Lesson 1:

Nature and Inquiry of

Research
At the end of the lesson, I can:

1. Describe the characteristics, strengths,

weaknesses, and kinds of quantitative
research.

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What is Research?

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 Research Defined

• Research comes from the middle

French word recherché, which
means “ the act of searching
closely.”

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 Research Defined

• Research is a combination of the

word re-, which means “again,”
and the word search, which
means “to look for.”

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 Research Defined
• Research is the process of looking for
information once again. Its main objective is
to answer questions and acquire new
information, whether to solve problem or to
shed light on confusing facts.

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PONDER:

Research is a process of gathering data to prove a

claim, test existing hypotheses, and finds answers
and solutions on processing problems at hand. It
generates knowledge that aims to describe,
explain, and predict events.

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Qualitative Research
It relies primarily on the collection of qualitative
data.
Emphasizes understanding of social
phenomena through direct observation,
communication with participants, or analysis of texts,
and may stress contextual subjective accuracy over
generality.

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Quantitative Research
Measures the magnitudes, size, or extent of the
phenomenon
It is explaining phenomena by collecting
numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically
based methods. (Aliaga and Gunderson, 2000)

A peculiar incident that can

happen anywhere.
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 Characteristics of • It reduces and
Quantitative Research restructures a
complex problem to
• It is reliable and a limited number of
objective. variables.
• It uses statistics to
generalize a finding.
• It looks connection
between variables.
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 Characteristics of
Quantitative Research
• It tests hypotheses and • It uses structured
theories. research instruments.
• Large sample size.

• It deals with the

details of the subject.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
1. It is objective. The most reliable and valid
way of concluding results, giving way to a
new hypothesis or to disproving it.

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2. The use of statistical techniques
facilitates sophisticated analyses and
allows you to comprehend a huge
amount of vital characteristics of data.

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3. It is real and unbiased.

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4. Thenumerical data can be
analyzed in a quick and easy
way.

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5. Quantitative studies are
replicable.

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6. Quantitative experiments are useful
for testing the results gained by a
series of qualitative experiments,
leading to a final answer, and
narrowing down of possible directions
to follow.

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1. Quantitative research requires a
large number of respondents.

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2. It is costly.

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3. The information is contextual
factors to help interpret the
results or to explain variations are
usually ignored.

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4. Much information are difficult to
gather using structured research
instruments.

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5. Rresearchers must be on the
look-out on respondents who are
just guessing in answering the
instrument.

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