SMILE
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Unit 4: Research design

What is research design?image of book

We ask questions all the time. Research is a formal way of going about asking questions. It uses methodologies (formal frameworks for collecting and analysing data). After you have decided what your research questions or your hypothesis are, you start designing your research. This means you plan your research. Much about this plan is determined by your research questions or your hypothesis.

What philosophical stance do you take approaching your research?

For example, do you think the best way to answer your research questions or prove your hypothesis is to set up experiments? That would be a positivist stance. Or do you want to explore how human behaviour impacts on public health? That would be an interpretivist stance. Have a look at the information on educational research the Open Lean web site from the Open University for more information.

How do we choose a research design?  

Methodology is the actual approach on how you go about answering your research questions (proving your hypothesis). A methodology can contain various research methods (tools with which you gather your data: questionnaires, experiments, interviews). Caution! You will find the literature sometimes treats the terms methods and methodology as the same, which is not correct. However, sometimes authors disagree if something is a method or a methodology, in this case there is no right or wrong. Your task is to justify your decision.

Some authors treat a case study as research method (the actual tool to gather data) while others tread it as a methodology (the approach on how to go about researching an issue and use), for example, interviews and focus groups as methods within the methodology ‘Case Study’.

It depends on whether we are looking to:

  • describe what is happening
  • examine why it is happening (expressing causal connections)
  • be able to generalise to a wider population
  • examine these behaviours over time

Research Methods

The most significant difference is made between quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative methods are usually related to numbers, surveys, experiments, statistics and positivist research philosophy. Qualitative methods, interviews and observations, - are usually related to interpretivist research philosophy.

However, your methodology could benefit from including qualitative and quantitative methods. This depends on the aims and objectives for your research project. What do you want to find our or prove? What is the best way to answer your questions or prove your hypothesis? This section of SMILE gives general information about research methods, to get specific advice relevent to your subject, contact your Learning Development Centre.

Here are the basic research methods and designs:

These are not mutually exclusive – you can use more than one. For example, a cross-sectional and case study, such as semi-structured interviews with households but within a particular neighbourhood. You could also use a case study and longitudinal study, such as in-depth research with a community over months or years. In this section we will also look at measurement and some general issues to consider when planning your project.

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SMILE - Research design by Learning from WOeRk, University of Plymouth modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License