Course: Research Methods in Education (8604) Semester: Autumn, 2022

ASSIGNMENT No. 2

Q.1      What do you mean by research tool. Discuss different research tools. What is meant by the validity and reliability of research tools.

Ans,

Anything that becomes a means of collecting information for your study is called a research tool or a research instrument. For example, observation forms, interview schedules, questionnaires, and interview guides are all classified as research tools.

Reliability

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure. Psychologists consider three types of consistency: over time (test-retest reliability), across items (internal consistency), and across different researchers (inter-rater reliability).

Test-Retest Reliability

When researchers measure a construct that they assume to be consistent across time, then the scores they obtain should also be consistent across time. Test-retest reliability is the extent to which this is actually the case. For example, intelligence is generally thought to be consistent across time. A person who is highly intelligent today will be highly intelligent next week. This means that any good measure of intelligence should produce roughly the same scores for this individual next week as it does today. Clearly, a measure that produces highly inconsistent scores over time cannot be a very good measure of a construct that is supposed to be consistent.Again, high test-retest correlations make sense when the construct being measured is assumed to be consistent over time, which is the case for intelligence, self-esteem, and the Big Five personality dimensions. But other constructs are not assumed to be stable over time. The very nature of mood, for example, is that it changes. So a measure of mood that produced a low test-retest correlation over a period of a month would not be a cause for concern.

Q.2      What is the importance of sample in research? Discuss different sampling techniques in detail.

Ans.

When you conduct research about a group of people, it’s rarely possible to collect data from every person in that group. Instead, you select a sample. The sample is the group of individuals who will actually participate in the research.

To draw valid conclusions from your results, you have to carefully decide how you will select a sample that is representative of the group as a whole. There are two types of sampling methods:

• Probability sampling involves random selection, allowing you to make strong statistical inferences about the whole group.
• Non-probability sampling involves non-random selection based on convenience or other criteria, allowing you to easily collect data.

You should clearly explain how you selected your sample in the methodology section of your paper or thesis.

Table of contents

1.      Population vs sample

2.      Probability sampling methods

3.      Non-probability sampling methods

4.      Frequently asked questions about samplingPopulation vs sample

First, you need to understand the difference between a population and a sample, and identify the target population of your research.

• The population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about.
• The sample is the specific group of individuals that you will collect data from.

The population can be defined in terms of geographical location, age, income, and many other characteristics.

It can be very broad or quite narrow: maybe you want to make inferences about the whole adult population of your country; maybe your research focuses on customers of a certain company, patients with a specific health condition, or students in a single school.

It is important to carefully define your target population according to the purpose and practicalities of your project.

If the population is very large, demographically mixed, and geographically dispersed, it might be difficult to gain access to a representative sample.

Q.3      Develop a research proposal on “Analysis of Reforms in Curriculum for Secondary Level in Pakistan” mention all necessary steps properly.

Ans.

We all know the importance of education. It is the most important aspect of any nation’s survival today. Education builds the nations; it determines the future of a nation. So that’s why we have to adopt our Education Policies very carefully because our future depends on these policies.

ISLAM also tells us about Education and its importance. The real essence of Education according to ISLAM is “to know ALLAH” but I think in our country we truly lost. Neither our schools nor our madrassa’s (Islamic Education Centres) are truly educating our youth in this regard. In schools, we are just preparing them for “Money”. We aren’t educating them we are just preparing “Money Machines”. We are only increasing the burden of the books for our children and just enrolling them in a reputed, big school for what, just for social status??? On the other hand in our madrassas we are preparing people who finds very difficult to adjust in the modern society.

Sometimes it seems that they are from another planet. A madrassa student can’t compete even in our country then the World is so far from him. He finds very difficult to even speak to a school boy. It is crystal clear that Islamic Education is necessary for Muslims but it is also a fact that without modern education no one can compete in this world. There are many examples of Muslim Scholars who not only study the Holy Quraan but also mastered the other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and many more, with the help of Holy Quraan. I think with the current education system we are narrowing the way for our children instead of widening it. There is no doubt that our children are very talented, both in schools and in madrassas, we just need to give them proper ways to groom, give them the space to become Quaid-E- Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Alberoni, Abnalhasam, or Einstein, Newton, Thomas Edison. The education system we are running with is not working anymore. We have to find a way to bridge this gap between school and madrassa. Robert Maynard Hutchins describes it as “The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” We should give our youth the way to educate themselves.Edward Everett said that “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.” Sadly, in Pakistan we are spending more budgets on our arms than on education which depicts our ideology about education!!! Since 1947 not a single government is able to change

Q.4.     Define research proposal and discuss it different component in details.         

Ans.

Difference between a research proposal and a research report:

Research proposal and research report are two terms that often confuse many student researchers. A research proposal describes what the researcher intends to do in his research study and is written before the collection and analysis of data. A research report describes the whole research study and is submitted after the competition of the whole research project. Thus, the main difference between research proposal and research report is that a research proposal describes the proposed research and research design whereas a research report describes the completed research, including the findings, conclusion, and recommendations.

What is a Research Proposal

A research proposal is a brief and coherent summary of the proposed research study, which is prepared at the beginning of a research project. The aim of a research proposal is to justify the need for a specific research proposal and present the practical methods and ways to conduct the proposed research. In other words, a research proposal presents the proposed design of the study and justifies the necessity of the specific research. Thus, a research proposal describes what you intend to do and why you intend to do it.

A research proposal generally contains the following segments:

• Introduction/ Context/ Background
• Literature Review
• Research Methods and Methodology
• Research question
• Aims and Objectives
• List of Reference

Each of these segments is indispensable to a research proposal. For example, it’s impossible to write a research proposal without reading related work and writing a literature review. Similarly, it’s not possible to decide a methodology without determining specific research questions.

Q.5      Describe the use of observation, interview and content analysis in qualitative research.

Ans.

Qualitative research engages the target audience in an open-ended, exploratory discussion using tools like focus groups or in-depth interviews. Qualitative research explores the “what, why and how” questions and provides directional data about the target audience. It is commonly used to explore the perceptions and values that influence behavior, identify unmet needs, understand how people perceive a marketing message or ad, or to inform a subsequent phase of quantitative research.

Learn more about Isurus’ qualitative research tools:

• In-depth interviews
• Focus groups
• Asynchronous focus groups
• Qualitative techniques

In-depth Interviews

In-depth interviews are a guided, open-ended discussion with a single respondent. Interviewers lead respondents through a structured topic guide that addresses key issues of interest. Indepth interviews are appropriate for executives, geographically dispersed groups and people who would not feel comfortable speaking openly in a group (e.g., business competitors). In the US in-depth interviews are typically conducted by telephone. In the Middle East, Latin America and some Asian countries in-depth interviews are typically conducted in-person.