Research Methods

Research Methods

Traditional Research

Action Research

The term research was first proposed in 1946 by the author Kurt Levin. This is a form of research that links the experimental approach of social science with social action programs that respond to major social problems.

Actions Research is a reflective process or problem solving approach; it involves active participation in an organization change whilst conducting research.

Types of Action Research (Ozanne et al, 2008)

Individual teacher research:

It involves single issue within the boundaries of classroom.

School-wide research:

It involves wide range of issues within the school.

Other types of research include:

Technical/Scientific Mode

Deliberate Mode

Emancipating/Critical Science Mode

Collaborative Action Research:

It includes more than one researcher addressing a particular issue.

District-wide research:

It relates to the issues in varying dimensions; organizational, community-based, or processes relating decision making.

Photo Voice and Action Research

Critical Science Mode

Qualitative Research Methods

Quantitative Research Methods

Qualitative research methods are tools for gathering information that does not take a numerical form that can be counted and otherwise manipulated mathematically.

Qualitative research involves collecting data in the form of naturalistic verbal reports, for instance, interview transcripts or written accounts, and the analysis conducted on these is textual. Thus the concern is with interpreting what a piece of text means rather than finding the numerical properties of it. The interpretation is then conveyed through detailed narrative reports of participants' perceptions, understandings or accounts of a phenomenon (Check et al, 2011). For most qualitative researchers, this approach is consonant with a theoretical commitment to the importance of language as a Fundamental property of human communication, interpretation and understanding. Qualitative researchers emphasize the value of analytic strategies that remain as close as possible to the symbolic system in which that sense-making occurs.

Quantitative research requires the reduction of phenomena to numerical values in order to carry out statistical analyses. Quantitative methods are most closely associated with surveys, experiments, and other forms of ...