Category: Research in Daily SHS

• It accompanies the students in an interesting research journey from the first phase (Identifying the inquiry and stating the problem) until the last phase (Reporting and sharing research findings) of doing research. It prepares the students for their training in qualitative research by setting the foundations on the general rules and practices in scientific research.
• While the textbook guides the students in every phase of the research process, it also introduces them to the principles underlying qualitative research, both on its ontological and epistemological foundations as well as the methodological issues associated with qualitative research.
• In the end, the book does not only equip the students with the knowledge and skills of doing qualitative research, but also to be conversant in debates over the foundations of the social sciences and human sciences.

• While the textbook guides the students in every phase of the research process, it also introduces them to the philosophical foundations underlying quantitative research. Equally important, the textbook guides the students in addressing methodological issues relating to the process of measurement, which is a key component of quantitative research. The textbook seeks to instruct students that doing research requires making a lot of decisions, for instance, the choice of research paradigm and research design as well as the methodology and methods.
• The textbook is not as ambitious as other textbooks on quantitative research that promise “expertise” in doing quantitative research after completing the course.
• Instead, it makes students appreciate that quantitative research could be a fun activity that requires working with numbers and some statistics, charts, and graphs.

Suf ficient examples are given to illustrate the key concepts discussed in each chapter. One outstanding feature of the book is that it constantly refers to an identified research topic introduced in Chapter 1 as the rest of the key concepts in the succeeding chapters are being developed.

The development of the chapters adheres to the accepted procedures in conducting quantitative research so that readers are guided on every step of the way. Thus, the conceptual flow of the chapters are as follows:

• Introduction to research
• Identifying a topic and framing the research question
• Review of the related literature and crafting of theconceptual framework
• Conceptualizing the research design and collecting data
• Analyzing the collected data
• Reporting and writing the results

With this conceptual flow, readers can be directed, guided, and coached on how to proceed with the inquiry process. Given this approach, it is hoped that students will see that engaging in research can be broken down into doable steps.