Designing & Conducting Research

Dr Rose Otieno Director, ACARETM (Africa Centre for

Anthropometric Research, Education, Testing & Management)

Sources
The postgraduate research handbook : succeed with your MA, MPhil, EdD and PhD / Gina Wisker
Research methods for business students/ Mark Saunders et al.

Topics
What is research? Peoples perception of research Research is Can I do research? Triangulation Designing research

What is research?
Research is
a reliable, cautious, planned and systematic way of finding something out or deepening understanding

Types of research
Pure, applied and strategic research Descriptive, explanatory and evaluation research Market and academic research Exploratory, testing-out and problemsolving research Basic, instrumental, participatory and action research

Perception of research
Research is about proving your pet theory Research is something done by academics Research is about establishing facts Research is objective Research is about justifying what your funder wants to do Research is time-consuming Research is scientific Research is removed from reality Research can prove anything you want Research cannot change a thing

Research is
Research is very time consuming Research is subjective Research is often boring, but can also be fun Research can take over your life Research can be much more interesting than its results Research is about being nosey Research can be done in many ways Research uses everyday skills Research gets into your dreams Research can lead you in unexpected directions

Can I do research? Everyday skills

Reading Listening Watching Choosing Questioning Summarizing Organizing Writing Presenting Reflecting rank order these from your best to your worst

Triangulation
Use of multiple methods To dilute bias in of single-method approach Be realistic/pragmatic
How many sides to a triangle? How many methods?

Extremely important for dissertation, less so for term papers

Research Methods
Tools, techniques, approaches: Case studies Experiments Surveys (questionnaires) Observation Interviews & Focus groups Practitioner research Action based research

Designing Research
Comes after the proposal Before the collection of data Detailed plan before the project starts Specific about the question (s) How the questions will be answered (analysis) Hypotheses

Types of reasoning
All research results depend upon a chain of reasoning if X then Y. For example: If persons who suffered least from heart disease are found to engage in regular exercise, then exercise could be used to counteract heart diseases!

Deductive reasoning
Proceeds form the general to the particular people have a notion of a healthy living theory. Persons who lack regular exercise will suffer conditions of heart disease hypothesis. Persons who engage in regular exercise will not suffer heart disease conditions hypothesis Observation

Inductive reasoning
The opposite to deductive reasoning. observations are made patterns in the observations lead to empirical generalisations the attempt to explain these leads to theories.

Inductive Reasoning
Note the rate at which people exercise observation. It appears that some people exercise more frequently than others empirical generalisation. Draw conclusions

The research question

Research stems from asking a question (s) The question (s) leads to a statement of the research problem e.g.
Why are levels of absenteeism so high? Why do Kenyan people not fit in their clothes?

You need a hypothesis

A hypothesis
A research hypothesis is a declarative statement indicating a conjectured relationship between variables, which can be tested and which the researcher believes will be demonstrated after hypothesis testing Sproull, N. Handbook of research Methods.

Why a hypothesis?
A working tool - put theories and observations in context Open and rigorous; scientific objectivity Testable Operational hypothesis Null hypothesis

Why a hypothesis?
Abstract concepts (e.g. social class) must be associated with indicators which are measurable. The process of operationalisation describes the rules that link concepts with indicators in an explicit way which allows everyone who is making measurements to follow the same rules.

Validity
Making sure the question is valid, the appropriate concept is identified and the right indicator used to measure it

Reliability
Concerned with consistency of results A measure gives the same results when applied to the same subject by differing observers. How: choosing indicators which are not susceptible to influence by extraneous variables having strict pre-determined rules for conducting research reliable data collection procedures.

Causation and correlation

Correlation is a measure of association:
When x increases y increases (+ve) When x increases y decreases (-ve)

Causation implies order or direction: Y has increased because x has increased Beware of intervening variables!

Types of research approaches

Qualitative Quantitative
Related methods and analysis

ACARETM

Good luck in designing and conducting your research

Todays session was brought to you by:

ACARETM Your 3D body scanning centre in Sub-Sahara Africa & Research Hub Visit us at: www.acaretm.com info@acaretm.com