Research Design: Defining Your Research Aims and Approach | Scribbr 🎓

Summary

This video guide helps you design your research by defining your aims and selecting the right approach—qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. It outlines how to match your research objectives to the appropriate methodology. Quantitative research focuses on numbers, testing hypotheses, and analyzing patterns, while qualitative research dives deep into experiences and ideas. Mixed methods combine both to offer a comprehensive view. Understanding the distinctions between these approaches and how they align with your research goals will strengthen your study design and help you gather meaningful insights.

Takeaways

• 😀 Start by defining your research aims and choosing the appropriate research approach that aligns with those aims.
• 😀 Ensure you have a clear understanding of the research problem you want to investigate before designing your research.
• 😀 A quantitative approach is suitable if your aim is to make objective measurements and test hypotheses using numbers and statistics.
• 😀 Quantitative research can help you describe characteristics, identify patterns, and test the effectiveness of treatments or programs.
• 😀 A qualitative approach is ideal if you aim to gain an in-depth understanding of experiences, beliefs, or ideas using words and narratives.
• 😀 Qualitative research helps explore subjective experiences, provides rich context, and generates new ideas for further research.
• 😀 Quantitative research often follows the deductive method, starting with a broad theory and testing specific hypotheses with data.
• 😀 Qualitative research typically follows the inductive method, where patterns are observed from data and used to develop theories or hypotheses.
• 😀 Most research blends deductive and inductive methods, combining both qualitative and quantitative aspects to strengthen research outcomes.
• 😀 A mixed methods approach combines qualitative and quantitative research to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the research problem.
• 😀 You can use qualitative research to develop hypotheses, test them with quantitative data, or use both methods to answer different sub-questions.

Q & A

What is the first step in designing research?

The first step in designing research is to define your research aims and choose the approach that best matches those aims.

What is the example research problem presented in the video?

The example research problem is the rapid rise of remote learning, and how teachers struggle to effectively adapt their lessons from in-person to online classes.

How do you decide between a qualitative or quantitative research approach?

To decide between qualitative and quantitative research, you need to define your research aims. If you aim to make objective measurements and test hypotheses, choose a quantitative approach. If you want to understand experiences, beliefs, or cultures in-depth, choose a qualitative approach.

What is the main focus of quantitative research?

Quantitative research focuses on numbers and statistics. It is used to make objective measurements, investigate relationships between variables, and test the effectiveness of treatments, programs, or products.

What type of research is best suited for testing the effectiveness of a new teaching method?

A quantitative research approach is best suited for testing the effectiveness of a new teaching method because it allows you to measure quantifiable outcomes such as grades and test scores.

What is the main focus of qualitative research?

Qualitative research focuses on words and ideas. It aims to interpret and understand subjective experiences, provide rich accounts of specific contexts, and explore under-researched problems to generate ideas for further research.

Can you provide an example where a qualitative approach would be useful?

A qualitative approach would be useful if your research aims to explore what students and teachers struggle with in remote classes and to generate new ideas for online teaching strategies.

What is the difference between deductive and inductive research methods?

In deductive research (often associated with quantitative research), you start with a broad theory, develop a specific hypothesis, and test it using data. In inductive research (often associated with qualitative research), you start with data, observe patterns, and use those observations to develop theories or hypotheses.

What should researchers consider to avoid bias in qualitative research?

Researchers should reflect carefully on their own assumptions and interpretations to avoid bias in qualitative research.

What is a mixed methods research design, and how does it work?

A mixed methods research design incorporates both qualitative and quantitative approaches. This can involve using qualitative research to develop hypotheses, testing those hypotheses with quantitative data, and then using qualitative data to interpret and contextualize the results. It can also involve using both methods to answer different sub-questions related to the research problem.