Course: Educational Research (837)

Level: MA/M.Ed

Assignment 1

Q.1 Define sense perception, tradition and authority as sources of knowledge

Sense perception is the use of our senses to acquire information about the world around us and
to become acquainted with objects, events, and their features. Traditionally, there are taken to
be five senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste.

Philosophical debate about perception is ancient. Much debate focuses on the contrast
between appearance and reality. We can misperceive objects and be misled about their nature,
as well as perceive them to be the way that they are: you could misperceive the shape of the
page before you, for example. Also, on occasion, it may seem to us as if we are perceiving,
when we do not perceive at all, but only suffer hallucinations.

Illusions and hallucinations present problems for a theory of knowledge: if our senses can
mislead us, how are we to know that things are as they appear, unless we already know that
our senses are presenting things as they are? But the concern in the study of perception is
primarily to explain how we can both perceive and misperceive how things are in the world
around us. Some philosophers have answered this by supposing that our perception of material
objects is mediated by an awareness of mind-dependent entities or qualities: typically called
sense-data, ideas or impressions. These intermediaries allegedly act as surrogates or
representatives for external objects: when they represent aright, we perceive; when they
mislead, we misperceive.

An alternative is to suppose that perceiving is analogous to belief or judgment: just as judgment

or belief can be true or false, so states of being appeared to may be correct or incorrect. This
approach seeks to avoid intermediary objects between the perceiver and the external objects
of perception, while still taking proper account of the possibility of illusion and hallucination.
Both responses contrast with that of philosophers who deny that illusions and hallucinations
have anything to tell us about the nature of perceiving proper, and hold to a form of naïve, or
direct, realism.

The account of perception one favours has a bearing on one’s views of other aspects of the
mind and world: the nature and existence of secondary qualities, such as colours and tastes;
the possibility of giving an account of the mind as part of a purely physical, natural world; how
one should answer scepticism concerning our knowledge of the external world.

Perception and Knowledge.

Suppose I see that the building in front of me is a barn. It would seem to follow that I know that

the building in front of me is a barn. A familiar thought is that this follows because ‘S sees that P ’ actually

entails ‘S knows that P’. More generally, given that seeing that P is not the only way of perceiving that P,

one might think that ‘S perceives that P ’ entails ‘S knows that P ’. If this is right then the sense in which

perception is knowledge-giving is that it is knowledge-entailing. Anyone who sees or perceives that P

thereby knows that P because, as Peacocke puts it, ‘perceiving that P is a form of knowing that P ’ (2005:

229).

If perceiving that P is a form of knowing that P then it is easy to see why we could not explain all

the features of the concept of perception without reference to the concept of knowledge. But now

consider a case in which, instead of seeing that the building in front of me is a barn, I simply see the

barn. From ‘S sees a barn’ or ‘S can see a barn ’, it does not follow that S knows that there is a barn there.

This kind of seeing or perceiving is not knowledge-entailing. So either it is false that perception always

has a knowledge-giving role or, as I want to argue, its having such a role need not consist in its being

knowledge-entailing.

How might it happen that a person S sees a barn in front of him but doesn ’t know that there is a

barn in front of him? Here are three cases:

S sees a barn but doesn’t know what a barn is – he lacks the concept barn. This needn’t prevent him

from seeing the barn but he can’t be said to know that there is a barn in front of him if he doesn ’t know

what a barn is.

S sees a barn, has the concept barn but for some reason doesn’t recognize what he sees as a barn.

Perhaps he mistakenly believes that he is in fake barn country and that what he is looking at is a fake

barn that looks like a barn from a distance. If he doesn ’t recognize what he sees as a barn then he

doesn’t know that it’s a barn even if it is a barn.

S sees what is in fact a barn, he has the concept barn, and believes that what he is looking at is a barn

but, unknown to S, he is actually in fake barn country. He can ’t tell the difference between a real and a

fake barn and so he doesn’t know that there is a barn in front of him. By the same token, he doesn ’t see

that there is a barn in front of him in these circumstances. Yet he still sees a barn. The correct answer to

the question ‘What can S see?’ is ‘A barn’.

These cases all put pressure on the idea that there is a necessary link between knowledge and

perception. They do not show that perception doesn ’t have a knowledge-giving role but they raise a

question about how this role is to be understood.

The distinction between seeing a barn and seeing that there is a barn nearby maps on to

Dretske’s distinction between non-epistemic or ‘simple ’ seeing and epistemic seeing. In epistemic seeing

one sees that something is the case. The main characteristics of this kind of seeing are that it is

propositional, factive, and has epistemic implications: it implies something about what the perceiver

knows and about his conceptual resources. If S sees that there is a barn nearby then there is a barn

nearby. If S sees that there is a barn nearby then he must have the concept barn. Finally, if S sees that

there is a barn nearby then he knows that there is a barn nearby. Simple seeing, in contrast, is non-

propositional, non-factive and lacks the epistemic implications of epistemic seeing. Simple seeing is ‘the

seeing of objects and things – not facts about these things’ (Dretske 2000: 98), and so is not constrained

by one’s conceptual resources. Even babies and animals that don ’t know what barns are can still see

barns.
 If simple seeing is not knowledge-entailing and so not a form of knowing in what sense can it still

have a knowledge-giving role? The best way of answering this question is to think about the role of this

kind of seeing in explaining how we know some of the things we know about the world around us. In

spelling out this idea it is helpful to keep in mind that if it is correct to describe a person S as knowing

that P then there must be an answer to the question ‘How does S know that P? ’. The claim is not that S

must know the answer to this question but that there must be an answer. Furthermore, a satisfying

answer will be one that explains how S knows that P. So the next question is this: what would it be to

explain S’s knowledge, say in the case in which what S is said to know is that there is a barn in the

vicinity?

Sources of Knowledge

Epistemic Awareness:

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy defined as “the study of human knowledge.”

Like epistemology TOK involves questioning our sources and the nature and accuracy of our

knowledge in the hope that we will develop a more informed understanding of what we know

and don't know. That is, enabling us to become more epistemically aware.

It is important because accurate knowledge of our two worlds - the real world and the

inner world - correctly informs us of the conditions we must cope with. To know facts is to

survive; not to know, or to assess one's environment wrongly, is to lose the fight for survival

We face two serious epistemological problems.

1. How can we determine which facts are true? As human beings living in the 21st

Century we are surrounded by a wealth of information but not all of it is trustworthy, so we

must find a way to double check fact-claims. We must learn somehow to screen out the fictions

but let in the facts. On what criteria can we decide what are facts and what are false claims?

2. How can we determine which facts are important? However, it is not enough to

simply determine which facts are true, we must also consider which facts are useful. A correct

catalogue of the size and shape of every blade of grass on my lawn may well be factually true

but it will not be as useful as knowing that my lawn is on fire and about to engulf my house.

Given the overwhelming number of facts available to us, what criteria can we use for deciding

what is more important, what less?

Almost everything that we know originates from four basic sources:

 · Senses (possibly the most important)

 · Authority (knowledge from other sources, hopefully experts)

 · Reason

 · Intuition

The Senses

Information from the senses is called empirical knowledge and empiricists believe that

the fundamental source of all knowledge is our senses. Our senses are exploratory organs; we

use them all to become acquainted with the world we live in. We learn that candy is sweet, and

so are sugar, jam, and maple syrup. Lemons are not, and onions are not. The sun is bright and

blinding. Glowing coals in the fireplace are beautiful if you don't touch them. Sounds soothe,
warn, or frighten us. Through millions of single sense-events we build a fabric of empirical

information which helps us interpret, survive in, and control the world about us.

We have a number of different kinds of senses:

 · The objective senses that tell us about the world: sight, sound, smell, touch

and taste

 · The visceral senses, in our mouths and gut that give us the sense of stomach

ache

 · The proprioceptive senses, in our muscles that tell us if our fist is clenched or

not

 · The balance senses, mostly in our ears that tell us if we are … um … balanced

However, our senses present us with a serious credibility problem. Before we start the

TOK course most of us are naïve realists people who simply accept what their senses are telling

them as the truth … but is there any way we can actually be sure about this? Can we really trust

what our senses seem to tell us?

Unfortunately the answer must be a reluctant no. Our senses do not give us a "true

picture" of the real world; they give us useful picture – a picture that is designed to help us

move around, survive in and take advantage of our world. To take a simple example: if you

think about it we know that the chairs we sit on are not actually not solid: they are made of

atoms which are actually more space than anything else. Yet our senses tell us that they are

solid. Why? Because in terms of day to day survival there is no point knowing about atoms: you

need to know that a chair will hold you up if you sit on it and that a rock will hurt if it falls on
you: a sensitive awareness of the arrangement of the sub-atomic particles of a boulder as it

plummets towards you will not do your survival chances any good.

Authority:

Other people are continual sources of information. Such information, however, is always

second-hand knowledge - or third-, fourth-, or nth-hand knowledge. It is all "hearsay." The

farther it is removed from our own personal experience, the more caution we must exercise

before accepting a fact-claim.

All of our historical knowledge is acquired in this way as is most of our knowledge of the

sciences. We can't experience the past or personally repeat every experiment, so we must trust

the specialists and accept, though not blindly, the discoveries they record for us. They key thing

with knowledge from authority is that it can be double-checked and the work of scientists and

historians is continually being ‘double checked’ as other workers in the same field (even

sometimes us in our classrooms) repeat their experiments or investigations. A healthy cynicism

of sources, the development of the skills required to check facts and an awareness of which

sources are more or less reliable is a good way to ensure that the knowledge we receive from

authority is as good as it can be.

Reason:

Reasoning might be defined as the process of using known facts to arrive at new facts.

In this way Reason can help us arrive at new facts or new knowledge BUT only as long as the

original facts we put into the process are correct and the process itself is reliable.
 Imagine you are travelling in Japan and you know that the exchange rate is 200 yen to a

dollar, you can easily work out that an 800 yen sushi meal will actually cost you $4. This is new

knowledge (you didn’t know it before) but … it only works if your original facts are right (i.e.

you’ve got the correct exchange rate and are correct about the cost of the meal) and if the

process is right (you can do multiplication / division properly)

Reasoning generally comes in two forms: deduction and induction. Deduction is the kind

of reasoning usually used in Maths and is the more certain of the two as it involves ‘drawing

out’ valid conclusions from previously known facts – e.g. All cats are animals, Jack is a cat, so

Jack is an animal. Induction, on the other hand, is usually used in Science and is less certain as it

involves jumping from some things you have observed to making universal statements about all

things – e.g. I drop this pencil and it falls, so it is likely all dropped pencils (and indeed things)

will fall. Notice that both forms are usually dependent on sensation to give us the initial facts or

ideas in the first place.

The problem with reasoning is that deduction (the most certain form of reasoning) can

never teach us anything new because all the information is there in the facts at the start, while

induction (the thing that can give us what seems like new knowledge) can’t ever give us

anything certain, only things that are likely to be the case.

Intuition:

Although the word intuition has connotations of the mystical or unscientific, when

carefully defined it can be considered a source of knowledge. Intuition refers to insights or bits

of knowledge which suddenly ‘pop’ into consciousness as our deeper subconscious chugs away
working on data that we have collected earlier. We have all probably had the experience where

the answer to a question we were previously thinking about but have currently forgotten has

suddenly popped into our minds for no reason. This is intuition and, as such, like reason, it too

is dependent on our senses to provide the raw material on which the subconscious works.

Sometimes intuition seems to be a ‘feeling’. We often say something like "I have the

feeling he's not telling the truth," without being sure of why. The psychologist Jung suggested

that actually this is actually a form of unconscious reasoning where your subconscious picks up

on the tell-tale signs of lying (sweating, nervous movements, etc) that are too subtle for your

conscious mind to notice and processes them resulting in the ‘feeling’ that this person is

untrustworthy.

The problem with intuition however, is that most of our intuitions are wrong and they

need careful double checking before they are trusted.

Other Sources:

 · Faith often accompanied by supernatural revelation;

 · Instinct;

 · Racial Memory / the Collective Unconscious – another idea of Jung’s, that we

have cultural memories that we can all inherit and share without actually

experiencing the thing that caused the memory in the first place;

 · Extrasensory Perception;

 · Anamnesis ("recollection") or the remembrance of things from a past life;

 · Spiritualism and the Occult, such as Ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.
Q2 Deinfe research. Explain the concept of research in education.

Definition: Research is defined as careful consideration of study regarding a particular concern

or problem using scientific methods. According to the American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie,
“research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict, and control the observed
phenomenon. It involves inductive and deductive methods.”

Inductive research methods analyze an observed event, while deductive methods verify the
observed event. Inductive approaches are associated with qualitative research, and deductive
methods are more commonly associated with quantitative analysis.

Research is conducted with a purpose to:

 Identify potential and new customers

 Understand existing customers
 Set pragmatic goals
 Develop productive market strategies
 Address business challenges
 Put together a business expansion plan
 Identify new business opportunities

Educational Research?

Educational research is a type of systematic investigation that applies empirical methods to

solving challenges in education. It adopts rigorous and well-defined scientific processes in order
to gather and analyze data for problem-solving and knowledge advancement.

J. W. Best defines educational research as that activity that is directed towards the
development of a science of behavior in educational situations. The ultimate aim of such a
science is to provide knowledge that will permit the educator to achieve his goals through the
most effective methods. The primary purpose of educational research is to expand the existing
body of knowledge by providing solutions to different problems in pedagogy while improving
teaching and learning practices. Educational researchers also seek answers to questions
bothering on learner-motivation, development, and classroom management.

Characteristics of Education Research

While educational research can take numerous forms and approaches, several characteristics
define its process and approach. Some of them are listed below:

It sets out to solve a specific problem.

Educational research adopts primary and secondary research methods in its data collection
process. This means that in educational research, the investigator relies on first-hand sources of
information and secondary data to arrive at a suitable conclusion.

Educational research relies on empirical evidence. This results from its largely scientific
approach.

Educational research is objective and accurate because it measures verifiable information.

In educational research, the researcher adopts specific methodologies, detailed procedures,

and analysis to arrive at the most objective responses

Educational research findings are useful in the development of principles and theories that
provide better insights into pressing issues.

This research approach combines structured, semi-structured, and unstructured questions to

gather verifiable data from respondents.

Many educational research findings are documented for peer review before their presentation.

Educational research is interdisciplinary in nature because it draws from different fields and
studies complex factual relations.

Types of Educational Research

Educational research can be broadly categorized into 3 which are descriptive research,
correlational research, and experimental research. Each of these has distinct and overlapping
features.

Descriptive Educational Research

In this type of educational research, the researcher merely seeks to collect data with regards to
the status quo or present situation of things. The core of descriptive research lies in defining the
state and characteristics of the research subject being understudied.

Because of its emphasis on the "what" of the situation, descriptive research can be termed an
observational research method. In descriptive educational research, the researcher makes use
of quantitative research methods including surveys and questionnaires to gather the required
data.

Typically, descriptive educational research is the first step in solving a specific problem. Here
are a few examples of descriptive research:

A reading program to help you understand student literacy levels.

 A study of students' classroom performance.

 Research to gather data on students' interests and preferences.

From these examples, you would notice that the researcher does not need to create a
simulation of the natural environment of the research subjects; rather, he or she observes them
as they engage in their routines. Also, the researcher is not concerned with creating a causal
relationship between the research variables.

Correlational Educational Research

This is a type of educational research that seeks insights into the statistical relationship
between two research variables. In correlational research, the researcher studies two variables
intending to establish a connection between them.

Correlational research can be positive, negative, or non-existent. Positive correlation occurs

when an increase in variable A leads to an increase in variable B, while negative correlation
occurs when an increase in variable A results in a decrease in variable B.

When a change in any of the variables does not trigger a succeeding change in the other, then
the correlation is non-existent. Also, in correlational educational research, the research does
not need to alter the natural environment of the variables; that is, there is no need for external
conditioning.

 Examples of educational correlational research include:

 Research to discover the relationship between students' behaviors and classroom
performance.
 A study into the relationship between students' social skills and their learning behaviors.
Q3 How does research contribute to national development? Support your answer by giving
arguments

Developmental universities are devoted to assisting their countries address developmental

challenges. Their mission focuses on two broad areas of development.

One role is the production of developmental research. This involves providing invaluable
contextualised knowledge, insights and locally relevant recommendations for policy
formulation and implementation; solving existential problems; creating technological products;
and producing new knowledge that can be adapted for economic, political and social
improvement. Developmental research projects could originate in the university or be a
response to a request from private organisations or government with appropriate funding
attached.

Developmental universities’ other role is to develop and turn out relevant and impactful
graduates with the skills, knowledge and disposition needed to meet the requirements of
wherever the university is located. Accordingly, the university is a powerful institution which
grooms the next generation of agricultural scientists, social scientists, policy-makers, business
leaders and entrepreneurs, public servants and other professionals.

Developmental universities carry out this role on an evidentiary basis by undertaking periodic
surveys and conducting focus group sessions with alumni, communities, governmental
organisations and industry about what expertise is needed to support a country’s economy and
society. Secondary data is also collected through government ministries, departments and
agencies.

Developmental

At the time of political independence from the European colonial powers, all existing African
universities were perceived as developmental universities. In that sense, they were expected to
turn out relevant and impactful graduates to address national developmental problems.

These national challenges included but were not limited to extreme poverty, rampant socio-
economic inequalities, low work productivity, unemployment, poor health services, the need
for bridge, dam and road infrastructure, food insecurity, tribalism, limited public services and
degrading sanitation.

Even now, post-independence, African universities, whether mandated or not, feel that their
core mission is the production of graduates who can contribute to national development.
Recently, for example, Makerere University, one of the oldest universities in Africa, declared
itself the engine of Uganda’s development. Does that suggest that Makerere University has
designed and successfully carried out numerous developmental research projects and has
produced an army of relevant and impactful graduates to contribute to the development of
Uganda

These questions are critical in that countless African universities are stuck in status symbol
mode. This is even more the case when African universities are yet to construct the criteria
necessary for assessing the impact of the graduates they supposedly produce for national
development.

Pedagogical challenges

Nonetheless, three major challenges can be identified with African universities’ mission to
produce relevant and impactful graduates who contribute to national development.

First, those African universities do not collect any empirical data about the characteristics and
type of graduates African societies and economies need for development. Thus, in most African
universities, assessment of the effectiveness of the graduates they are producing is based on
hunches and whims and sheer imitation of what is happening in the West.

Without data it is difficult to know how many graduates have been produced in any one area
over a period of time; how many are in the process of being produced; how many should be
produced in every academic year; what the requisite characteristics of those graduates are; and
what happens to the graduates upon leaving the institution.

Of course, it is an undeniable fact that African societies and economies need engineers,
managers, accountants, scientists, technologists, agriculturalists, computer programmers,
primary and secondary school teachers and medical experts.

However, for example, what type of engineers or teachers do they need in terms of knowledge,
skills and dispositions? For instance, what if the engineers or teachers that African universities
produce are only able to function effectively in urban settings rather than rural areas? What if
the teachers they churn out are unable to design locally relevant curricula, teaching pedagogies
and assessment strategies to prepare young people for citizenship issues, apprenticeships or
educational progression where they live?
A second issue is the lack of an empirical relationship between graduate production and the
solutions needed for Africa’s hydra-headed development challenges. Turning out graduates
does not automatically lead to solving African developmental challenges. Having a list of
university graduates in various fields of expertise does not indicate that an African country is
solving its developmental challenges.

In fact, the solutions to developmental challenges require both efficacious political and
managerial action. There is the need to establish national institutions or planning frameworks
that employ, coordinate and utilise, for example, engineers for national development. Without
these institutional or planning frameworks, there will be no impact on these developmental
challenges regardless of the number of engineers universities produce.

As far as African universities are concerned, an organisational structure must be created to

foster lifelong learning via career seminars, career counselling, service learning and internships.
This would help students to develop the skills and dispositions required for their chosen careers
and cultivate a continuous learning habit.

Indeed, in African countries it is clear that most university graduates refuse to read materials
such as newspapers. In fact, the belief that learning terminates rather than continues after
graduation is well entrenched among university graduates in Africa.

The last issue is, how can African universities produce graduates who are capable of
contributing to a country’s development? This must involve a special genre of pedagogies.
Unfortunately, mere lectures, a battery of examinations and the traditional ‘banking education’
model of teaching, learning and assessment in African universities are most unlikely to produce
relevant and impactful graduates.

‘Banking education’ is a term coined by Paulo Freire, a critical Brazilian educator and
philosopher, to refer to a system of education based on mere reproduction of knowledge, the
memorising of content and regurgitation of answers to academic assignments.

As he states in his famous book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “Education becomes an act of
depositing in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead
of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students
patiently receive, memorise and respect.”

Inevitably, the banking system of education leads to treating students as objects upon which
action is carried out rather than subjects of the teaching-learning process capable of
engagement, contribution, participation and transformation.
A pedagogical tool that would allow African universities to produce relevant and impactful
graduates for national development must provide students with ample opportunities for the
application of knowledge through service learning and internships; for problem-based learning
designed for the identification and solution of real problems; for instilling in students personal
responsibility for their own learning; and for cultivating reflective practice and lifelong learning.

Student learning outcomes

Finally, relevant and impactful graduate production by African universities requires an output-
focused approach to teaching, learning and assessment. This suggests that course content
should be converted into or eplaced by student learning outcomes.

Academic courses outline what the instructor or professor intends to cover in the course as well
as what students will learn. Course content and course description are used interchangeably as
they show the intentions of the lecturer or professor.

Student learning outcomes (SLOs), on the other hand, are statements of what students are
expected to know, understand and demonstrate upon completion of a course of study,
programme, assignment or activity. Consequently, SLOs are reference points for standards of
performance and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in an institution.

Q4 Explain the nature and concept of basic research

nature of research

Marketing research functions in two ways. It identifies key characteristics and attributes of a
product or service through individual interviews or group discussions (qualitative research) and
it analyzes these attributes by statistical analysis of answers given in a structured set of
questions such as a survey or questionnaire (quantitative research). The specific research
problem determines whether to employ one or both modes.

Sometimes, research may be aimed at expanding a field of knowledge or improving the

understanding of a natural phenomenon. This type of research is known as a basic, pure or
fundamental research, and it is a major means of generating new ideas, principles and theories.
In many cases, basic research fuels scientific innovations and development because it is driven
by the need to unravel the unknown. In this article, we will define what basic research is, its
data collection methods and how it differs from other approaches to research.

What is Basic Research

Basic research is a type of research approach that is aimed at gaining a better understanding of
a subject, phenomenon or basic law of nature. This type of research is primarily focused on the
advancement of knowledge rather than solving a specific problem.

Basic research is also referred to as pure research or fundamental research. The concept of
basic research emerged between the late 19th century and early 20th century in an attempt to
bridge the gaps existing in the societal utility of science.

Typically, basic research can be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory; although in many cases,
it is explanatory in nature. The primary aim of this research approach is to gather information in
order to improve one's understanding, and this information can then be useful in proffering
solutions to a problem.

Examples of Basic Research

Basic research can be carried out in different fields with the primary aim of expanding the
frontier of knowledge and developing the scope of these fields of study. Examples of basic
research can be seen in medicine, education, psychology, technology, to mention but a few.

Basic Research Example in Education

In education, basic research is used to develop pedagogical theories that explain teaching and
learning behaviours in the classroom. Examples of basic research in education include the
following:

 How does the Language Acquisition Device work on children?

 How does the human retentive memory work?
 How do teaching methods affect student's concentration in class?
 Basic Research Example in Science

Basic research advances scientific knowledge by helping researchers understand the function of
newly discovered molecules and cells, strange phenomena, or little-understood processes. As
with other fields, basic research is responsible for many scientific breakthroughs; even though
the knowledge gained may not seem to yield immediate benefits.

Examples of basic research in science include:

 A research to determine the chemical composition of organic molecules.

 A research to discover the components of the human DNA.

Basic Research Example in Psychology

In psychology, basic research helps individuals and organisations to gain insights and better
understanding into different conditions. It is entirely theoretical and allows psychologists to
understand certain behaviors better without providing solutions to these behaviours or
phenomena.

basic-research-psychology

Examples of basic research in psychology include:

 Do stress levels make individuals more aggressive?

 To what extent does caffeine consumption affect classroom concentration?
 A research on behavioral differences between children raised by separated families and
children raised by married parents.
 To what extent do gender stereotypes trigger depression?

Basic Research Example in Health

Basic research methods improve healthcare by providing different dimensions to the

understanding and interpretation of healthcare issues. For example, it allows healthcare
practitioners to gain more insight into the origin of diseases which can help to provide cures to
chronic medical conditions.
Many health researchers opine that many vaccines are developed based on an understanding
of the causes of the disease such as in the case of the polio vaccine. Several medical
breakthroughs have been attributed to the wealth of knowledge provided through basic
research.

Examples of basic research in health include:

 An investigation into the symptoms of Coronavirus.

 An investigation into the causative factors of malaria
 An investigation into the secondary symptoms of high blood pressure.
 Basic Research Method

Interview

An interview is a common method of data collection in basic research that involves having a
one-on-one interaction with an individual in order to gather relevant information about a
phenomenon. Interview can be structured, unstructured or semi-structured depending on the
research process and objectives.

In a structured interview, the researcher asks a set of premeditated questions while in an

unstructured interview, the researcher does not make use of a set of premeditated questions.
Rather he or she depends on spontaneity and follow-up questioning in order to gather relevant
information.

On the other hand, a semi-structured interview is a type of interview that allows the researcher
to deviate from premeditated questions in order to gather more information about the
research subject. You can conduct structured interviews online by creating and administering a
survey online on Formplus.

Observation

Observation is a type of data-gathering method that involves paying close attention to a

phenomenon for a specific period of time in order to gather relevant information about its
behaviors. When carrying out basic research, the researcher may need to study the research
subject for a stipulated period as it interacts with its natural environment.

Observation can be structured or unstructured depending on its procedures and approach. In

structured observation, the data collection is carried out using a predefined procedure and in
line with a specific schedule while unstructured observation is not restricted to a
predetermined procedure.

Experiment

An experiment is a type of quantitative data-gathering method that seeks to validate or refute a

hypothesis and it can also be used to test existing theories. In this method of data collection,
the researcher manipulates dependent and independent variables to achieve objective
research outcomes.

Typically, in an experiment, the independent variable is modified or changed in order to

determine its effects on the dependent variables in the research context. This can be done
using 3 major methods which are controlled experiments, field experiments, and natural
experiments

Q.5 Explain in our own words the key characteristics of experimental research.

Experimental research

Definition:

Experimental research is research conducted with a scientific approach using two sets of
variables. The first set acts as a constant, which you use to measure the differences of the
second set. Quantitative research methods, for example, are experimental.

If you don’t have enough data to support your decisions, you must first determine the facts.
Experimental research gathers the data necessary to help you make better decisions.

Any research conducted under scientifically acceptable conditions uses experimental methods.
The success of experimental studies hinges on researchers confirming the change of a variable
is based solely on the manipulation of the constant variable. The research should establish a
notable cause and effect.

 You can conduct experimental research in the following situations:

 Time is a vital factor in establishing a relationship between cause and effect.
 Invariable behavior between cause and effect.
 You wish to understand the importance of the cause and effect.
 Learn about: Quantitative Market Research
 Types of experimental research design

The classic experimental design definition is, “The methods used to collect data in experimental
studies.”

There are three primary types of experimental design:

 Pre-experimental research design

 True experimental research design
 Quasi-experimental research design

The way you classify research subjects, based on conditions or groups, determines the type of
research design you should use.

1. Pre-experimental research design: A group, or various groups, are kept under observation
after implementing factors of cause and effect. You’ll conduct this research to understand
whether further investigation is necessary for these particular groups.

You can break down pre-experimental research further in three types:

 One-shot Case Study Research Design

 One-group Pretest-posttest Research Design
 Static-group Comparison
 2. True experimental research design: True experimental research relies on statistical
analysis to prove or disprove a hypothesis, making it the most accurate form of
research. Of the types of experimental design, only true design can establish a cause-
effect relationship within a group. In a true experiment, three factors need to be
satisfied:
 There is a Control Group, which won’t be subject to changes, and an Experimental
Group, which will experience the changed variables.
 A variable which can be manipulated by the researcher
  Random distribution

This experimental research method commonly occurs in the physical sciences

3. Quasi-experimental research design: The word “Quasi” indicates similarity. A quasi-

experimental design is similar to experimental, but it is not the same. The difference between
the two is the assignment of a control group. In this research, an independent variable is
manipulated, but the participants of a group are not randomly assigned. Quasi-research is used
in field settings where random assignment is either irrelevant or not required.

 Advantages of experimental research

 It’s vital to test new ideas or theories. Why put time, effort, and funding into something
that may not work
 Experimental research allows you to test your idea in a controlled environment before
taking it to market. It also provides the best method to test your theory, thanks to the
following advantages:
 Advantages of experimental research
 Researchers have a stronger hold over variables to obtain desired results.
 The subject or industry does not impact the effectiveness of experimental research. Any
industry can implement it for research purposes.
 The results are specific.
 After analyzing the results, you can apply your findings to similar ideas or situations.
 You can identify the cause and effect of a hypothesis. Researchers can further analyze
this relationship to determine more in-depth ideas.

Experimental research makes an ideal starting point. The data you collect is a foundation on
which to build more ideas and conduct more research.