Understanding Research
- 1. Information Unit - TAO
- 2. Going beyond personal experience, thoughts, feelings, and opinions that do not refer to other sources of information Some subjects require us to go beyond our personal knowledge and experience Research is undertaken to: explore an idea, probe an issue, solve a problem, make an argument, etc.
- 3. Exploratory Research Designed to generate basic knowledge, clarify relevant issues uncover variables associated with a problem, uncover information needs, and/or define alternatives for addressing research objectives. A very flexible, open-ended process. Descriptive Research (who, what, where, how) Designed to provide further insight into the research problem by describing the variables of interest. Can be used for profiling, defining, segmentation, estimating, predicting, and examining associative relationships. Causal Research (If-then) Designed to provide information on potential cause-and-effect relationships. Most practical in talking about associations or impact of one variable on another.
- 4. Outlines, reports, presentations, dissertations, etc. Assist in thinking through the research process (Structuring thoughts) Communicate thoughts (to ensure understanding of these thoughts)
- 5. Primary (firsthand observation and investigation) surveys, interviews, experiments, data collection, etc. Secondary (other studies and research) books, articles, etc.
- 6. Quantitative (traditional, positivist, experimental, empirical) Qualitative (constructive, naturalistic, interpretive, post- positivist) Used to describe the overall framework used to look at reality. Based on philosophical stand, research model defines/identifies basic concepts/ideas and describes reality and conditions to study.
- 7. Quantitative (Deductive process, cause and effect, static research design, context free, generalizations leading to predictions, explanation and understanding, testing accuracy and reliability). Qualitative (Inductive process, simultaneous shaping of factors, emerging design, context bound, theories developed for understanding, verification of accuracy and reliability).
- 8. Historical Comparative Descriptive Correlation Experimental Evaluation Action Ethnogenic Politics Cultural
- 9. Initial exploration Setting the Terms of Reference (TOR) Data collection / information gathering Organizing information / data Analysis Results Confirmation of results Recommendations Drafting report Presentation