SOCIAL STUDIES RESEARCH DESIGN – Definition and Types

“Mother Murders Son for Inheritance: Twin Brother Mourns,” blared the headlines. According to the article, Scotland Yard had found overwhelming evidence of the mother's guilt. In fact, they had arrested the distracted woman even before they received an eyewitness account of the murder from the twin's brother.

"Watson, can you pack a bag? I'd like to look into this matter," said Holmes.

"Certainly, Holmes. But it's an open and shut case," I replied.

"Perhaps, Watson, perhaps. But even if the case is closed, we should take advantage of this occasion to meet the twin. You see, he's a research psychologist."

When we arrived at the house where the atrocities had transpired, Holmes greeted the twin with unreserved enthusiasm. "Hello, I'm Sherlock Holmes. I've heard a great deal about you. You are quite a psychologist!"

The twin reciprocated. "And I've heard quite a bit about you, Mr. Holmes."
"Well, that's to be expected. We're both in the same business-trying to get inside people's heads. We both try to find out what happened and why it happened," said Holmes.

"Yes, but you look for motives in the real world. Your work is truly exciting. I just do experiments in my dreary little lab," the twin replied, modestly

Holmes persisted "Not at all, my dear fellow. We both dig for facts and uncover new evidence. We both question common sense and look for possibilities and explanations for events that others have overlooked."

"Well, perhaps, but your techniques are so creative," said the twin.

"You are too modest. Please tell me about your research," insisted Holmes.
The twin pushed the request aside, saying "Oh. it's dull. I simply manipulate statistics, really"

Suddenly, Holmes pounced. "You fiend! You are not Dr. Ardlich, but Mr. Ardlich. You killed your twin brother, the esteemed Dr. Ardlich, framed your mother, and then assumed your brother's identity. Last night during dinner, you drugged both your mother and brother. After murdering your brother, you arranged things in the kitchen and in your brother's room to incriminate your own mother. What sort of vile creature premeditates such a crime? What misguided brilliance! You willed your money to your mother to attract suspicion to her, but actually, you planned to inherit her money after she was sent to the gallows."

We took a sullen Ardlich to Scotland Yard. On our way back to Baker Street, Holmes revealed how he knew that the twin was Mr. Ardlich rather than Dr. Ardlich.

"Surely it's obvious, my dear Watson. His lack of enthusiasm for his work tipped me off. He didn't display any of the enthusiasm and excitement that we investigators get when the game is afoot. The thrill of the chase and the joy of the search were absent in him. But there was much more. He believed that research is highly statistical. Any investigator knows that statistics is just a tool, a means to an end, not an end in themselves. He showed similar ignorance with regard to laboratories. He felt that research only involved laboratory experiments.This is false. Not only did the late Dr.
Ardlich do many experiments outside of the lab, but he also used a variety of non- experimental research methods."

Review Question: What features of scientific investigation are mentioned in the text?

TASK FOR INDEPENDENT WORK OF STUDENTS WITH COURSE TEACHER (IWST):

Choose a topic of your interest in foreign language learning and teaching. Search for a scientific article on the topic, read it and turn in an abstract of that article that you find interesting. Explain why you find it interesting.

SOCIAL STUDIES RESEARCH DESIGN – Definition and Types

INTRODUCTION

Research design is the basic stone of a research and as such constitutes the firm foundation of the entire edifice of the research work. Research design is one of the most important factors, which could add a lot of value to a study if utilized properly, as it facilitates the smooth scaling of the various research operations, thereby making research as efficient as possible yielding maximal information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money. This emphasizes the need for a good research design to a project in order to extract maximum amount of information from minimal sources. Nowadays, statisticians along with researchers in different fields, before starting their work, make a clear cut analysis of what design would be the most useful and cost effective, while not compromising on the data quality.

Before examining types of research designs it is important to be clear about the role and purpose of research design. We need to understand what research design is and what it is not. We need to know where design fits into the whole research process from framing a question to finally analyzing and reporting data. This is the purpose of research design.

The methodology and procedures employed in conducting research is what research design is all about. The design of a study defines the study type (descriptive, correlational, semi-experimental, experimental, review, meta-analytic) and sub-type (e.g., descriptive-longitudinal case study), research question, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, experimental design, and, if applicable, data collection methods and a statistical analysis plan. Just as for better, economical and attractive construction of a house, we need a blueprint well thought out and prepared by an expert architect; similarly we need a research design or a plan in advance of data collection and analysis for our research project.

Research design stands for advance planning of the methods to be adopted for collecting the relevant data and the techniques to be used in their analysis, keeping in view the objective of the research and the availability of staff, time and money.

Preparation of research design should be done with great case as any error in it may upset the entire project. But the main problem is that it is not treated with the amount of importance that it should actually be given. As a result, many research endeavors have misguiding conclusions. Thoughtlessness in designing the research project may result in rendering the research exercise futile.

It is, therefore imperative that an efficient and appropriate design must be prepared before stetting research operations. The design helps the researcher to organize his ideas in a form whereby it will be possible for him to look for flaws and inadequacies. Such a design can even be given to others for their comments and critical evaluation. In the absence of such a course of action, it will be difficult for the critic to provide a comprehensive review of the proposed studies.

Date: 2014-12-28; view: 1246