Research for Senior High School: Inquiries, Investigations, and Immersion

Survey Research

A quantitative research that provides numerical description of trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample population. This strategy requires the use of questionnaires or structured interviews for collecting data, and it can be employed in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Respondents are usually asked about their behavior (e.g., voting behavior, consumption behavior), attitudes, beliefs, and opinions on a particular issue or problem, characteristics (e.g., civil status, religion, political affiliation), expectations, self-classification, and knowledge. They are asked with the same set of questions. Researchers adopt the deductive approach -- they start with a theoretical or an applied research question and ends with the use of empirical data for analysis and interpretation.

Research

A systematic inquiry conducted to understand a phenomenon which involves accurate gathering and recording, critical analyses, and interpretation of facts about the phenomenon for theoretical or practical ends.

Content Analysis

A technique for gathering and analyzing the content of a text. Text refers to anything written, or in visual or oral form that serves as a medium of communication. It includes books, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, speeches, official documents, films, musical lyrics, photographs, symbols, artworks, etc. The content of a text refers to the words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, and messages that are communicated by the text.

Hypothesis

A verifiable proposition or a tentative statement that clearly explains the relationship between two variables about how the social world operates. It has two main elements. First, it must state the relationship between two variables. Second, it must express a causal or cause-effect relation between two or more variables.

Review of Related Literature

A written summary of published research studies and relevant works about a particular subject matter that is related to the researcher's main topic.

Conclusions

Abstractions of the summary of findings into what are most important in relation to the objectives of the study. They help readers understand the significance of the study. This synthesizes the main points of the research and answers the research questions.

Explanatory Research

Aims to explain the reasons and causes of a problem or issue. It explains the causes, reasons, and sources of different social behavior, beliefs, situations, and events.

Exploratory Research

Conducted to know more about the problem.

Descriptive Research

Conducted to provide picture of the concepts or ideas about a topic or problem. The researcher describes the nature of variables used in the study.

Appendices

Contain various information in relation to the research, though it may not be necessary to include them in the main body of the research. They can be survey questions, interview guides, transcriptions of interviews, and photos. They can also contain data results that are not included in the main results in the body.

Bibliography

Contains all the published references used in the research study.

Bibliography

Contains all the published references used in the research study; a list of all of the sources you have used (whether referenced or not) in the process of researching your work. In general, it should include: the authors' names, the titles of the works, the names and locations of the companies that published your copies of the sources.

Significance of the Study

Explains its relevance and contribution to the field. It must be explained as clearly as possible so that readers will understand the necessity to pursue the research. It must explicitly state the contribution of the study to the body of knowledge about the subject matter i.e., the study adds new knowledge to the existing scholarly literature on the topic, fills up the gaps in the existing knowledge, and confirms or contradicts a theory, a concept, or methodology. Also, it can help address or solve an existing social or political problem and that different sectors of the society will benefit from the study. The sector must be identified that will gain much from the study and explain what each sector will gain from the research.

Applied Research

Focuses on addressing a specific concern or usually offers a solution to a social problem. It is a small-scale study that introduces practical results that can be used in the short term. Usually done by practitioners in the business sector, government, health care sector, social service organizations, political organizations, and educational institutions.

Basic Research

Focuses on the advancement and production of new knowledge. This form of research is used by academicians and scientists, and the primary consumers.

Definition of Terms

Giving clear definitions so that readers may understand and avoid misinterpretation.

Drawings

Images that can be shown from several views. They must be illustrated by a professional artist.

Citing Resources

Intellectual honesty should be practiced at all times in research writing.Plagiarism can be avoided by identifying the sources of every text that is directly quoted, paraphrased, and summarized in the paper.

Population

It can be a person, a group of people, an organization, a document, a message, or an action that can be measured.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

It define the extent and focus of the research. It refers to the specific topics or coverage of the research. The geographic location should be clearly explained, the unit of analysis, or the people or population to be studied, the time period of the research, and the questions that will be answered by the study. On the other hand, the topics that will not be looked into the study will also serve as a clear guide of the limits and conditions of the research.

Field Research

It is also called ethnography or participant-observation research, a qualitative research method wherein the researcher directly interacts and observes in a small-scale social setting in the present time and in the researcher's own culture. Data is collected through participant observation and interviews.

Research Problem

It is an issue that leads to the need for a study. It is the central idea of the study. It also serves as the main reason why research is being undertaken.

Periodicals

Newspapers, popular social science magazines, professional publications (e.g. National Geographic and Psychology Today), Internet news summaries, opinion magazines, editiorials, and mass market publications (e.g., Time, Newsweek, The Economist).

Books

Original research results or a compilation of research articles published by university presses such as University of the Philippines Press, Ateneo de Manila University Press, De La Salle University Publishing House, and University of Santo Tomas Publishing House).

Scholarly Journals

Peer-reviewed or abstracted refereed journals containing research results of social scientists and other researchers (e.g. Malay, Asian Studies, Philippine Studies, American Sociological Review, Philippine Social Science Review). Scholarly journals that can be accessed online (e.g., JSTOR and EBSCO HOST), e-journals or Internet only scholary journals that publishes online peer-reviewed researches (e.g., Philippine e-journals), and article or book reviews that contain literature review essays that provide journal article or book commentary and evaluations.

Policy Reports and Conference Papers

Published by government and private research institutes and policy centers. Professional organizations that hold annual conferences have scholarly papers presented in them.

Government Documents

Published by the national government, local government units, government agencies, and international agencies.

Data Coding

Researcher reorganizes the data into a format that can easily be processed by computers (e.g., SPSS Program, Nvivo). They develop rules to assign numbers to variable attributes.

Recommendations

Suggestions for future studies based on the experiences and major findings of the researcher.

APA Guide

The American Psychological Association (APA) style uses the in-text citation. This contains the surname of the author, the publication year of the source, and the specific pages where the information can be found. It is written at the end of the sentence. Example: According to a study, 60% of the people in the community smoke (Sean, 2014, p.60). Example 2: According to Sean (2014), 60% of the people in the community smoke.

Theoretical Framework

The application of a theory or theories in explaining the existence of a phenomenon and the interrelationship of various factors which led to the existence of the phenomenon. Using this framework, the researcher borrows the concepts, theories, and ideas proposed by different social scientists, theorists, and philosophers.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The data collected are processed to determine for possible patterns and trends, discover similarities and differences, and find out possible relationships that exist in the data. The results will be able to address the research problem.

Abstract

The executive summary of research, a short summary or synopsis of the content of the research paper. It provides the reader with a quick preview or survey of the contents of the research paper.

Sampling Design

The last part of the research design, in quantitative research, the researcher gets a representative sample or a small collection of units or cases from a larger population to study the smaller group and infer generalizations about the larger group. In qualitative research, the purpose is to collect cases, events or actions that will clarify and deepen his or her understanding of society in a particular context.

Case Studies

The researcher conducts an up-close or in-depth study of an individual, an organization, a behavioral condition, an event, or a contemporary phenomenon in its social context.

Experimental Research

The researcher does something to one group and none to another group, and then examines the differences between the outcomes. This form of research methodology is usually employed in the natural sciences and related fields like agriculture, engineering, and medicine; and in the social sciences like psychology, education, journalism, marketing, nursing, political science, social work, and sociology.

Conceptual or Theoretical Frameworks

These are perspectives, points of views, models, or frames of references usually made up of assumptions, theories, and concepts that are used by the researcher in the organization of observation, reasoning, analysis, and interpretation of research data.

Frequency Distribution

This is done by computing the percentage frequency distribution of the variable with the total number of respondents.

Statistical Analysis

This is used to examine numerical data, which they manipulate and summarize to produce a meaningful analysis particularly in quantitative research. It can be single variable (univariate), two variables (bivariate), or three or more variables (multivariate).

Historical-Archival Research

This referes to reconstruction and recreation of the past through the use of primary and secondary sources.

Oral Presentation

Time alloted to communicate and share the results of your research to the public.

Nonprobability or Nonrandom sampling

Used in qualitative research, the researcher gradually chooses the cases based on their specific content.

Photograph

Used to augment the text.

Charts

Used to describe the relationship between parts of a group or object or sequence of operations in a process.

Conceptual Framework

Uses concepts from theories. The researcher finds a variable in the study that corresponds to the concept as it was used in the theory from which it was taken.

Graphs

Utilized to show relationships in a set of data.

Dissertation and Thesis

Written by graduate students some are published while others are unpublished and can be accessed in the university libraries.