Correct Research Methods - Coursework Example

Research Critique Paper March Introduction Research methods are the means to collect information needed to carry out a study project. It is very important to choose a proper methodology to get reliable results and achieve the aim of the research. There are various types of methods that can be used by researchers to get information and answer the research questions used in the study; however, the research purpose and questions decide the choice of methodology. Creswell (2014), states that it is useful to consider the full range of possibilities of data collection and to organize these methods, for example, by their degree of predetermined nature, their use of closed-ended versus open-ended questioning, and their focus on numeric versus nonnumeric data analysis. (p.16) The methods widely used in the field of education are unobtrusive observation, focus groups, surveys, individual interview, and audio-visual data materials. This paper will criticize four articles that I am interested in and use in my research proposal. The four articles are referred to as article A, B, C and D throughout this paper. These articles employ different research methods: surveys and interviews. These articles will be compared and contrasted within each type of method. The aspects of the research articles that will be considered and critiqued in this paper are the nature of the questions asked by the researcher for data collection, the process of data collection and the way the data collection connects to the questions and purpose. Research Questions- Survey Method To begin with, two of the four articles have used survey method to collect data and this section compares and contrasts these two articles. It also looks into the nature of the questions that have been used in the studies. The survey data in article A consists of a pretest survey and a post-test survey (Jing & Yong, 2007). The pretest survey included four sections. The first section was demographic information such as grade, and gender. The second section asked questions about current technology use, such as ‘how much time do the students spend on working on computers every day.’ The questions in the two sections were close ended multiple choice questions. Section four was about student academic outcomes and students were asked to report their GPA. Final section was on students’ technology uses and how often they worked using technology. The questions in this section were offered as Likert scale questions “on a scale of 1–4 (with 1 indicating “not at all” and 4 indicating “very much/often”)” (Jing & Yong, 2007, p.287). Post-test survey was administered at the end of the academic year and involved all sections in the pretest survey. A set of new questions were added to the posttest survey on student technology uses. However, even in the pretest survey they had questions on ‘current’ technology uses. So, this new set of questions may not have been necessary. However, it is not clearly explained why there was a need for this additional set. In this article some questions asked in the survey did not directly help the research and may not have been necessary. In terms of article B, the researchers have used a variety of questions based on the objective of the study (Roush & Song, 2013). The questions included four categories which were preparation, participation, learning, and ease of use. Similar to the research in article A, the participants responded to the items in the survey on a Likert-type scale but chose from the options: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. However, these types of options were close ended and participants had little opportunity to add comments or additional information that would have been helpful to the researcher. Had the questions been open ended, then the participants could have found them more interesting and given more details in their comments. It is for this reason, in the research described in article B, interview questions were used as follow-up after the survey to get more information from the participants. Process of Data Collection- Survey Method Article A used a qualitative method, which was survey, to collect data. . Before collecting data, the authors took consent from teachers, students and their parents. More than a year was spent on data collection. . The study in this article involved 237 students from middle schools and it included teachers also; however, only data from 130 students was used for analysis. Of the 130 students, 48.5% were male, 51.5% were female, 47.7% were 7th graders, and 51.3% were 8th graders. In Article B, the survey focused on students from Spanish high schools and six teachers who teach different subjects at one high school and two elementary schools. The survey was completed by 99 students and 17 teachers. Both articles have not provided sufficient details regarding the mode of data collection such as how they conducted the surveys, whether online or face to face. Critique of Data Collection- Survey Methods Researchers in both articles A and B have used survey method due to the huge number of participants. Article A was a longitudinal study that collected data over a period of over one year and provided enough information but did not have a clear statement. The researchers considered the ethical issues by getting written consent from people who participated in the survey. In article B, the researcher identified the participants by their ethnicities, age and gender. However, the article does not discuss the ethical issues that were considered prior to data collection. For example, it does not talk about how was consent from the participants got. It also does not mention the duration of the study. However, the researcher achieved the purpose of study and analysed the findings in depth. Research Questions- Interview Methods The other two articles C (Jahnke , 2010) and D (Armstrong, 2011) are similar in the purpose of their studies; both of them have used a qualitative research method, which is interview. In article C, through the interviews the participants were asked an open-ended question about the way Information and Communications Technology (ICT) affected learning in general. Then the authors used subsequent follow-up questions such as how and why. Using open-ended questions gave the participants more opportunity to explain their answers. In article D, the authors identified four research questions and all of them were open-ended questions. The participants in both articles provided detailed responses which helped the authors to achieve their purpose. Process of Data Collection- Interview Methods Interview is the qualitative method used in both articles C and D. Theoretical sampling procedure was used by the research discussed in article C. The participants were seven students (four females and three males) and all of them were interviewed face to face. The location of the interviews was at school and each interview was recorded on audiotape or directly onto a computer using podcasting software. The length of the interviews was around 20 minutes and the interviews were also transcribed verbatim in order to enable students to read the transcriptions as part of member checking process. The author in article C had permission from the school principal and students’ parents to publish the study online but using pseudonyms to protect student identities. In terms of article D, the study consisted of 16 undergraduate students. There were three stages of data collection were used in the research discussed in this article. One-on-one open-ended interview was the main stage of data collection. Other stages were think-aloud observation, and online focus groups and these were used to confirm the findings from the interviews. The period of data collection was between the summer and fall academic sessions. Critique of Data Collection- Interview Methods Interview method can give an opportunity to the researchers to have elaborate discussions with participants, which can be much richer than written questionnaires. For example, in the research discussed in article B, interview was used to get detailed idea of the responses given by the participants in the survey. In article C, interview transcripts were helpful to identify major themes that helped answer the research questions. Four clear themes emerged. The interviews were conducted on a small-scale due to the time availability. The data collection was related well to the questions provided by researcher. Alternatively, the research could have used survey method to collect more data especially when the researcher has a limited time available for data collection such as two weeks. In article D, the participants were chosen from different universities and disciplines. The length of the data collection period was not enough to have a larger study and provide another set of results. There were some of the possibilities not investigated fully in this study. Analysis All the four articles have stated and discussed their research methods clearly. Perhaps there are weaknesses in some studies such as some articles did not consider the ethical issues in their research which is very important to be considered. Research methods involved data collection, analysis and sharing the findings. All the four articles have followed these steps, which make them helpful for new researchers to understand research methods and design in actual research. Not all the articles have provided details about the procedures used to get consent from participants, length of the study and the purpose. From these articles I realized that research methods should be clearly presented for readers in order to understand the objectives of the studies. Additionally, researchers must be aware of research methods and ethical issues to avoid problems. . This paper is very useful because it helps me recognize my research methods for my chosen topic. It has also increased my awareness about survey and interviews as qualitative research methods, the need for consent, use of open or closed questions and the need for choosing methods based on the research questions and availability of time. References Armstrong, D. (2011). Students’ perceptions of online learning and instructional tools: A qualitative study of undergraduate students use of online tools. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(3), 222-226. Jahnke, J. (2010). Student perceptions of the impact of online discussion forum participation on learning outcomes. Journal of Learning Design, 3(2), 27-34. Jing, L. & Yong, Z. (2007). Technology uses and student achievement: A longitudinal study. Computers & Education, 49(2), 284-296. Roush, C. & Song, L. (2013). The impact of using clickers technology on classroom instruction: Students’ and teachers’ perspectives. Canadian Journal of Action Research, 14(1), 21-37. Read More