Research methods

Paradigms

Established a set of shared community practices

Encompasses ways of both thinking and acting

Support researches to select and define problems for inquiry

* considers how to carry out the research
* Affects what you think about the research
* A belief/theory system that guides that we we do things t establish a set of practices

Major paradigms

Positivist enquiry- single reality associated with quantative research, filling a knowledge gap

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Constructivist enquiry- no single realty/ truth. Associated with qualitative research.

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Pragmatic enquiry- reality constantly renegotiated

Epsitemology

What is knowledge

How is knowledge acquired

How do we know what we know

* positivist - it’s possible to acquire knowledge with in interferences, objectivity is possible
* Constructivist- observation is never objective but influenced by our social constructions of reality

Ontology

Our assumption about how the world is made up and the nature of things

Explains the nature of being or reality

Qualitative and quantative research

Scientific approach

Notion that reality can be defined objectively

Phenomena can be described and measured

Levels of evidence - Ingham Broomfield 2016

Catagorical

Can only be A or B not both

independent sample t test

Comparing 2 groups

Pair sample t test

Compare 1 group on 2 tests

Semantic variable =

Test variable

Significant score =

The P value

O.o5 or below is significant

Test types

Scale - continuous

Ordinal-

Normal

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Process to see inference between multiple sample tests

Compare the mean

Dependent variable

Anything i measure

Independent variable

Things affecting what i measure

mixed method research

associated with pragmatist paradigm

collecting qual and quant evidence in the same study

positivist approach

constructivist approach

truth and knowledge is socially constructed

pragmatist approach

both positivist and constructivist approaches are correct

combines the 2 ideas

mixed methods research advantages

•More comprehensive evidence

•May increase validity

•Answers questions that cannot be answered by one method alone

•Encourages researcher collaboration

•May be empowering – for those whose voices are rarely heard

•Encourages multiple world views

•May help if one method is proving difficult

•Provides new insights and explanations

•Explains unexpected findings

•Demonstrate problems with data collection

•Practical

mixed methods research disadvantages

takes a lot of time

requires fairly high budget

most likely not appropriate for dissertation

mixed method research models

•**Triangulation design**

•**embedded design**

•**explanatory design**

•**exploratory design**

examples of mixed methods research data collecting methods

Focus groups, knowledge elicitation tasks, concept mapping, teach back, sorting exercises

active research

takes new info from current happenings eg a session plan and uses this info to shape a future session plan

Three-step spiral process of:

(1)__planning__ which involves reconnaissance;

(2)__taking actions__;

f__act-finding__ about the results of the action

* takes a long time and not appropriate for dissertation

active research methods of data collection

•Interviews 

•focus groups

•dance

•story telling

•poetry

drama

triangulation

involves the cross-referencing of data from two or more sources- finding an answer through multiple perspectives

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**TYPES:**

•**Methods triangulation**

•**Triangulation of sources**

•**Analyst Triangulation**

•**Theory/perspective triangulation**

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examples:

• Observation (Case Conf., ward rounds)

• Documents (Med. notes and SLT notes)

• Interviews (Profs and participants)

case study 3 stages

•**Description of experience:**

•data collected from multiple sources are mapped;

•categorised using colour codes, taxonomies and chronological ordering.

•**Description of meaning:**

•consult the literature and links research questions and methods to the theoretical framework

•**Focus on the analysis:**

•Generalization of case study findings limited to the case itself or types of cases

•Attention to selected details enhances the analysis and increases the clarity of reasoning.

•Use of an ‘extreme’ case, ‘deviant’ case and ‘normal’ case are helpful in making comparisons, to enhance rigour in the study design.

case study strengths

o answer questions how and why

o Investigator has little or no possibility to control behavioural events: therefore, naturalistic

o General circumstances of the phenomenon to be studied: contemporary phenomenon in a real life context

o Gives rise to more focussed questions for enquiry.

case study weaknesses

o Lack of systematic handling of data

o Rigour of case study research

o Little basis for scientific generalization

o Too long, results in massive, unreadable documents

o Does not directly address causal relationships.

The null hypothesis definition

is a statement of no difference between the populationS being studied

Sample

30 participants recruited for research

Descriptive statistics

Can summarise conclusions

Paired sample t test

Inferential stat best suited eg for Comparing performance of a group on 2 different language test

Strong positive correlation

A correlation of 0.8+ indicates

Independent t test

Comparing the performance between 2 groups on a vocab test