Explain Maxwell’s interactive model of research design in your own words. Why is it “interactive?”
Planning or conducting a study requires research and a good design. “A good design, one in which the components work harmoniously together, promoting efficient and successful functioning; a flawed design leads to poor operation or failure” (Maxwell, 2013, p. 2). When conducting research, the research questions are the normal starting point. They are what drives the study and, therefore, the piece that controls the design which all other components must follow (Maxwell, 2013). With the research questions at the center of the design, unlike typical research models, the interactive model of research design is connected in such a way as to provide
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The research questions have the greatest effect on the other four components and, at the same time, are highly sensitive to them (Maxwell, 2013). The component parts of the model, which are constantly evolving, support and depend on each other. Flexibility is required as the study may be modified throughout the process. Therefore, the significance of interactivity is that this type of design affords the researcher the ability to easily manipulate and/or modify the research design as the goals or conceptual framework changes.
Maxwell’s research design has a definite structure. At the center of the design study, research questions should have a clear relationship to the goals or issues you want to address and why. Subsequently, the goals of the research should reflect previous knowledge, current theories and concepts and how they relate to the subject. However, if the research methods do not allow you to answer your research questions and/or validate them, your design will be
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On the other hand, Quantitative research refers to “variance theory” where quantity describes the research in terms of statistical relationships between different variables (Maxwell, 2013). Quantitative research answers the questions “how much” or “how many?” Quantitative research is an objective, deductive process and is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables with generalized results from a larger sample population. Much more structured than qualitative research, quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys, personal interviews and telephone interviews, polls, and systematic observations. Methods can be considered “cookie cutter” with a predetermined starting point and a fixed sequence of
Research can be quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research is objective and involves measuring the phenomena under investigation. Qualitative research is subjective, explores experiences and feelings, and involves the recording of phenomena that cannot easily be quantified (Toates, 2010, pp. 5-6). Both are empirical since they involve data collection (OU, n.d.).
Researchers need to understand methodology before a study is conducted in order to have a clear understanding of the research methods and for the researcher to become familiar with the research method used(Study.com, 2015).
A strategy to be able to do the research in a structured manner was set up. This was needed so to be able to view the research question and be able to answer it in a structured manner, for this reason concepts were identified and listed.
The main purpose of the research design is to serve as a guideline for the entire research.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Advantages associated with quantitative descriptive design prompted choosing the design. One advantages of the quantitative descriptive design is accommodation of large amounts of data. For this study, feedback from the students is needed in order to guide decision making and
Patten, M. L. (2001) Understanding research methods: An overview of the essentials. (3rd Ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
The planning that occurs behind educational research is an intricate process thus in addition to establishing a research problem and purpose and reviewing literature, inquirers must determine the best experimental design that fits their needs. Even though experiments may share characteristics, “their use and application vary depending on the type of design used” (Creswell, 2008, p. 310). Therefore understanding the types of experimental designs commonly used to inquiry about educational thematic is useful to identify the design whose approach will contribute the success of the research. The two major umbrellas of experimental design include between-group and within-group designs, which are further broken down into three subcategories of experimental design according to their characteristics. On the one hand, the between-group design offers an approach in which the inquirer is able to compare two or more clusters of subjects exposed to various degrees of interventions (Creswell, 2008). The between-group design is widely used in various fields given its ability to provide information that compares the interventions to a control group just as majority of the scientific experiments conducted in a science laboratory. In contrast, the within-group design offers an approach geared towards observations of the participants as they themselves become the control of the experiment (Creswell, 2008). Given the distinction among the between-group and within-group designs, it is critical to compare and contrast the six types of experimental design that fall under each of these categories.
The nature of research instruments, the sampling plan and the type of data the research design constitutes the blueprint for the collection, the measurement and analysis of data. It aids the researcher in the allocation of his limited resources by posing crucial choices.
Quantitative research involves the collection and converting of data into numerical form to enable statistical calculations be made and conclusions drawn. It provides a measure of how people think, feel or behave and uses the statistical analysis to determine the results. However, this measurement results in numbers, or data, being collected, which is then analyzed by using quantitative research methods (Byrne, 2007).
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 problem, hypotheses, independent (IVs) and dependent variables (DVs), experimental design, and, if applicable, data collection methods and a statistical analysis plan. Research design is the framework that has been created to find answers to research
Qualitative and Quantitative study designs both can be beneficial in research design. They both provide valuable options for researchers in the field. These techniques can either be used separately in a research study or they can be combined to achieve maximum information. This paper will define the terms qualitative and quantitative; describe the similarities and differences between each; discuss how qualitative and/or quantitative research designs or techniques could be used in the evaluation of my proposed research; and discuss why linking analysis to study design is important.
There are 3 types of research design which can be used in conducting studies which consists exploratory research, descriptive research and causal research. Exploratory research is used when few or no previous studies exists (Neville, 2007). While, causal research is a type of investigation in which the researcher has no direct...
Traditional research may use quantitative or qualitative research method. According to Hendricks (2009), quantitative research is a general conclusion based on hard data. Hen-dricks describe quantitativ...
This paper will exam aspects of correlational design. According to Fabiano-Smith (2011), correlational designs are non-experimental research designs that focus on observing variables as they naturally exist. Since this design type is non-experimental, one of its major disadvantages is the focus on the relationship of the variables and not is cause and effect between the variables. Despite this weakness, correlational design does have several strengths. It observes the variables as they occur in a natural setting without manipulation. Researchers often use the initial establishment of correlational relationships between variables to identify what variables should be further studied for cause and effect utilizing experimental designs.