Data Analysis and Research Methods: An Overview
Data Analysis
The collected data can be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively, depending on how the variables are measured. This is the stage of systematic and reflective analysis of information obtained through the instruments. It is one of the highlights of the research process and involves working with data, collecting and organizing them into manageable units, and synthesizing them to support the research.
Ethics in Educational Research
Science and technology should be subject to ethics, values, and norms governing behavior. Deontology is the ethical and moral code that underlies any professional in any profession. Key principles include intellectual honesty, independence of judgment, intellectual courage, love of intellectual freedom, and a sense of justice.
Structured Interview
A structured interview aims to explain rather than understand, seeking to minimize errors.
Rating Scales
Rating scales are instruments for registering a series of traits or characteristics of subjects. These are observed by the investigator and translated into value judgments about the degree of intensity or frequency with which they arise, through qualitative or quantitative assessment.
Case Study
A case study is the most appropriate and natural ideographic research method and should be considered a strategy for making decisions. Its real potential lies in its ability to generate hypotheses and discoveries, to focus its interest on an individual event or institution, and its flexibility and applicability to natural situations. Key properties include being individual, descriptive, heuristic, and inductive.
Consumer-Based Studies
In consumer-based studies, the assessor is the “smart consumer replacement.” Advance organizers are the values and needs of society. The purpose is to judge the relative values of alternative goods and services and, consequently, help consumers and customers make informed choices when acquiring these goods and/or services. This is a strong and independent valuation to protect consumers from products or services of poor quality.
Stages of the Assessment Process (Latorre)
The stages include: problem or demand; purpose; variables, areas, and aspects; model; design and collection of reliable information; data analysis; and rating (conclusions).
Diary
A diary is an important tool in observational research processes. It helps to understand, from a personal point of view, the processes taking place in educational contexts being studied. It’s a personal conversation with oneself, which includes the most significant events for the author, their thoughts, attitudes, analyses, reviews, and reflections. Continuity, sequence, and interpretation of the facts are recommended.
Report of an Investigation
A report of an investigation is a formal document detailing the research process and findings.
Checklist
A checklist provides structured relations of characteristics, skills, social skills, behavioral traits, sequence of actions, etc. It provides information on the presence or absence of these features, without determining the intensity or frequency of them.
Scientific Method (Features)
The scientific method is theoretical in its origin and its end is based on scientific questions. It is problem-hypothetical, empirical, inductive and deductive, self-critical, circular, analytic-synthetic, and selective. It should lay out formal methodological rules while promoting intuition and imagination, which is necessary.
Sociocritical Paradigm
The sociocritical paradigm encompasses research approaches that arise in response to positivist and interpretive traditions. It seeks to overcome the reductionism of the former and the conservatism of the latter, admitting the possibility of a social science that is not purely empirical, nor just interpretation.