Pasay City East High School

E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

Chapter 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the research design and methodology, including population,
sample size, sampling technique used, participants of the study, instrumentation,
validation, data gathering procedure and statistical treatment of data.

Research Design
After considering the objectives of the study, the researchers felt the appropriateness
for adopting both the qualitative and quantitative data gathering techniques in their
survey method, using the questionnaire as the instrument and supported by
qualitative data obtained through structured interviews. A combination of these
research design helped provides more data to work with an ultimately a more
accurate evaluation O’Neill (2006). Another reason for adopting both qualitative and
quantitative data gathering techniques was that the researchers believed that with
this type of method, they can provide a more accurate information and a more
detailed data that are explained through numbers and words, making the findings
more concrete. In short, the strengths of qualitative studies should be demonstrated
for research that was exploratory or descriptive and that stressed on the importance
of context, setting, and participants’ frames of reference (Marshall and Rossman,
2006)
In the contrary, research design essentially refers to the plan or strategy of shaping
the research (Henn, Weinstein and Foard, 2006), that might include the entire
process of research from conceptualizing a problem to writing research questions,
and on to data collection, analysis, interpretation and report writing (Creswell, 2007).
It provided the framework for the collection and analysis of data and subsequently
indicated which research methods were appropriate (Walliman, 2006). The most
common, useful purposes and main aims of research were exploration, description
and rational explanation based on data (Richardson, 2005 & Babbie, 2007).
 Pasay City East High School
E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

This study focuses on the satisfaction of the respondents to the researchers'

invented product, Chocolate Mashed Potato Cupcake with Squash Icing in terms of
taste, appearance, benefits and price.
In this regard, the researchers used a combination of descriptive-evaluative and
experimental design. According to Burns and Grove (2003), descriptive research “is
designed to provide a picture of a situation as it naturally happens”. It may be used
to justify current practice and make judgment and also to develop theories. For the
purpose of this study, the descriptive research was used because it is a good way to
assess and evaluate one thing. The researchers believed that through this design,
they can provide more reliable and authentic information which can result to credible
and trustworthy outcome.
On the other hand, the researchers also used the experimental design. Experimental
research approach is a systematic, objective method of discovery with empirical
evidence under rigorous control. The control is achieved by holding constant all the
conditions except for the phenomenon under study for both the experimental group
and the control group. Therefore, the researchers used this kind of design because
they are trying to create a new food product which is the Chocolate Mashed Potato
Cupcake with Squash Icing.

Population
By definition, population is the group to which a researcher would like the results of
the study to be generalizable. It could also be set of all cases of interest (Richardson,
2005) and might be virtually any size or might cover almost any geographical area
(Gay and Diehl, 1992). Theoretically, researchers could specify an even finer
distinction of population called the study population (Wolfer, 2007).
The population for this study, for both the qualitative and quantitative methods, were
the Pasay City East High School administrators and faculty experts. To be exact,
there are 10 administrators and 14 faculty experts, which gains a total of population
of 24.
 Pasay City East High School
E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

Sample Size
A sample was a subset of the population being studied (Richardson, 2005), that
included the process of selecting a few (samples) from a bigger group (the sampling
population) to become the basis for estimating or predicting a fact, situation or
outcome regarding the bigger group (Kumar, 1996). Samples should be as large as
possible, in general the larger the sample the more representative and the more
generalizable the results of the study were likely to be. Minimum, acceptable sample
size for descriptive research would be 10% of population (Gay and Diehl, 1992).
That being said, the researchers chose the 20% of the ten administrators and 21% of
the faculty experts to be their respondents. Thus, there will be two (2) administrators
and three (3) faculty experts that will serve as the participants of the study.

Sampling Technique
Burns and Grove (2003) refer to sampling as a process of selecting a group of
people, events or behaviour with which to conduct a study. Polit et al (2001) confirm
that in sampling a portion that represents the whole population is selected. Sampling
is closely related to generalisability of the findings. In this study the sampling was
non-probable and purposive. According to Parahoo (1997), in non-probability
sampling researchers use their judgment to select the subjects to be included in the
study based on their knowledge of the phenomenon.
Moreover, purposive sampling was used in this study. Parahoo (1997) describes
purposive sampling as “a method of sampling where the researcher deliberately
chooses who to
include in the study based on their ability to provide necessary data". This is because
the researchers believe that their chosen participants perfectly fits to be the
respondent because they are knowledgeable and skillful enough on this field.

Participants of the Study

 Pasay City East High School
E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

As stated in the Table 1, there are 10 administrators and 14 faculty experts with a
total of 24 as the researchers’ population. From these groups, the researchers would
select a 20% of the administrator’s population and a 21% of the faculty experts’
population. Thus, the participants of this study is two (2) administrators and three (3)
faculty experts.

Instrumentation
The questionnaire was the main research instrument in this study, with the objective
to elicit as much related information as possible from the respondents. It would
contain enough questions to be able to meet survey objectives but not so many as to
be off-putting to respondents. The questions must be long enough to elicit the
information that was required but short enough to encourage an optimum response
rate (Johns, 1998).
Based on the above, a structured questionnaire was developed, covering as many
as possible the items that might point to achieving the objectives of the study.
Therefore, the research questionnaire was divided into four parts. The part 1
includes the ingredients, procedures, and the benefits (health and financial). The part
2, on the other hand includes the satisfaction of the participant in terms of the
product's taste, appearance and price. Lastly, the part 3 contains a table where the
participants can assess their competency in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitude.

Validation
To ensure that the measures developed in the instrument were relevant and
appropriate, the instruments were tested for its validity and reliability. Validity refers
to the extent to which an empirical measure adequately reflects the real meaning of
the concept under consideration (Babbie, 2007). This was supported by Henn,
Weinstein and Foard (2006) who said the most critical was whether or not the results
from a quantitative research study accurately reflect the phenomenon under
investigation. It was characteristic of a measure or protocol that assesses what it
 Pasay City East High School
E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

actually claims to measure (Devlin, 2006).

The questionnaires were sent to selected experts in the area to check on the validity
of the instrument. They
were expected to finalize the validity of the instrument for face and content validity
and to finally evaluate the appropriateness of the issues covered, again based on the
satisfaction level of the participamts to the cupcake.
The experts selected were the Senior High School Teachers of Bread and Pastry
Production, Food and Beverage Services, and Commercial Cooking. They were Ms.
Illen Taro, Mr. Keith Nester Lavin and Mr. Ernesto Jastia, respectively. These people
were chosen due to the vast experience and knowledge in this particular field. The
researcher strongly felt that these information from the professionals would be able
to give an insight, comments, ideas and suggestions, and they were able to judge
the relevancy of the topic being researched. The inputs received from these experts
were extremely important in the process of finalizing the questionnaire.

Data Gathering Procedure

As explained, the study would adopt both quantitative and qualitative data gathering
techniques. A survey research method was adopted to address the research
questions, using the survey questionnaire as the main instrument.
The researchers, after the validation process, baked their product. After creating the
product, they let the set of people from the sample size to taste their product. After
tasting it, the researchers then gave the survey questionnaires to the respondents.
After two or three days, the researchers will get the questionnaire, where all the
necessary data will be found.

Statistical Treatment of Data

Percentages are useful for comparing information where the sample sizes or totals
are different. By converting different data to percentages you can readily compare
them. The researchers will make use of the percentage during the comparison of the
 Pasay City East High School
E. Rodriguez St. Malibay, Pasay City

administrator and faculty experts.

Moreover, a weighted mean is a kind of average. Instead of each data point
contributing equally to the final mean, some data points contribute more “weight”
than others. If all the weights are equal, then the weighted mean equals the
arithmetic mean. This weighted mean will be utilized by the researchers when they
will have a total or a summary of the participants' answers.
Lastly, the researchers also used t-test. With a t-test, the researcher wants to state
with some degree of confidence that the obtained difference between the means of
the sample groups is too great to be a chance event and that some difference also
exists in the population from which the sample was drawn. Thus, the t-test is used by
the researchers to determine whether there is a significant difference between the
means of the two groups.