METRO MANILA COLLEGE

U-Site Brgy. Kaligayahan, Novaliches, Quezon City

BASIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Senior High School (Grade 11)
S.Y. 2020 - 2021

PREPARED BY:
Zoila D. Espiritu, L.P.T.,
Practical Research 1 – Qualitative Research M.A.Ed.
Stephanie P. Montero
 MODULE 3
Identifying the Inquiry
and Stating the

Problem
At the end of the module the students shall be able to:

 identify topics for inquiry;

 discuss the value of research;
 explain the specificity and feasibility of problem posed;
 formulate the statement of the problem;
 identify the parts of chapter 1 of the research paper;

This module focuses on how to make research inquiry and state research
problems. The students are taught the basic concepts in crafting and articulating
researchable topics and problems, writing research titles, articulating research and
identify scope and delimitation’s.

Designing a Research Study

A research design is the framework that has been created to seek answers to
research questions. It is a research plan that includes methods of data collection and
analysis. Traditionally it has been used by academic disciplines, like sociology,
psychology and anthropology. Today it is being increasingly used in applied professions
such as nursing, education and public health.

Writing the Title for Qualitative Research

To write your title, you must enter with a topic. You may begin by writing by three
topics of your choice. You might resent this, but early you will realize that there is
wisdom to this practice. There is actually no such a thing as a single best idea. It is
accessible to jot down three ideas or even five, instead of selecting one single topic.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 Where are we going to source all these three to five topics? It was mentioned in
the previous sections that ours is an imperfect world, that there is so much to improved.
Therefore, we can get sources of all these topics from where we are.

a. Problem Situations – In school, you would her classmates complain about

teachers, teaching strategies, and how they deal with their students, complaints
about their failing grades, their love life, their limited allowances, school facilities
and equipment, their families, social networking practices, computer gaming, and
many more.

For sure, if given the opportunity, you would help in any way you can to ease
people out of these problems. You can already start by doing a research on any of
these experienced problems, the recommendations you offer at the end of this
research may eventually effect solutions which can be more helpful than we ever
imagined.

b. Consider your passions or interest – what are you passionate about or

interested about? You are going to spend a lot of time doing a qualitative study.
Choosing a topic you care about will keep you interested and could result in you
making a difference where it matters to you.

c. Consider the settings available to you- in what places do you have convenient
and regular access? what places will you be able to get permission from
participants? You topic is only as good as the setting. The title should describe
what you are studying and to what effect.

d. Consider your subjects - in order to study people, you have to gain their
permission after thoroughly advising them of such things as who you are, how you
will keep their responses confidential, and what happens if they want to quit.

Let us take this sample title:

The Lived Experiences of Students with Absentee Parents

From this title, the reader can find out lot about the research before reading the actual
research report.

1. What are we looking at? Lived experiences of students with absentee parents
2. Who are the subjects? Students with absentee parents
3. It is going to be a qualitative study, and we know which will be used,
phenomenology
4. We will just be using a small sample.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 5. Data collection will involve obtaining information from the participants in some way.
–
Interviews, observation, open-ended questionnaires, etc.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

Writing the Justification for Conducting the Research
This activity challenges you to write a justification to the research topic
emphasizing the trends, issues, objectives, and contributions of the study and practice.

The Introduction
The justification for conducting the research should be integrated in the
introduction or background of the study.

Contrary to the usual practice when writing any literary piece, the introduction
may be written after everything has been done, or to be written last. This will
give you chance to have fully grasped the whole study and thus, this is the time where
have seen the trends and issues related to the study after doing a review of related
literature and studies, thus you have now internalized you objectives and are now fully
aware of the possible contributions of the study to theory and to practice.

Trends, issues, objectives, and contributions to theory and practice should be the
main content of your introduction. The first two would be made clearer through related
literature and studies and the last two from your own perspective.

Trends presented by studies and statistics related to the topic from the
international, national, and to the local setting.

Issues presented with the related literature on actual situations involving statistics
and legal provisions may be taken from the international to the local settings.

The Research Questions

The research question is the main question which the researcher wants to
acknowledge by doing the research study. The research problem should be sufficiently
focused and defined to produce clear research questions. Qualitative inquiry entitled one
to answer questions about the nature of social phenomena under study rather than the
prevalence of the phenomena.

The research question is one of the most significant pieces of the research design.
Fundamentally, a research question defines what the researcher wants to learn or
understands. Research questions serve several purposes, namely:

1. They support to focus the study because one simply cannot study everything at
once.
2. They offer some guidance on how to conduct the study since different questions
needed different methods of inquiry.
3. They communicate to others the goal of the research.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 There are two parts of research problem, the general statement and the
specific research questions or sub-questions.

The purpose of this type (type of study-can either be phenomenological, grounded

theory, ethnographic, case, etc.) study is to discover, understand, describe and develop.
What indicate the central phenomenon of the study of who or what indicate the
participants involving. What or who a general definition of the central concept from when
to purpose.

Example: The purpose of this ethnographic study is to describe the training of

Aeta teachers from Castillejos, Zambales for the past ten years to provide
insights into the formulation of a teacher education model for indigenous
people.

To put it simply:

Type of study: Ethnographic study

What: The training
Who: Aeta
teachers When:
Past ten years
Purpose: Provide insights into the formulation of a teacher education model for
indigenous peoples.

What makes a good research question?

Not all research questions are good ones—in other words, not all questions can be
answered through qualitative and quantitative research methodology. A good research
question needs to:

1. “Make sense”: In other words, you should have to clearly define your terms
using known definitions outlined in the literature. For example, a poor research
question might be: How do people’s lives improve after surgery? Not only does this
research question break to specify the study population, it contains the vague term
“improve”. Researcher must specify what their means by this term—does it involve
a physical improvement or rather an improvement in mental state? The more
accurate your research question, the better.
2. Address an important and relevant issue : Scientific research is ready to
increase knowledge, not simply for a single researcher’s personal satisfaction.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 Whatever question the researcher sets out to solve must have some beneficial
implications. With this in mind, the researcher may continue narrowing the study
focus to an area that can be addressed as a single

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 question. A good research question will also always have relevance to the time,
place, and population of the study.
3. Not already have been done: A research study will be novel. Means that
there will be some contemporary aspect of the study that has not been done.
However, this does not mean that you should avoid replicating past research. In
fact, not only is replication a good way to get a research methodology, it is how
science is supposed to advance knowledge. When replicating a pervious study, it is
best to add or revise one or two things to increase the novelty of the research.
4. Be “operationalizable”: Oftentimes, beginning researchers pose questions that
cannot be operationalized, or assessed methodologically with research
instruments.
5. Be within a reasonable scope: A research project will be attainable in depth
and breadth. The scope will depend on the amount of time and the availability of
resources you have for your study.

Considerations in formulating a Research Problem (External)

 Novelty – practical value of the problem due to its “newness”

 Availability of subjects –people with desired capability and willingness to participate
in the study
 Administrative support – sponsorship
 Availability and adequacy of facilities and equipment
 Ethical considerations

Considerations in formulating a Research Problem (Internal)

 Experience, training, and professional qualifications

 Motivation, interest, intellectual curiosity and perceptiveness of the researcher
 Time factor
 Cost
 Hazards
 Feasibility

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

PARTS OF CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The background of your study will produce context to the information discussed
throughout the research paper. In addition, the background of the study will discuss your
problem statement, rationale, and research questions. It links introduction to your research
topic and ensures a logical flow of ideas.

Suggested Guidelines

First paragraph – to provide readers a mental readiness, thus giving the information as
to what the problem of the research is all about

Second paragraph – carries the greater part of the introduction and the problem that is
used as a frame of reference

Third paragraph – revolves around the various conditions that accompany and
determine the purpose of the study

Fourth paragraph – a sort of closing portion that arouses the curiosity and interest of
the readers to know the outcome of the study

Review of Related Studies and Literature

A review of related literature (RRL) is giving importance to the relatedness of the

used and cited literature. This is the appropriateness and suitability of various literature
used in research. ’’ A research literature review is a systematic, explicit, and
reproducible method for identifying, evaluating and synthesizing and existing body of
completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners”
(Fink 2014:3).

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

Statement of the Problem

How to write a good qualitative purpose statement: a statement that

provides the major objective of the study fulfill the following criteria:
 Single sentence
 Include the purpose of the study
 Include the central phenomenon
 Use qualitative words e.g. explore, understand, discover
 Note the participants (if any)
A good place to start: The purpose of this (narrative, phenomenological,
grounded theory, ethnographic, case, etc.) study is (was? will be?) will be to _
(understand, describe, develop, discover)
the (central phenomenon of the study) for
(the participants) at (the site).

Use good qualitative wording for these questions.

• Begin with words such as “how” or “what”
• Tell the reader what you are attempting to “discover,” “generate,” “explore,”
“identify,” or “describe”
• Ask “what happened?” to help craft your description
• Ask “what was the meaning to people of what happened?” to understand your
results
• Ask “what happened over time?” to explore the process

Avoid words such as: relate, influence, impact, effect, cause

Assumptions

Assumptions are self-evident truths. In a qualitative study, it may be assumed that

participants be highly qualified in the study. It can be assumed that participants will
answer truthfully and accurately to the interview questions based on their personal
experience, and that participants will respond honestly and to the best of their individual
abilities.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

Limitations and Scope (Delimitations)

Limitations of a study are those things over which the research has no control.
Evident limitations are potential weaknesses of a study. Researcher biases and
perceptual misrepresentations are potential limitations in a qualitative study.

Scope is the extent of the study and contains measurements. In a qualitative study
this would include the number of participants, the geographical location, and other
pertinent numerical data.

Delimitations are limitations on the research design imposed deliberately by the

researcher. Delimitations in a social sciences study would be such things as the
specific school district where a study took place, or in a scientific study, the number
of repetitions.

Significance of the Study

The significance of statement is important to find out the answer to the gap in the
knowledge, and is related to improving the human condition. The contribution to the
body of knowledge is narrate, and summarizes who will be fit to use the knowledge to
make better decisions, improve policy, advance science, or other uses of the new
information. The “new” data is the information used to fill the gap in the knowledge.

Definition of Terms

The definition of terms is corresponding for knowledgeable peers, not people from
other disciplines. As such, it is not the place to fill pages with definitions that
knowledgeable peers would know at a glance. And define terms that may have more
than one meaning among knowledgeable peers.

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative

 Answer the following questions.

1. Discuss the characteristics of good research questions.

2. What should be considered in choosing a topic for research? Why?
3. What are the parts of chapter 1? Explain each briefly.

Choose at least three qualitative topics. Formulate the titles sand the statements of the problem.
Explain why you have chosen the topics.

References:

Amorando R.V & Talili I.N (2017) Qualitative Research A Practical Approach. Mutya Store Publications

Baraceros E, L (2016) Practical Research 1 Rex Book Store, Inc.

Espiritu, Z. (2016). Modules In Practical Research 1

Matira M.D & Revuelto R.M (2016) Practical Research for the 21st Century Learners. St. Augustine
Publications,

Serrano A, O.C. (2016) Practical Research 1 on Qualitative Unlimited Books Library Services & Publishing
Inc.: Manila City, Philippines

Practical Research 1 – Qualitative