Nature and Inquiry of Research

NATURE OF INQUIRY AND
RESEARCH
Inquiry is a learning process that
motivates you to obtain knowledge
or information about people, things,
places, or events
•by investigating
•asking questions
Governing Principles or Foundation of Inquiry
Inquiry-based
•John Dewey’s theory of connected
experiences for exploratory and reflective
thinking;
•Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) that stresses the essence of provocation
and scaffolding in learning; and
•Jerome Bruner’s theory on learners’ varied
world perceptions for their own interpretative
thinking of people and things around them.
Backed up by all these theories, inquiry, as
a way of learning, concerns itself with
these elements:
•changing knowledge,
•creativity,
•subjectivity,
•socio-cultural factors,
•sensory experience, and higher-order
thinking strategies.
Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning
1. Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills
2. Improves student learning abilities
3. Widens learners’ vocabulary
4. Facilitates problem-solving acts
5. Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge
6. Encourages cooperative learning
7. Provides mastery of procedural knowledge
8. Encourages higher-order thinking strategies
9. Hastens conceptual understanding
Picture analysis:
What is
research?
Research is a process of executing
various mental acts for discovering
and examining facts and information
to prove the accuracy or truthfulness
of your claims or conclusions about
the topic of your research. (Litchman
2013)
Research requires you to inquire or investigate
about your chosen research topic by asking
questions that will make you engage yourself
in top-level thinking strategies of interpreting,
analyzing, synthesizing, criticizing,
appreciating, or creating to enable you to
discover truths about the many things you
tend to wonder about the topic of your
research work.
Characteristics
of research
Accuracy
It must give correct or accurate data,
which the footnotes, notes, and
bibliographical entries should honestly and
appropriately documented or acknowledged.
Objectiveness.
It must deal with facts, not with mere
opinions arising from assumptions,
generalizations, predictions, or conclusions.
Timeliness
It must work on a topic that is fresh, new,
and interesting to the present society.
Relevance
Its topic must be instrumental in
improving society or in solving problems
affecting the lives of people in a community.
Clarity
It must succeed in expressing its central
point or discoveries by using simple, direct,
concise, and correct language.
Systematic
It must take place in an organized or
orderly manner.
Purposes of
Research
1. To learn how to work independently
2. To learn how to work scientifically or
systematically
3. To have an in-depth knowledge of
something
4. To elevate your mental abilities by letting
you think in higher-order thinking strategies
(HOTS) of inferring, evaluating, synthesizing,
appreciating, applying, and creating
5. To improve your reading and writing skills
6. To be familiar with the basic tools of
research and the various techniques of
gathering data and of presenting research
findings
7. To free yourself, to a certain extent, from
the domination or strong influence of a single
textbook or of the professor’s lone viewpoint
or spoon feeding
Types of
Research
1. Based on Application of Research Method
Is the research applied to theoretical or
practical issues? If it deals with concepts,
principles, or abstract things, it is a pure
research.
Pure Research
This type of research aims to increase your
knowledge about something.
Applied Research
If your intention is to apply your chosen
research to societal problems or issues,
finding ways to make positive changes in
society, you call your research.
2. Based on Purpose of the Research
Depending on your objective or goal in
conducting research, you do any of these
types of research: descriptive, correlational,
explanatory, exploratory, or action.
Descriptive Research – aims at defining or
giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a
person, thing, event, group, situation, etc. This
is liable to repeated research because its topic
relates itself only to a certain period or a
limited number of years. Based on the results
of your descriptive studies about a subject,
you develop the inclination of conducting
further studies on such topic.
Correlational Research
A correlational research shows
relationships or connectedness of two factors,
circumstances, or agents called variables that
affect the research. It is only concerned in
indicating the existence of a relationship, not
the causes and ways of the development of
such relationship.
Explanatory Research
This type of research elaborates or
explains not just the reasons behind the
relationship of two factors, but also the ways
by which such relationship exists.
Action Research
This type of research studies an ongoing
practice of a school, organization, community,
or institution for the purpose of obtaining
results that will bring improvements in the
system.
3. Based on Types of Data Needed
The kind of data you want to work on
reflects whether you wish to do a quantitative
or a qualitative research.
3. Based on Types of Data Needed
The kind of data you want to work on
reflects whether you wish to do a quantitative
or a qualitative research.
Qualitative research requires non-numerical
data, which means that the research uses
words rather than numbers to express the
results, the inquiry, or investigation about
people’s thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views, and
lifestyles regarding the object of the study.
These opinionated answers from people are
not measurable; so, verbal language is the
right way to express your findings in a
qualitative research.
Quantitative research involves measurement
of data. Thus, it presents research findings
referring to the number or frequency of
something in numerical forms (i.e., using
percentages, fractions, numbers).
Primary data are obtained through direct
observation or contact with people, objects,
artifacts, paintings, etc. Primary data are new
and original information resulting from your
sensory experience.
Secondary data are data that are already been
written about or reported on and are available
for reading purposes.
Approaches to
Research
Scientific or Positive approach
Discover and measure information as well
as observe and control variables in an
impersonal manner. It allows control of
variables. Therefore, the data gathering
techniques appropriate for this approach are
structured interviews, questionnaires, and
observational checklists.
Data given by these techniques are expressed
through numbers, which means that this
method is suitable for quantitative research.
Naturalistic approach
In contrast to the scientific approach that
uses numbers to express data, the naturalistic
approach uses words. This research approach
directs you to deal with qualitative data that
speak of how people behave toward their
surroundings.
These are non-numerical data that express
truths about the way people perceive or
understand the world. Since people look at
their world in a subjective or personal basis in
an uncontrolled or unstructured manner, a
naturalistic approach happens in a natural
setting.
Is it possible to plan your research activities
based on these two approaches?
Triangulation approach
In this case, you are free to gather and
analyze data using multiple methods, allowing
you to combine or mix up research
approaches, research types, data gathering,
and data analysis techniques. Triangulation
approach gives you the opportunity to view
every angle of the research from different
perspectives. (Badke 2012; Silverman 2013)
Express your judgment or decision about each
line then justify your agreement or
disagreement on the given statement.
1. Your zero or poor knowledge of research
means you are not in a quality school
2. To have a rich understanding of every
aspect of your research means to approach it
in a naturalistic way.
3. You can quantify people’s worldviews.
4. Research is exactly the same as inquiry.
5. You behave like a scientist in research.

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