Carrie Ann’s Reading Log (2/15)- The Many Directions of Research Design

Posted by on February 15, 2010 
Filed under Uncategorized

Which is the research path best traveled?  This will mainly depend on your research question and time frame in which you choose to do your study.  As a researcher, you must make a decision of which way to “travel” (primarily quantitative or qualitative) once you have formulated your research topic question.  Chapter six in the McKinney book presents an abridged version of the specific research methodologies and some thoughts on how you can find the right method for your SoTL research. Just last semester I took the Educational Research and Research in Special Education classes, so I am very familiar with the methodologies presented in the chapter.  One thing that I made note of while reading her description of the questionnaire methodology was that a vital point was left out. In order to insure validity in findings and to make your findings generalizable to the population you need at least a 50% response rate with the questionnaire. This can be hard to achieve in some cases because some people will just look at a questionnaire and toss it or delete it, and it might take multiple administrations/mailings to achieve the response rate that you need for this method.  Also, I do wish that the author took more time to explain in depth the types of analysis that are required for the specific research methodologies, this also needs to be taken into consideration by the researcher.

For myself and in the topics I would like to study, a multi-method approach would suit my research area. But, this can change if you slightly change your research question. You need to take a long look at your research question, the subjects/individuals involved and materials at your disposal and match your research methodology to give you the best “path” to take in order to study your topic to the fullest.

Comments



Leave a Reply