributions of a study
will be emphasized?
 Contribution to the accumulation of knowledge or to filling up a knowledge gap.
 Contribution to building, validation or refining prevailing theories.
 Contribution to meeting a pressing need of a specific group.
 Contribution to refining concepts, improving research instrumentation and
methodologies; and
 Contribution to meeting the concerns or priorities of funding instruction like improved
income, health, inter-relations, and the like.
II. ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH REPORT
-A research is a study of a particular problem that needs a solution for the development or
improvement of its subject. A research problem has to be identified for the concrete direction of the
research. A problem should be researchable and clearly stated. Personal experience, books, journal,
article and etc. are some of the sources of a research problem. The objectives of the research must
also be determined to clearly identify the desired or expected outcome of the research. Research
objectives refers to the statements of purpose for which the investigation is to be conducted. In order
that a research will have a foundation for the research, the theoretical and conceptual frameworks
must be considered. These provide explicit explanations why the problems under study exist by
showing how the variables involved in the problem are related to each other. To have a guideline for
the data gathering procedure, a hypothesis must be developed. A hypothesis is an educational or
intelligent guess or prediction about the existence, attribute or relationship between variables covered
by a study. The coverage and limitations of the study is determined in the scope and limitation. It is
necessary to provide the reader the caution to expect beyond what the study can and promises to
deliver, notwithstanding certain constraints. Lastly, to test the hypothesis an experiment must be
conducted. The variables of the experiment must be determined to know the treatment appropriate
for a particular variable. There three types of variables; the independent, dependent, and the
intervening variable. Each of these variables has a definite treatment in the process of experiment.

POST-TEST
1. D
2. I
3. A
4. E
5. H
6. L
7. C
8. B
9. F
10. J

MODULE 3

PRETEST
1. T
2. T
3. F
4. T
5. F
6. F
7. T
8. T
9. F
10. T

? Can you give your own example of a quantitative research?

-” Increasing rate of early pregnancy among teens”. This is an example of a quantitative research
because the data concerned can be analyzed numerically.

? Can you give your own example of a quantitative research design?

-The quantitative research design applicable to the research I’d provided is the normative
research design.

EXERCISE A
1. C
2. D
3. H

EXERCISE B
1. CS
2. DA
3. CS
4. DA
5. DA

? Can you give your own example for a survey research?

This is an example of a survey questionnaire used to extract informations necessary for the
research being conducted.
Check the box that corresponds to your answer.
Statements: (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Agree Disagree
1. There are several benefits that
we could get from the solar
plantation.
2. It brings inconvenience to us.
3. There are harmful effects to
our environment.
4. Flood level is lower before the
plantation was built.
5. The community is better
before the plantation is built.
6. The community is better after
the plantation is built.
7. I am in favour of building this
plantation.
7. I am not in favour of building this
plantation.

? Can you cite situations where normative research design is appropriate?

-Normative research design is appropriate to some situations wherein the norm or level of
characteristics for a given behavior are being described such as when describing the level of difficulty
of the courses in college.

? Could you now write some examples on correlational research design?

- A correlational research design is conducted by the researchers whose aim would be to find out
the relationship between different variables in the study. Some example of this could be “Relationship
between sleeping habits of college students and their tasks” and “The connection of social media to
depression”.

? Can you give similar situations to illustrate assessment and evaluation studies?
-Assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably. The two terms are different with
one another. When you are trying to assess the progress of a program over a given period of time, it is
assessment. If you’re going to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of a program, you
are evaluating it.

SELF TEST
1. G
2. I
3. E
4. H
5. F
6. A
7. C
8. B
9. D

ASSIGNMENT
From your readings of the professional magazines you have been subscribing, list down the research
reports therein. Classify the research to any of the descriptive research designs.
 Ethnographic Research
 Class and Gender in the Phillippines: Ethnographic Interviews with
Female Employer-Female Domestic by Emelda Tabao Driscoll (2011)
 Cultural Beliefs and Practices of Ethnic Filipinos: An Ethnographic Study
by Evelyn J. Grey, Ph. D.
 Observational Research
 HIV/AIDS mass communication campaigns (Noar, Palmgreen et al., 2009)
 Case Study
 Software Security Analysis: A Case Study

MODULE 4

QUESTIONS
1. What do you notice of the situation?
-The situation is about student activism which is past and existing event.

2. Did the researcher use existing data?

- Yes

3. What data did the researcher gather as references?

-Documents and records related to student activism.

4. How did the researcher gather information?

-Examined documents and records and conducted an interview.

CHECKPOINT 1:
1. Primary
2. Secondary

? Can you recall some examples of secondary sources of data?

-Data from secondary sources could be from books published, journal, reports, internet,
newspaper, articles in the magazine, research, and etc.
? What do you know about external criticism?
-External criticism involves the intricate test of the certain object being studied. Asks if
the evidence under consideration is authentic. The researcher checks the
genuineness or validity of the source. Is it what it appears or claims to be? Is it
admissible as evidence?
SELF- TEST

1. A
2. B
3. B
4. B
5. D
6. C
7. D
8. D
9. F
10. G
11. C
12. G
13. D
14. D
15. E

ASSIGNMENT
Write a proposal for a historical study in a local setting. You may select a community, school, church,
religious, or ethnic group, or individual. State an appropriate title, hypothesis, indicate the primary
sources of data that you would search, and tell how you can evaluate the authenticity and validity of
your data.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Title: THE HISTORY OF THE LEADERSHIP OF THE GATCHALIANS IN VALENZUELA: EFFECTIVE OR WEAK.

Hypothesis: The progress of Valenzuela City depends on the effectiveness of the governance of the
Gatchalians from the past up to the present.

 The data that I will gather for this research would be primarily from the interview to the
residents and officials of Valenzuela, and from the analysis of the progress of the City for the
previous years up to the present. I will get the opinions of the residents who had also
experienced the governance of the other leaders of Valenzuela. I could also get information from
the published articles and journals about the achievements of the Valenzuela due to the
governance of the Gatchalians.
 To evaluate the authenticity and validity of the data that I will be gathering, I will collect those
data only from the reliable source and authority. I will carefully examine these data to assure the
accuracy of my interpretation of the hypothesis.

MODULE 5

EXERCISE A

What are the conditions or characteristics that have a bearing on the conduct of the experiment.
Please enumerate them:
- intelligence quotient, study habits, age, sex, interest, socio-economic status

Is there a condition that has a bearing on the study?

- Yes

? Can you identify the independent and dependent variable?

 Independent variable- modular instruction in Science
 Dependent variable- Effectiveness of modular instruction in Science.
? Recall again the first situation presented to you, can you identify the extraneous variables?
 The extraneous variables are age, sex, intelligence quotient and socio-economic status.
Exercise:
-Suppose you want to know whether commercials make people enjoy TV shows less.
 To conduct the experiment, you will show some TV shows without commercials and some
TV shows with commercial.
(Having commercials or not is the INDEPENDENT VARIABLE)
 To determine the result, you will measure their enjoyment on the TV shows they watch.
(Measurement of the enjoyment is the DEPENDENT VARIABLE)

? Yes, there is an internal validity in the situation presented because it is very clear that modular
instructions may affect the student’s performances in Science. The factors that has been
manipulated in the situation which is the modular instructions, could help the students to
perform better in the Science subject.

? Yes, the situation presented has also an external validity because generally, the use of the
modular instructions in teaching, greatly affects the performance of the students even in other
subjects. The result of the research with the modular instruction could be generalized to other
settings or treatment of the variables in the experiment.

SELF-TEST 1
1. History
2. Testing
3. Unstable instrumentation
4. Interaction of selection and maturation
5. Selection Bias
6. Maturation
7. Testing
8. Experimenter bias
9. Experimenter bias
10. Statistical regression

SELF-TEST 2
1. Interaction of selection and treatment
2. Interference of prior treatment
3. Extent of treatment verification
4. Artificiality of the experimental setting
5. Interference of prior treatment
6. Interaction of selection and treatment

ASSIGNMENT

Title: Toward the Integration of Personality Theory and Decision Theory in the Explanation of
Economic Behavior

1. was the problem clearly stated?

-yes
2. were the variables defined in operational terms?
-yes
3. Was the hypothesis clearly stated?
-yes
4. Were the delimitations stated?
-yes
5. Was the design clearly described?
-yes
6. Were extraneous variable recognized?
-yes
7. Were the populations and sampling methods described?
-yes
8. Were appropriate methods used to analyze the results?
-yes
9. Were the conclusions clearly presented?
-yes
10. Were the conclusions substantiated by the evidence presented?
-yes

? Did it not come to your mind that the pretest can has a bearing in the post-test results? Or what
would the gain have been if the pretest and the post-test had been administered to another class
that had not viewed the film
- Yes. The gain would have been lower if the post-test had been administered to another
class that had not viewed the film.

? Is the researcher safe in making the conclusion that the film showing was a very helpful device?
- Yes, it is a very helpful device.

? Did the situation look into the initial attitude of the teachers before the film viewing. Could It not
have been possible that the teachers have their own initial attitude even without the film
viewing?
-Yes, the teachers could have their own initial attitude even without the film viewing.

SELF-TEST 3

1. B
2. C
3. A
4. G
5. I
6. D
7. K
8. E
9. J
10. F

POST-TEST
I.
1. E
2. I
3. E
4. I
5. E
6. E
7. I
8. I
9. E
10. E

II.
1. M
2.G
3.C
4.I
5.F
6.H
7.E
8.A
9.B
10.D
11.J
12.E
13.K
14. L

III.
1.
O1 X O2

2.
O1 X O2
O4 C O3

X O
3.

4.
R X O1
R C O2
5. X O1
C O2

MODULE 6
? Can you identify some of the data collection methods that you know?
- interviews, questionnaires, observations, focus groups, documents and records.

? What comes to your mind when you hear the word data?
- Data comprises facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

ASSIGNMENT
For my research proposal, I would probably use interviews, observations and questionnaires to
extract the data I will be needing for my research. I would also gather the available data from books,
journals, magazines, and any other materials that are related to my study. These methods would
greatly help to the success of my research.

POST-TEST
I.
1. Interval scale
2. Ordinal scale
3. Interval scale
4. Interval scale
5. Interval scale
6. Primary data
7. Secondary data
8. Primary data
9.Secondary data
10. Secondary data
II.
1. Questionnaire
2. Observation
3. Questionnaire
4. Questionnaire
5. Observation
6. Interview
7. Questionnaire
8. Observation
9. Observation
10. Observation