Description

As you learned from this week’s resources, the problem you identify and the questions you seek to answer should dictate the methodology you select to conduct a research study. The type of methods you use, whether quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods, will influence the outcome, validity, and reliability of your study and should be appropriate to the situation you will address.

Consider the problem or issue you identified in Week 2. What insights could be gained into the identified problem or issue by going beyond the literature review and conducting a formal academic research study? What questions would you seek to answer? How would you approach such a study? What methods would you use?

By Day 3

Post a brief review of the problem you identified in Week 2, including a brief summary of the questions or problem or issue you might seek to address through a formal research study. (These may be different from the problem and questions you addressed through your literature review.) Then identify and defend the type of research methodology you would use to conduct your formal research study. Be sure to refer to the resources from this and/or the previous week to support your response.

Required Readings

Locke, L. F., Silverman, S. J., & Spirduso, W. W. (2009). Reading and understanding research (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 10, “The Paradigms for Qualitative Research”
  • Chapter 11, “Staying Organized When Reading a Qualitative Report”
    • Chapter Introduction
    • “Identifying Qualitative Research Reports”
  • Chapter 12, “Reading Reports of Qualitative Research—Critically: Things the Reader Should Expect”

Fink, A. (2020). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (5th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 5, “What Did You Find?: Synthesizing Results”
    • “Purpose of This Chapter”
    • “Now That You Have Done It, What Do You Do With It?”
    • “Descriptive Syntheses or Reviews”

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Anatomy of a research study [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
In this program, you will examine the different sections of a research report and learn strategies for reading quantitative research reports. Explore the “Qualitative Research” section of this program.

Optional Resources

Locke, L. F., Silverman, S. J., & Spirduso, W. W. (2009). Reading and understanding research (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 11, “Staying Organized When Reading a Qualitative Report”
    • “A 12-Step Guide for Understanding Qualitative Research Reports”

Fink, A. (2020). Conducting research literature reviews: From the Internet to paper (5th ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

  • Chapter 4, “Doing the Review: A Reader’s Guide Chapter”

Neuman, D. (2014). Qualitative research in educational communications and technology: A brief introduction to principles and procedures. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 26(1), 69-86. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12528-014-9078-x