Research Methodology (Research Paper Sample)

Research Methodology Name Institution Instructor Date due Introduction The research methodology requires gathering appropriate data from various sources that will be useful in arriving to a more complete understanding and historical comparison of personalized verses student-centered learning in classroom teamwork activities. The research methodology used hope to shed lights to the appropriate methods used in the research and the materials useful both to students and teachers (Federman & Sandra Hurd, 2000). This chapter includes a review of the research methodology adopted and an analysis of the methodology's appropriateness to the study. The research methodology adopted will allow for extensive research to help fully understand the effects of designing lessons around teamwork for both the students and teachers in the learning process. This chapter will discuss the research framework and approach utilized in collecting data that is necessary in addressing the research questions, therefore achieve the purpose of study. The chapter will also address the procedures and perspective that previous researchers used to explore related topics (Stein & Sandra, 2000). Social constructivism was adopted for this study, interviews, students designed lesson plans, an intervention method, focus group debrief and diary keeping were used to collect data from the subjects. In addition, the chapter highlights the purpose of the study, objectives, study questions, scope and limitation of the methods employed. The chapter further explores the research design employed, highlighting the effectiveness, suitability and limitations of the same. Research methodology used is presented with sufficient justifications on its appropriateness in helping achieve the study's objectives. This is followed by a discussion of the model appropriate to this study. A discussion on the limitations and any other technical issues arising from the use of the selected methodology is then presented. The chapter presents the data collection methods and give a brief analysis of the data analysis procedure and a short summary of the key findings. This chapter will also discuss the ethical considerations given throughout the formulation of my methodology and during the whole research process. Conclusion and summary of the chapter are presented at the end of the chapter. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to come up with a comprehensive process of designing lessons around teamwork, in order to enhance teaching practices within the social influence unit of AS Psychology Research Objectives General objective The objective of this research is to find out how education practices can be improved and thus enhance positive learning outcomes of students. Subsidiary objectives 1 To highlight the outcomes of student centred learning strategies for children 2 To explore the outcomes of student centred learning strategies for teachers 3 To explore the students' experiences of student centred learning through the vehicle of teamwork 4 To understand the benefits that have been secured by the students through the learning experiences provided by the investigation 5 To examine how students perceive the assessment of student centred learning strategies 6 To analyse how this investigation supports students in taking ownership of their learning. Research questions This study will be guided by the following questions; 1 How can education practices be improved to enhance positive learning outcomes of students? 2 How student does centred learning strategies benefit the students and the teachers? 3 What are the students' reactions to student centred learning? 4 How do students perceive students centred learning strategies? 5 How do investigations into student does centred learning strategy benefit the students? 6 Does a student centred learning investigations help students take ownership of their learning process? By answering the questions above, the study will have achieved its objectives. As such, the researcher will focus his effort to answering the questions highlighted. As thus, the methodology will be designed to facilitate the collection of data that will help answer the questions above. Motivation to Research Methodology This study seeks to make use of a research procedure that will help the research to easily find answers to the stipulated research questions and thus achieve the objectives easily. The study seeks to use the most convenient and most suitable research methodology that will help achieve this. Consequently, phenomenology theoretical perspective through application of social constructivism was adopted. The researcher used a number of research process which in one way or the other they are related and facilitates the collection of data in the unexplored regions of study in the subject of study as identified herein before. Figure 1 shows the elements used in the study. Epistemology The theory of knowledge (Crotty, 2004, p. 3) Theoretical Perspective The stance informing the methodology and grounding its criteria (Crotty, 2004, p. 3) Methodology The strategy, design and process lying behind the choice and use of particular methods (Crotty, 2004, p. 3) Methods The techniques used to gather and analyse data (Crotty, 2004, p. 3) Constructivism (Social) Phenomenology Action Research (Participatory) Observation Semi-structured interviews Field notes Intervention Focus group Narrative diary / journal Theme identification Document analysis Figure 1 elements of the study The process involved exploration of participants' beliefs and analysis of data collected through various qualitative methods related to study's methodology of participatory action research. Motivation for using Crotty's illustration Crotty's illustration and understandings of the key terminology in relation to this chapter was chosen, whilst acknowledging that there are variations on these definitions, as his book has been very significant in giving the researcher the foundations from which to develop the depth of theoretical understanding required at this educational level and will provide a coherent framework for this research. Epistemology This research borrows two research philosophies that are commonly used in applied research aimed at improving current practices in various fields of study, in this case, it is in improving educational practices. The two theoretical perspectives which the study seeks to borrow from being positivism and phenomenological (Stein & Sandra, 2000). However, this research will only use phenomenological theoretical perspectives data gathering process. The scope of this study is limited below what positivism approach can be effectively applied. As thus, positivism will only be used mildly to help explain some observed trends in various constructs. Phenomenological theoretical perspective as applied in epistemology The researcher's choice of phenomenological perspective was guided by the fact that it assumes that the truth and reality could be constructed both socially and individually, and so differ, depending on various factors such as a different set of situations, individual differences and views on mental processes; thus reality is not universal and absolute (Thomas, 1992). Research under this perspective involves the immersion of the researcher into the natural context and environment of the constructs and population being investigated; to form the meanings and relevance of the constructs and to get a wide view of the concepts, research methods that are appropriate for this perspective are employed (McNeese, 2007). The phenomenological research process is much more appropriate for the purpose of this research for several reasons. The assumptions made in this study agrees with the scope of the phenomenological perspective, for instance, it takes into consideration the individual feelings, perceptions, and learning outcomes of the students and the teachers involved in my study, which means that the research acknowledges the subjectivity of the information that were collected. Secondly, the researcher made use of various methods and strategies in order to provide relevant meanings of the concepts that arose during data collection process. Thirdly, this research required the researcher to be immersed in and participate within the natural setting of the subjects during the data collection procedure. These boundaries are in accordance with the scope of phenomenological perspective, including social constructivist epistemology, as enumerated by Hussey and Hussey (1997). However, this theoretical perspective would not adequately address the purpose of the research thus creating some cons. One, my research aims to explore the experiences and outcomes of newly designed learning strategies, thus, existing literature on these strategies and their outcomes are very limited ornot even available yete, and confirming or validating previous information is not what this research is all about (McNeese, 2007). Secondly, since the strategies that were studied in this research are relatively new and designed especially for the purposes of the research, it would be difficult to quantify the variables involved in my study since these constructs would only be apparent during the data analysis phase of the research as they do not have any specific measure with which they may be measured. Another strength of using phenomenological perspective in this study is that the researcher seeks to use it to improve his personal teaching practices, thus, it would require his participation within the context of the research which is within the classroom, thus, employing objective positivist theoretical perspective wou...