Research course 2: Research questions and hypotheses

Research questions and hypotheses TCPB 124 Week 2 Dr Osama Al-Mahdi

Textbook: Fraenkel, J. and Wallen, N. (2006). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fraenkel & Wallen (2006) notes retrieved from http://www.tusculum.edu/faculty/

home/mnarkawicz/html/534notes.doc

Quantitative research • Quantitative ( numbers) • Facts/feelings separate • World is single reality • Researcher removed • Established research design • Experiment prototype • Generalization emphasized

Qualitative research • Natural settings is direct source of data • Data collected in the form of words or  pictures • Concerned with how things occur  • Inductive data analysis – not based on hypotheses • “how people make sense of their lives”.

Research questions • Research problem must be feasible, clear, significant, and ethical • The research question is one of the first methodological methodological steps the investigator has to take when undertaking a research. The research question must be accurately and clearly defined. • Choosing a research question is the central element of  both quantitative and qualitative qualitative research and in some cases it may precede construction of the conceptual framework of study. In all cases, it makes the theoretical assumptions in the framework more explicit, most of all it indicates what the researcher wants to know most and first. (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)

Research questions •

RQ should be feasible (can be investigated investigated with available available resources)

•

RQ should be clear (specifically define terms used…operational needed, but give both)

•

RQ should be significant significant (worth investigating; investigating; how does it contribute to field and who can use info)

Qualitative research questions • In qualitative research inquiries state research questions, not objectives or hypotheses. • The central question is statement of the question being examined in its most general form. for m. The central question can be followed by several sub questions in order to narrow the focus of the study but leave open the questioning. • The questions become “working guidelines” rather than “truths” to be proven. (Thomas, 1993: 35).

Qualitative research questions • The research questions usually begin with the words “what” or “how”. • Use exploratory verbs that convey the language of emerging design of research (e.g. discover, seek to understand, explore the process). Does not often use words with directional orientation orientation such as “affect”, “influence”, “impact”, “cause”, and “relate”.

Qualitative research questions • Open-ended and expected to evolve and to change during the study. Unlike the quantitative quantitative research questions which usually remain fixed throughout the study.

Examples of qualitative research questions • One of the research questions which guided Al-Mahdi’s (2009) study was: How do the participant teachers and parents perceive home-school relationships? relationships? Through the different stages of the data analysis process this broad question were divided into groups of sub-questions.

The sub-questions: 1. What are the available means of communication between home and school? 2. Are parents and teachers satisfied with the current level of  communication? 3. What kind of difficulties might influence the home-school h ome-school communication process? 4. What efforts were made to overcome these difficulties and to support home-school communication? 5. Are there any variations among parents in terms of their  communication with school? If so, how did they vary, and why? 6. How do the participant parents and teachers define their roles in supporting their children’s learning?

Quantitative research questions • In quantitative research investigators use research questions and hypotheses to specifically focus the purpose of the study. • Hypotheses are predictions the researcher  holds about the relationship among variables. Testing the hypotheses use statistical procedures in which the investigator draws inferences about the population population from the study sample.

Hypotheses Are predictions about possible outcome of a study; sometimes several hypotheses from one RQ RQ: Will athletes have a higher GPA that non-athletes? H: Athletes will will have higher GPAs that non-athletes non-athletes Advantages to stating a hypothesis as well as RQ Clarifies/focuses research to make prediction based on previous research/theory Multiple supporting tests to confirm hypothesis strengthens it Disadvantages Can lead to bias in methods (conscious or un) to try to support hypothesis Sometimes miss other important info due to focus on o n hypothesis (peer  review/replication is a check on this)

Directional v. non-directiona non-directionall hypothesis •

Directional v. non-directional non-directional

•

Directional says which group will score higher/do better 

•

Non directional just indicates there will be a difference, but not who will score higher/do better 

•

Directional more risky, so be careful/tentative in using directional ones

Examples of quantitative questions •

•

•

•

How do students rate on critical thinking skills? (a descriptive question focused on the independent independent variable) What are the students’ grades in science classes? (a descriptive question focused on the dependent variable) What are the students’ prior grades in science? (a descriptive question focused on the mediating variable, variable, prior grades) What is the educational attainment of the parents of  the students? (a descriptive question focused on the mediating variable, educational attainment of parents)

(Opfer, 2008 University of Cambridge website)