Lesson Introduction
Research takes many forms. Action research is just one type of research. In order to understand action research, it is better to have an idea of the big picture of research. This chapter will introduce you to the basic concepts of research, the value of various types of research to researchers, and types of research methods. Please note, there is no best research method, different methods of research achieve different purposes.
Types of Research
There are different ways to categorize a research attempt – types of research. Some of them are more general and some of them are more specific. Below, we listed some of them. This list has some overlap with you class reading of Fraenkel and Wallen’s, they complement each other. When researchers talk about their research attempts, they refer to the first group or second group. After reading the list, read the scenario right after for better understanding. So when people say, “I will conduct a qualitative research,” you know how to join the conversation.
Traditionally, when a researcher talks about his/her research method generally, they often refer it as qualitative, quantitative research. An easy to differentiate them is whether the study collects numerical data (quantitative) or narrative data (qualitative) research.
The increasing importance of the mixed methods research across the social sciences has turned more and more researchers into this comparatively new research methodology (Clark, Huddleston-Casas, Churchill, Green, & Garrett, 2008; Creswell, 2003; Hanson, Creswell, Clark, Petska, & Creswell, 2005). In mixed methods studies, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, analyzed, and mixed in a same research project instead of emphasizing the contrasting paradigmatic features between the qualitative and quantitative methods. Researchers suggested that the qualitative and quantitative method has different strengths and bias; therefore, integrating these two methods has the possibility of combining the strength from both research methods while reducing the weakness. of either approach (Creswell & Plano-Clark, 2007). For this reason, the following way of categorizing a research is also become quite popular now-a-days.
Quantitative
Qualitative
Mixed-methods
A question helps you to define your study:
In this study, I will collect 1) numerical data, 2) narrative data, or 3) both of them.
－ If you are using observation or interviews to collect data, then it is a qualitative study.
－ If you are using a survey questionnaire to collect data, then it depend on whether the questions on the survey are close-ended (quantitative) or open-ended (qualitative).
－ If you have both, then, then it is obviously a mixed-methods study.
2. When specification is wanted, individual research methodologies can be classified into the following three types: quantitative, qualitative, combine/mixed-methods research. Combine research, as its name indicates combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches. (You can find the definitions of most research types from your reading. There are five additional methods included in the following categories. Their definitions are provided. )
Types of Quantitative research
1) Experimental research.
True-experimental research – usually called experimental. Participants are randomly assigned to different groups.
2) Correlational research
3) Causal-comparative research
4) Descriptive Survey research
5) Meta-analysis
Types of qualitative research
1) Ethnographic research (culture)
2) Historical research (past)
3) Phenomenological research – The purpose of this approach is to illuminate the specific, to identify phenomena through how they are perceived by the actors in a situation. The study of experience is from the perspective of the individual through inductive, qualitative methods such as interviews, discussions, and participant observation.
4) Case study – An intensive analysis of an individual unit (as a person or community) stressing developmental factors in relation to environment
5) Narrative research – narrative and storytelling as a research method. This approach does not attempt to predefine independent variables and dependent variables, but acknowledges context and seeks to understand phenomena through the meanings that people assign to them.
Combination methods
1) Action research
2) Program evaluation – a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies, and programs particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. Program evaluations can involve both quantitative and qualitative methods of social research.
3. According to the basic purpose of a research, a research attempt can also be categorized as one of the following:
Basic Research
Applied research
A question helps you to define your study:
I want to conduct a study to 1) test/gain a theory/hypothesis or, 2) to exam the effectiveness of a particular practice.
4. According to the purpose of a research, a research can fall within one or more of the following general category:
Associational research (e.g., correlational and casual-comparative study)Intervention research (as long as an intervention is include, it is an intervention study. Therefore, an experimental research is an intervention research; whereas an intervention study does not have to be experimental. For example, a researcher tests an instructional design in a natural class without grouping students for comparison. It included intervention but it is not experimental)
A question helps you to define your study:
I want to conduct a study to 1) describe a given state of affairs (characteristics of a group/a situation/event), 2) to investigate possible relationships, or 3) to assess a particular method or treatment on outcomes.
Sometimes these three groups are simplified into two groups:
Intervention research actually included research methodologies other than experimental research)
Put even more simply, they are: (whether an experiment is conducted)
Scenario:
A researcher found that when students work in groups they contribute differently to their group project. While some students work really hard for the group project, some students just take advantage of their peers to get good grade without paying efforts, like taking a free ride. In order to understand this phenomenon, the researcher went through literature and find out that some researcher suggested there are three types of identity salience. People have different identity salience also have different behavioral tendencies. The researcher came out with a theory/hypothesis that a student’s identity salience affects his/her behavior in a collaborative learning group to be more contributive or more free-riderish. (We save the detailed discussion of this research topic. To make long story short - It is a research topic). To test this theory/hypothesis, the researcher interviewed some students for their collaborative learning experiences and also surveyed them to find out their identity salience to see whether there was internal relationship/correlation between them.