LESSON 2: 5.

) CLARITY It must succeed in

NATURE OF RESEARCH expressing its central point or

discoveries by using simple, direct,
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
concise, and correct language.
Research is a process of
executing various mental acts for 6.) SYSTEMATIC It must take place in
discovering and examining facts
an organized or orderly manner.
and information to prove the
accuracy or truthfulness of your
claims or conclusions about the PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
topic of your research.
Research requires you to 1. To learn how to work
inquire or investigate about your independently.
chosen research topic by asking
questions that will make you engage 2. To learn how to work scientifically
yourself in top-level thinking or systematically.
strategies of interpreting, analyzing,
synthesizing, criticizing, appreciating, 3. To have an in-depth knowledge of
or creating to enable you to something.
discover truths about the many
things you tend to wonder about the 4. To elevate your mental abilities by
topic of your research work. letting you think in higher-order
(Litchman 2013)
thinking strategies (HOTS) of inferring,
CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH evaluating, synthesizing,
1.) ACCURACY It must give correct or
appreciating, applying, and
accurate data, which the footnotes,
creating.
notes, and bibliographical entries
5. To improve your reading and
should honestly and appropriately
writing skills.
documented or acknowledged.
6. To be familiar with the basic tools
2.) OBJECTIVENESS It must deal with
of research and the various
facts, not with mere opinions arising
techniques of gathering data and of
from assumptions, generalizations,
presenting research findings.
predictions, or conclusions.
7. To be able to give yourself
3.) TIMELINESS It must work on a topic
independence from relying solely to
that is fresh, new, and interesting to
what the professor is telling or on a
the present society.
single text book.
4.) RELEVANCE Its topic must be
instrumental in improving society or
in solving problems affecting the lives
of people in a community.
TYPES OF RESEARCH
1.) Based on Application of Research
Method
Is the research applied to
theoretical or practical issues? If it
deals with concepts, principles, or
abstract things, it is a pure research.
This type of research aims to
increase your knowledge about
something.
However, if your intention is to
apply your chosen research to
societal problems or issues, finding
ways to make positive changes in
society, you call your research,
applied research.
2.) Based on Purpose of the Research
Depending on your objective
or goal in conducting research, you
do any of these types of research:
descriptive, correlational,
explanatory, exploratory, or action.
 Descriptive Research- This type
of research aims at defining or
giving a verbal portrayal or
picture of a person, thing,
event, group, situation, etc.
This is liable to repeated
research because its topic
relates itself only to a certain
period or a limited number of
years. Based on the results of
your descriptive studies about
a subject, you develop the
inclination of conducting
further studies on such topic.
 Correlational Research- A
correlational research shows
relationships or connectedness
of two factors, circumstances,
or agents called variables that
affect the research. It is only
concerned in indicating the
existence of a relationship, not
the causes and ways of the
development of such
relationship.
 Explanatory Research- This type
of research elaborates or
explains not just the reasons
behind the relationship of two
factors, but also the ways by
which such relationship exists.
 Exploratory Research- An
exploratory research’s purpose
is to find out how reasonable
or possible it is to conduct a
research study on a certain
topic. Here, you will discover
ideas on topics that could
trigger your interest in
conducting research studies.
 Action Research- This type of
research studies an ongoing
practice of a school,
organization, community, or
institution for the purpose of
obtaining results that will bring
improvements in the system.
3.) Based on Types of Data Needed
The kind of data you want to
work on reflects whether you wish to
do a quantitative or qualitative
research.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research requires
non-numerical data, which means
that the research uses words rather
than numbers to express the results,
the inquiry, or investigation about
people’s thoughts, beliefs, feelings,
views, and lifestyles regarding the
object of the study. These
opinionated answers from people
are not measurable; so, verbal
language is the right way to express
your findings in a qualitative
research.
Quantitative Research
Meanwhile, quantitative
research involves measurement of
data. Thus, it presents research
findings referring to the number or
frequency of something in numerical
forms (i.e., using percentages,
fractions, numbers).
The data you deal with in research are
either primary or secondary data.
Primary data are obtained through
direct observation or contact with
people, objects, artifacts, paintings,
etc.
Primary data are new and original
information resulting from your
sensory experience. However, if such
data have already been written
about or reported on and are
available for reading purposes, they
exist as secondary data.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
After choosing your topic for
research, what is your next move? In
other words, how are you going to
approach or begin your research,
deal with your data, and establish a
connection among all things or
activities involved in your research?
There are three approaches that you
can choose from.
 SCIENTIFIC or POSITIVE
APPROACH
The first is the scientific or
positive approach, in which you
discover and measure information as
well as observe and control variables
in an impersonal manner. It allows
control of variables. Therefore, the
data gathering techniques
appropriate for this approach are
structured interviews, questionnaires,
and observational checklists. Data
given by these techniques are
expressed through numbers, which
means that this method is suitable for
quantitative research.
 NATURALISTIC APPROACH
The second approach is the
naturalistic approach. In contrast to the
scientific approach that uses numbers
to express data, the naturalistic
approach uses words.
This research approach directs
you to deal with qualitative data that
speak of how people behave toward
their surroundings. These are non-
numerical data that express truths
about the way people perceive or
understand the world. Since people look
at their world in a subjective or personal
basis in an uncontrolled or unstructured
manner, a naturalistic approach
happens in a natural setting.
 TRIANGULATION APPROACH
Is it possible to plan your
research activities based on the first
two approaches? Combining these
two approaches in designing your
research leads you to the third one,
called triangulation approach.
In this case, you are free to
gather and analyze data using
multiple methods, allowing you to
combine or mix up research
approaches, research types, data
gathering, and data analysis
techniques. Triangulation approach
gives you the opportunity to view
every angle of the research from
different perspectives. (Badke 2012;
Silverman 2013)