How to Conduct A Research Part 3 - Choosing Research Approach

The first three steps of the scientific method are the crucial part of a study. Some people spend a lot of time moving forward and backward in these three steps: Identifying problems, literature review, and determining the aims of the research. As it is explained in the previous part, the result will determine the approach of the study that will be used.

You may have heard about experiment research or case study. There are also common approach like action research and survey. In general,  Denscombe (2010) divide the research approach into 8:

    1. Surveys and sampling
    2. Case studies
    3. Experiments
    4. Ethnography
    5. Phenomenology
    6. Grounded theory
    7. Actions research
    8. Mixed method

These approach are distinguished based on its suitability to the aims of the researcher. In short, the research approach of a study depends on its aims. In part 2, we know that there are at least 6 different aims of a study. They are (for the details, please read part 2 of the topic): 

    1. To describe: survey,

    2. To explain

    3. To compare

    4. To evaluate

    5. To design

    6. To advice

For instance, survey and sampling is a good approach if the aims of the study is to describe or to have an insight. If you want to compare the results among groups, experiment is a good choice. Each approach has at least one particular purposes or main purposes. for example, action research is used to identify problem and try to get advice for it. If you have more than one aims than it is possible to have a mixed approach.   

Research approach also determines the type of the data that will be collected. For instance, surveys, experiment will have quantitative data. on the other hand, case study, phenomenology have qualitative data. Therefore, based on the types of the data collected, these approaches can be categorized into three types:

    1. Quantitative: surveys, experiment, action research, mixed method.

    2. Qualitative: case study, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory.

    3. Both quantitative and qualitative: action research, mixed method, experiment, survey.

In addition, research approach also will determine the type of research technique or research method to collect the data. There are some techniques proposed (Denscombe, 2010):

    1. Questionnaires

    2. Interviews

    3. Observations

    4. Documents

This topic will be discussed in the next part: Part 4 - Research Technique