Research proposal, Sample and Questionnaires (Notes)
Rationale, purpose or why research proposal?
a) Helps the researcher to think of important issues about the study eg. How to collect data and where necessary info is available.
b) Helps the researcher to evaluate the study by looking at the difficulties which are likely to be involved.
c) Provides a guide or plan of general strategies to be undertaken directs a researcher where to go
After chapter III there is
- References includes list of books used
- Appendices or appendix includes sample of research instruments that you will use for example Questionnaire and interview
In preliminary information:-
TITLE of the study should indicate major independent and dependent variables.
May include the population on which the study will be undertaken
- Title should be brief preferably less than 19 words
Example of a title
i.“The influence of personality on academic performance among the second year diploma students at Mpuguso teachers college”
a) Personality-independent variable
b) Academic performance-dependent variable
Title
Includes population for example second year diploma students
ii. Gender and academic performance in LG courses at UDOM
- Gender includes independent variable
- Performance in LG courses-dependent variable
Chapter I: Introduction (Before all prepare an abstract)
Organization of chapter I
Contains a number of items/element including;
i. Background to the problem-info acquired for understanding the problem. Provide the context of the study by answering the question `why should the study choose this problem?
- Should start from broad to specific
In background, the research should try to convince the experts have an argument to the problem.
- Expected to review other works to reveal what is known eg. What is the subject?
- What are the weaknesses of the current?
Questions included;
a) What current and previous studies have done?
b) What is the available info on the magnitude nature and causes of the problem?
c) What are present gaps in knowledge?
d) What makes that problem important for studying?
e) Why not been talked yet?
f) What do you intend to do to fill the gaps or solve the problems
g) What do you intend to do to bring new in the problem?
ii. Statement of the problem is an attempt which focus on the study by providing direction on the problem can be declarative statement or question, usually need a lot of words (relatively 19-20 words) and state why is the proposed study?
iii. Purpose of the study is a single statement or paragraph which explains what the study intends to accomplish.
Purpose of the study should specify variables that a research intends to focus on
Fore example
The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of study hours on the memory of the students.
The purpose of the study is to discover the relationship between the timing of the lesson and the students attendance to the lecture or lesson.
iv. Objectives of the study are specific statements which come from the purpose.
- They are indicators of what a researcher is going to do.
Examples of objectives:
- To show how the students attendance to lectures differ according to the lecture hours
- To examine the relationship between sex and attendance of lecture in different hours
v. Hypotheses likely outcome or expectation. Are simply stated and can either be null or alternative = (Ho or Ha) respectively.
-Null hypothesis is denying the phenomenon
E.g. “There is no relationship between lecture hour and the attendance of students in lectures”
- Alternative hypothesis is a positive statement
Eg. “There is relationship between study hours and memory of students”
- Question can also be used to help a researcher
E.g. Is there a significant difference between attendance of male students and those of female students in different lectures.
vi. Significance of the study answers number of questions including;
- Why is the study important?
- To whom is it important?
- What benefit will be brought when the study is conducted? (justify materials, time, money)
vii. Limitations of the study could be money, time, methodological weaknesses.
- Which practical and theoretical drawbacks are?
E.g. Is the topic chosen could be achieved to the time scheduled?
Chapter II: Literature review
Literature Review starts from the beginning and through out the research.
- Research starts in the library and ends in the library.
Literature Review is;
- Locating literature in a variety of sources, reading it carefully and thoroughly, evaluating the content, breaking down the content into things and organizing it along the scenes of the study.
- The systematic identification & analysis of documents containing info related to the study.
Features of Literature Review
- Should point how the problem of the study I related to previous research findings.
- Should demonstrate how the approach of the study is likely to differ from others.
- Should justify the need for the study especially if similar study has been done before on a particular area
- Look on the aim and method of the study to justify the need to research for a similar study before done before.
- Should find out methodological errors and any oppositions among various findings should show discrepancy of the different findings of the similar study.
- Should start with broad ideas and narrow them down to specific ideas i.e. World issues to nation or institution level
- Should not be list mere of research- not to list but give an argument of your study should be complete
- Should be critical, should see if the result is objective or subjective, were it contain facts etc. See what is lacking, what is not appropriate?, was a researcher influenced by his political, regional, religion atmosphere?
- Should only concern itself with the variables of the study primarily to concern with the areas a researcher intends to deal with.
Sources or documents of Literature review;
> Government documents e.g. Education and Training policy 1995
> Dissertation and thesis
> Books, journals, magazines, articles, newspaper,
> Dictionaries, encyclopedia, Government BEST (Basic Education State) and Conference papers.
Best or authentic source of Literature Review
- Is the author or institution known and respected to the field?
- Is the reference made to other work in this field?
- Is there a bias to this piece of info that affect the way that it has presented?
- Does the info seem objective?
- Is there any motive behind or underlying agenda?
- How current is the information?
Why literature Review or purpose of Literature review
- To gain knowledge in subject area
- To find out where literature is fit finding gap in knowledge
- Gaining feedback info in order to rethink and focus a research problem.
- To discover how others have researched the chosen topic area methods used, hypothesis made
- To justify why and how you have done the research in the way you have done.
Purpose of Literature review
- To have a body of information to compare your research findings.
- To compare your results with the findings of other researches.
Reflection
Think of your title and then write two pages of Literature review (how can it look like?)
Chapter III: Research methodology (How to plan for)
i. Research design
ii. Study population
iii. Sampling strategy and sample size
iv. Area of study and its characteristics
v. Data collection techniques
vi. Validity and Reliability
vii. Ethical issues
viii. Data analysis plan
i. Research Design
Is your plan that will show the specific sources and type of information relevant to your research problem.
Is your plan that shows the approach to be used for data collection and analysis
Sometime your design gives a clue of time frame and cost of the study.
There are so many Research Designs but consider these you can practice
Experimental research design
Descriptive research design
Explanatory research design
Exploration research design
Cross sectional design
Longitudinal design
Things to consider when selecting research design
What is the study about?
Why is the study being conducted?
Where will the research be carried out?
What type of data is required?
Where can the required data be obtained?
What period of time will the study include?5yrs?
What will be the sample design?
What data collection techniques will be used?
How will the data collected be analyzed?
What style will the research report be prepared and presented?
Good research design meet these criteria:
The design is flexible considers many aspects
Appropriate for the study
Efficient yield what is required
Economical takes less time and money
Minimizes bias and maximizes reliability of data collection
NB. Not one design fits all kinds of studies
ii. Study population
Population is the group that you will generalize your results of the research (theoretical population)
Sometimes population can be something other than group of people, such as temperature, automobiles produced by a given company etc. But sometimes you might find difficulty in getting the list of your population E.g. Street children in Tanzania. It's hard to get their names in each urban center.
Hence the alternative is accessible population from this example the accessible population might be street children in Dodoma municipality aged 5-18 years
Sampling Frame is the list of the accessible population from which you will draw your sample. From the example of street children of Dodoma municipal, those you managed to reach and register is your Sample frame. However, it is not easy to study all respondents in the sample frame. You need a sample
iii. Sample
Sample is a subset of the population
Sample is the small group of people you select to be in your study
The reason you sample is to get an estimate for the population from which you sampled
Sampling techniques
i) Simple random sampling
Simple random sample each person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen for the sample study. Criteria:
a) No one is listed more than once, nobody is excluded
b) Sampling without replacement i.e. 1/100;1/50 (selection is equal at any given stage of sampling
c) Use table of random numbers, flip of coin, lottery or spin of roulette wheel.
1 26 51 76 Determine the number of units
2 27 52 77 N=100
3 28 53 78 Determine the sample size (N)
4 29 54 79 Want n=20
5 30 55 80 The interval size is K=N/n
6 31 56 81 100/20=5 K=5
7 32 57 82 Select a random integer from 1 to K
8 33 58 83 chose 4
9 34 59 84
10 35 60 85 Select every k the unit
11 36 61 86
12 37 62 87
13 38 63 88
14 39 64 89
15 40 65 90
16 41 66 91
17 42 67 92
18 43 68 93
19 44 69 94
20 45 70 95
21 46 71 96
22 47 72 97
23 48 73 98
24 49 74 99
25 50 75 100
ii) Stratified random sampling
You subdivide the population into smaller homogeneous groups in order to get a more accurate representation of the population
The 4 groups (20, 30, 25, 15) are strata. Once the 4 groups have been formed, a simple random sample is taken within each group. Each strata represent the population
iii. Cluster or Area Sampling
Cluster sampling is done when: The study population is infinite list of members is not available
a) Geographical distribution is widely scattered e.g. survey of all nomads in Tanzania. So
1st - Randomly sample 20 districts with nomads
2nd - List all areas nomads were found, randomly pick 5
3rd - Random sample of 500 nomads could be drawn
Non probability sample
Convenience sampling is like a study for secondary school students in Dodoma municipal, you just pick Ng'ong'ona secondary school, its closer and easy to access
b) Quota sampling like stratified sampling where you form strata easy to access
c) Purposive sampling its between convenience and quota-where the nearest and available people are studied
d) Snowball sampling
1st - A person with best criteria is identified and interviewed
2nd - The 1st person identify other who qualify to be included
3rd – The 2nd person calls in the 3rd person and it continue until you have enough sample size.
Sample size
What is the minimum adequate sample size?
It depends on both the nature of the population and the purpose of the study
An ideal study would have a sample large enough to represent the population so generalization may occur, yet small enough to save time, money and complexity of data analysis.
Consideration of Sample
The larger the sample, the larger the likelihood of representation of the population.
The greater the heterogeneity, the larger the necessity for a larger sample
If there is no heterogeneity (homogeneity) even a sample of ONE would suffice.
Sample size
How to calculate sample size
Where by, n=sample size, ?=µ1-µ2 for the mean difference of representative groups; ?1 and ?2 are respective group variances, respectively. 1.96 is the Z-score at 95% confidence interval.
Sampling Error
Sampling error is the degree in which the sample means of repeatedly drawn from random samples differ from one another; and from the population mean.
E.g. A researcher select 50 sec school students from
Sampling error
the population of all students in Dodoma municipal. The average marks of each student will not be the same, although most of them will cluster around population average.
Some will be relatively high or low by comparison.
This variation in sample means is a result of sampling error, its not a mistake in the sampling process but rather an inevitable variation when a number of randomly selected sample means (marks) are compared.
iv. Area of study and its characteristics
Find a map that shows where your study will be conducted
Explain the main characteristics of the respondents e.g. The economy, social economical activities and cultural values that differ significantly with other people
Why the area and specific group was chosen
What is so unique?
v. Data collection techniques
Quantitative study Qualitative study
1. Questionnaires 1. Observation
2. Rating scale 2. Participants
3.Test scores observation 3. Document study
4. Computers
5. Indexes
6. Inventories
Questionnaire
Types of questionnaires
A. Open ended questions, these tap persons feelings with greater fidelity or correctness. E.g., What is your favorite meal?
However, it's expensive in terms of developing methods of analysis of the free items generated.
B. Close ended questions, you force the respondents to choose among limited set of response options e.g. What is your favorite meal among pasta, rice or banana stew?
Ordering questionnaires
Question ordering is important to establish rapport to help ensure the quality of the interaction, truthfulness and completeness of the answers that respondent provide.
Unfortunately, the questions are posed by a more or less anonymous researcher, with little attempt to build relationship with researcher or are on sheet of paper with short introduction of purpose.
The least threatening items be presented first.
eg. Name of your school, how old are you? Which class? Which tribe? How many brothers or sisters?
The respondent become comfortable with the research& some what committed by virtue of answering a number of questions
Then ask more personal or threatening questions
Ordering questions
E.g. A study on adolescent drug use, it is common that non threatening queries be presented before items assessing use of illegal substances are posed.
E.g. Likewise a study assessing adolescent sexual behavior
Drop out and no opinion Response
Loosing a respondent is something we want to avoid
Whether the respondent's loss is due to refusal to initiate the questionnaire or to complete it once it began, the loss is a threat to the generalizability of any research study.
Some drop outs are caused by the researcher.
E.g. When you allow respondent to hold a“ no opinion”
Question: Have you ever contracted STDs?
While others allow for a neutral position
Question: Condoms are expensive
Yet other researchers do not allow “middle of the road ”by forcing the respondents to take a stand
Answers to their question will require YES or NO or Agree or disagree
Studies have shown that there pros and cons for such no opinion response .
Most respondent will prefer no opinion (don't know) option and such altitude encourage respondents to maintain interest in the question.
As such neutral responses are difficult to infer
Advantages of having a middle option outweigh the negative possibilities. However have a clear understanding of what neutral or no-response felling about an item means.
Rating scale
Construction of rating scale:
These are formalized versions of questionnaires designed to measure specific attitude, value or personality disposition.
E.g. Renesis Likert scale (1932), Louis Thurstone`s scale(1927)
Renesis Likert scale(1932)
Likert scale
Items are presented in multiple choice format
Respondents will pick one out of 5 choices, for a +ve wording like: The TTU has been a +ve force to change teachers` life +1 strongly agree to +5 strongly disagree for a -ve wording like: The TTU has had a –ve effects on teachers` life
+5 strongly agree to +1 strongly disagree
Likert scale proves more efficient in terms of time, resources expenditure, and effective in developing scale of high reliability, internal consistency and temporal stability.
Purpose of Observation
- To provide description of behavior
- To record situational behavior
- To study a topic that leads to this method
a) By providing description of behavior patterns under real and accurate circumstances
b) Behavior can be recorded as it actually occur
- This is the only method for studying infants, toddlers, people with terminal cancer who can't be interviewed or given questionnaires to complete.
Louis Thurstone`s scale
Thurstone scale.
1st - Step generate many potential items
2nd - Step judges are asked to rate their favorability of the items of interest (the government)
3rd - Judges independently estimate the degree of favorability and find the mean for each item
4th - The researcher determine the means and SD
5th - The 15-25 items with higher rate are included in the study. Higher values represent more –ve attitude
Louis Thurstone`s scale
Attitudes towards government
Observation method
Observation methods is a scientific method if carried under proper circumstances.
Criteria:
1. Must serve the research purpose
2. Be planned systematically
3. Be recorded systematically
4. Be subject to checks and controls on validity and reliability
Values of observation
The study is conducted in naturalistic environment i.e. manipulation or controls
Its discovery approach carried out in the field where the researcher understand better the context within which the behavior occur
It enables the respondents to understand the aims of the study through interaction with researcher
The first hand experience enable the researcher to use
inductive approach
The researcher can observe behaviors that are routine to those in the study interest
The researcher can learn behavior that can not be revealed in an interview or questionnaire
The researcher is able to present a comprehensive view of the behavior because she or he can move beyond the perceptions of the respondents
The researcher use his or her knowledge, experience
In terms of feelings, reflections, introspection
Methods of Observation
Two methods:
a) Unstructured method of observation-the researcher is involved as participant observer, filming, videotaping an occurrence
b) Structured method, the researcher select activities to be observed before they occur and plan a systematic recording of the observations (duration, continuous, frequency count and interval)
NB; Prepare observation form to record each time
Observation form for staff meeting
Each time a Head teacher asks a question, place a check next to one of the following categories that best describes the question
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