Research Methodology

Collecting, Organizing, Documenting, and Using Sources

Objectif général: A la fin du cours les étudiants auront une idées claire
des objectifs, outils, étapes, et méthodes clés de la recherche.
Objectif Spécifique: A la fin du cours les étudiants seront bien préparés
avec les notions de base acquises à faire les premiers pas nécessaires
concernant un sujet de recherche relatif à leur parcours
Course outline
Introduction
Chapter 1: Definition of research
Chapter 2: Recording sources
Chapter 3: Using quotations
Chapter 4: Writing about research findings
Learning strategies
• Check the meaning of all words and expressions you don’t know
• Read the content of all the elements in Ressources de la leçon
• Do all the exercices of the course.
• Ask questions to your tutor if you don’t understand an aspect of the
course.
 INTRODUCTION
• The student who wants to complete his Master’s programme must
write and defend before an examination board a document of 80 to
120 pages called a Master’s thesis. Before this final stage, he must
follow a process of reading diverse documents, or a series of
interviews and surveys in order to collect different information,
opinions, positions, and data on the subject or question he wants to
deal with. This process of gathering, storing and identifing the key
characteristics of the sources he has consulted is called research.
Chapter 1: Definition of research
• “ Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized effort to gain
new knowledge.”
• Some people consider research as a movement from the known to
the unknown. It is actually a voyage of discovery. We all possess the
vital instinct of inquisitiveness for, when the unknown confronts us.
We wonder and our inquisitiveness makes us probe and attain full
understanding of the unknown. This inquisitiveness is the mother of
all knowledge and the method, which man employs for obtaining the
knowledge of whatever the unknown, can be termed as research”
• Source: http://www.modares.ac.ir/uploads/Agr.Oth.Lib.17.pdf
Chapter 1 : Definition of research
• « Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge.
Once can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for
pertinent information on a specific topic. In fact, research is an art of
scientific investigation.
Source: http://www.modares.ac.ir/uploads/Agr.Oth.Lib.17.pdf
Chapter 1 : Definition of research
• Research has many objectives:
-to detail or deepen another peace of research in order to complete it
-to explore a new field of knowledge in order to provide information about it
-to contest and refute an soution, an answer, an opinion ect a researcher has about
a question, a problem, situation
• In all branches of knowledge, it is possible to do research with the objective to
bring a contribution to what is already found and stated
• Pieces of research, all over the world, borrow from, influence and complete one
another, beyond their disciplinary, geographical and temporal boarders. This
phenomenon is what testifies the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinariry of
knowledge.
• Research methods are split broadly into quantitative and qualitative methods.
Chapter 1 : Definition of research
Qualitative research is a scientific method of observation to gather
non-numerical data. This type of research "refers to the meanings,
concepts definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and
description of things" and not to their "counts or
measures."[ Qualitative research approaches are employed across
many academic disciplines, focusing particularly on the human
elements of the social and natural sciences, etc.
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research
Chapter 1: Research methodologies
Qualitative research is the gathering and analysis of measurable data to generate statistical
models and numbers to explain the data.
• The most common sources of quantitative data include:
• Interviews: Interviews are a qualitative research tool. They provide data about a
person’s or group’s attitude and behavior. Interviews may be conducted in person
or on the phone or in the form of a questionnaire.
• Surveys, whether conducted online, by phone or in person. These rely on the same
questions being asked in the same way to a large number of people;
• Observations, which may either involve counting the number of times that a particular
phenomenon occurs, such as how often a particular word is used in interviews, or coding
observational data to translate it into numbers; and
• Secondary data, such as company accounts.