CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methods and procedures that will be undertaken in the

conduct of the study. Specifically, it presents the following: research design, locale of the

study, population and sampling, research instrument, and data gathering procedure of the

study.

Research Design

This study followed a thematic approach in a qualitative research to determine the

categories of responses according to the identified learning styles and preferred learning

modalities of Third year nursing students at Northern Christian College. Thematic approach

is a method for identifying, analyzing, organizing, describing, and reporting themes found

within a data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006) gathered through the learning styles and preferred

learning modalities questionnaire.

Moreover, the data gathered were consolidated to present a comprehensive and

holistic discussion of the answers to the research questions.

Locale of the Study

Northern Christian College (NCC) is a school located in Laoag City, the capital of

Ilocos Norte. It is a private tertiary schools of the Schools Division of Laoag City. Northern

Christian College caters basic education, junior high school and senior high school and

college students.
Population and Sampling Procedures

Among the 80 third year nursing student, the sample was chosen through

convenience sampling to collect data from pool of respondents that were conveniently

available to answer the electronic questionnaire. Forty (40) students, in which twenty (20)

learners from each section served as respondents of the study.

Research Instrument

To gather the relevant data needed for the study, the researchers used the Learning

Style and Preferred Learning Modality Survey- Questionnaire. The questionnaire is

composed of six (6) open-ended questions which asks the perception of college students on

the different learning modalities, factors that affected their choose of modality, problems

they encountered and their coping strategies, and their learning styles and how it affected

their studies in their chosen learning modality.

Data Gathering Procedure

Before the conduct of the study, the researchers seek the approval of the research

adviser in administering the Learning Style and Preferred Learning Modality Survey-

Questionnaire. The electronic questionnaire was generated through Google Forms and the

link was sent to the forty (40) third year nursing students through their social media

accounts.

Afterwards, the responses of the learners are recorded and collated. Finally, the data

were analyzed and interpreted through thematic content analysis. This analysis method

comprised of four steps, namely: transcription, checking and editing, analysis and

interpretation, and verification. Researchers transcribed raw data into a computer and

tabulated it, producing a response matrix. The data was divided according to question.
 After studying the responses carefully, similar themes, patterns and trends

concerning the target objective of each question were identified and grouped together. The

themes represent a stage of interpretation whereby the researchers go beyond the primary

studies and generate new interpretive construct, explanations, conclusions and hypotheses.

Validity of the data was checked by going through the questionnaires again, and to read and

validate the findings as well. Central themes and core ideas for each question were then

obtained.

Ethical Consideration

Informed Consent. Participants must understand what the study will involve and

must agree to participation

Protect Participant from harm. Consider whether the research could harm,

questions must be clear and direct and follow up to ensure participant well- being

Anonymity and confidentiality. Full anonymity is the rule and research material

should be destroyed and transcript anonymous

Statistical Treatment of Data

The data collected in this study are subjected to statistical treatments. Frequency

count and rank are used to determine the most and least dominant factors that influenced the

third year nursing students in choosing the learning modality, the problems they mostly

encountered, and their coping mechanisms employed to address the difficulties, and their

dominant learning styles, in order to identify the learning style and preferred learning

modality.