Major Characteristics Of Qualitative Research

Major Characteristics Of Qualitative ResearchCHAPTER 3RESEARCH METHODOLOGY3.0 IntroductionIn this chapter, look intoer testament explain in detail on how the seek allow be conducted. This includes the research design chosen by the tec, the research procedures, ingest selection, rules of gathering selective information, and systems of info abbreviation utilize. In explaining the methods and procedures employed, the police detective in addition explains the rationale for choosing the particular methods and procedures conducted in this research.3.1 Research DesignPatton (1990) in Fraenkel and Wallen (2006) described angiotensin-converting enzyme of the major(ip) characteristics of soft research is design flexibility where they suggested that a qualitative research should parry from stick on a rigid designs or blot so that the situation mint be understood in-depth. They also recommended a qualitative research should pursue new paths of discovery that suits with the inv estigator interest. From his possess meter reading and opinion, the research worker would like to define qualitative research as a typewrite of scientific research. It is beca determination generally scientific research consists of a straitlaced investigation that seeks for reactions to a question dustatically by designs a predefined tidy sum of procedures. In send to answer the questions, police detective collects evidence and produces findings that were not compulsive in advance and that ar applic qualified beyond the immediate boundaries of the larn.thusly to show pop his research qualitatively, the investigator would like to use scale rent as the method for the research worker to conduct this research. Case memorise is 1 of methods to conduct qualitative research where Robert Stake (1997) defines a plate as a bounded system as it tells a allegory ab come forward a bounded system. A system refers to a prune of interrelated elements that atomic number 1 8 wholesome while bounded outlines the boundary of the system (Holmes et al, 2008). barely the tec himself need to de experimental conditionine the case first and posterior the tec will uses various selective information collection techniques such as wonders, comment through literature, and relevant documentary compendium to carry out a holistic study of the entity. By using case study, the research worker will in truth attempt to investigate the comp whiznts or parts that pay back up the system to see how they operate. By refer to this research the researcher will investigate the lore syllabus of Steiner Waldorf education as he will equation the plan with Malaysian science curriculum.At one hand, the researcher will look at the important components of curriculum of twain Malaysian and Steiner Waldorf education. On the other hand the researcher will compare some(prenominal) curriculums in order to look at the strength and the weaknesses in Malaysian science curriculu m as compared to Steiner Waldorfs. Hence, the researcher believes that the researcher will experience the personal contact and sharpness as tumesce as holistic offices on both curriculums by using case study and comparative analytic thinking.3.2 Research MethodsAccording to Fraenkel and Wallen (2006) qualitative research employed trio main techniques to collect and analyze data which are observing plenty and classroom, interviewing the subject as wholesome as analyzing documents or other forms of communication. in that locationfore for the data collection the researcher employed the three contrastive methods that is to say observations, interviews, and document analyses. By employing more than one methods, the researcher believe it will help to triangulate the data, to provide multiple sources of evidence as well as to increase the validity and reliability of the findings of this research. Below here are the explanations on each method3.2.1 thoughtfulnesssObservation sa nctionedally conducted in order to investigate something that the researcher unfamiliar with. Because of that, certain kinds of research questions tail end outmatch be answered by observation (Fraenkel Wallen, 2006). According to Holmes et al (2008) observation lav be classified according to the role that the researcher plays. Fraenkel and Wallen (2006) suggested the same(p) and as followParticipant Observation, the researchers actually enrol in the situation or setting they are observing and when the researcher takes on the role of a complete thespian his identity is not known to the other members of the ag classify or other role that could be play by the researcher is as participant as observer. This is where the researcher participates completely in the activities of the throng being examine and on the same time revealing the base clearly that he is doing research.Non-participant Observation, sit on the sidelines where the researcher does not participate in the activ ity being observed or actually he is mediately complex with the situation being observed. There both roles that the researcher could play. First as observer as participant where the researcher direct identifies himself as researcher and do not have to pretend as a member of the particular group being studied. Second one the researcher could be complete observer which is totally contradicted with complete participant. The charge of the researcher may or may not, realize by the group because the researcher is actually observes the activities without any intention to participate.For this research, the observations carried out by the researcher were actually used both types of observation. In one situation the researcher plays his role as participant as observer and in yet, another situation, the role changed to observer as participant. The researcher adapted with the change of situation where it snarly time and purpose of the observation. For example when the researcher participa ted in the programs organised by the Steiner Waldorf department in Plymouth the researcher also carrying out his observation and informed the member of the group that he was carried out observation for his research. However during his visit to the Steiner school in Plymouth, he was no longer participant as observer instead, he was observer as participant where he observed the teaching and learning process, condition and environment of the school as well as the activities that the school had along that day.It was same with the observation carried out by the researcher in Malaysia. The researcher plays his role totally as observer as participant with the groups of students and teachers involved in this research. However when it involved with his personal experience as in-service teacher, he was actually a complete participant, where he observed the phenomenon occurred in the group that he studied without telling them the actual situation. But it was a very minor part from the observa tions that the researcher carried out.3.2.2 InterviewInterview is a common tool usually used in qualitative research. It is used by researcher to know and come across peoples experiences and their inner perceptions, attitudes, and feelings of reality (Zhang.Y, 2006). By referring to its bodily structure, interview can be divided into three categories unified interview, semi-structured interview, and ambiguous interview (Fontana Frey, 2005) and as in Frankael and Wallen (2006) the unstructured interview term is used as inner interview. coordinate interview is the interview that has a set of predefined questions and the questions asked to the respondent in the same manner. Structured interview is similar to survey and questionnaire except that it is conducted verbally rather than in writing.Semi-structured interview can best be described in ground of the flexibility in the interview process. Just like structured interview, this type of interview consists of a series of questio ns which designed to elicit specialized answer from respondent. However it usually more open-ended than questions in a structured interview but in the course of interview, interviewers has a flexibility to adapt the sequence of the questions to be asked and add questions base on the context of the conversations. slack interview as the term implies shows that the interview conducted is less formal as compared to structured or semi structured interview. It is also similar to a casual conversation and basically carried out to pursue the interests of both the researcher and the respondent in turn. This type of method is commonly used in qualitative research.For this research, the researcher carried out the three types of interview. Informal interviews were used by the researcher at the initial part of this research. The interviews were conducted on few teachers, lectures and students in the attempts to find out the paradox of Malaysian science curriculum. During his visit to Plymout h, the method changed to semi structured interview as the researcher hoped to gather as much information as possible to gain some insight about the Steiner education.The questions designed basically to help the researcher to submit the think answer from the respondents. Time is always being the limitation of any research. thus when the researcher traveled back to Malaysia, the researcher still hopes that he could get more information about science curriculum from the Steiner education. Therefore he conducted email interview with few Steiner teachers, lecturers and its ex-students. In the email the researcher explained shortly about research that he conducting as well as commandment how the respondent should answer the questions. The researcher classified the email interview method as structured interview in the sense that questions asked were fixed (in term of number) and no further probing were carried out. Email interviews conducted by the researcher as part of member check w hich is a term of method that use in qualitative research to verify what the researcher had understood based on the previous interviews, observations and document that he analyzed or as mean of validating via triangulation.3.2.3 Document/Content AnalysisIt is a technique that allow the researcher to study human behavior in an indirect way such as through an analysis of human communication, compose content of communication, textbook, essays, newspaper, journals, magazines, articles and others (Frankael Wallen, 2006). Content analysis also has been defined as a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process (Hsieh Shannon, 2005) and also as an prelude of empirical, methodological controlled analysis of texts inwardly their context of communication (Mayring, 2000).Therefore in this research document refers to pen sources that the researcher have attained from the online sources (articles, reports and jo urnals) and other written sources such as books that explain about Steiner and Malaysian science curriculum. The documents gathered include official publications which discuss the aims and objectives of science education and other aspects of curriculum such as implementation, assessment and the performance. These different documents were analyzed and discussed in comparison to the findings gathered through observations and interviews carried out by the researcher previously.3.3 Research ProceduresSince this is a comparative study between 2 different curriculums, there are procedures that need to be carried out by the researcher in two different countries which is Malaysia and Britain. Therefore, the researcher will explain the procedures in number of different stages as detailed belowStage 1To identify the problem about the Malaysian science curriculum, the researcher had knowledgeable interviews with few of age(p) teachers and lectures with science education soil. Besides that the researcher also conducted few informal interviews with students in mainstream science class. The idea to compare the Malaysian and Steiner science curriculum actually came from colleagues who had general idea about the Steiner Waldorf education.Stage 2 (Initial Study)The researcher gathered information about Steiner education including the history, approaches and its curriculum as well as read about the research conducted on Steiner education. At the same time, the researcher also contacted the item of the Steiner Waldorf education in University of Plymouth and liaises with the Senior passenger car of the Industrial linkages of that university via email to establish rapport before the visit to Britain. Meantime, the Head of the Steiner Waldorf department helped the researcher to organize Steiner and science related programs for the researcher to find during the visit and one of which is a visit to a Steiner school in Plymouth.Stage 3Prior to conducting this research in the UK , the researcher required to obtain permissions from the following partiesThe Dean of Faculty of Education of University Teknologi Mara (UiTM) to obtain permission to submit the proposal to the UiTM International Linkages Centre (UiLC)The Head of UiLC for the encomium of the fund needed by the researcher to conduct this study in BritainThe Vice Chancellor of UiTM to obtain the approval for the researcher to conduct this study in Britain andThe Head of Steiner Waldorf segment in University of Plymouth for permission and to be involved in this research.Stage 4When in the UK, data was gathered or obtained through varying sources and methods as highlighted assistance earliest, namely subsequent fall in a week program organized by Steiner Waldorf Department in University of Plymouth. The program also involved a class of first family students who doing their Bachelor in Steiner EducationGroup interview with the few lectures and students from the Steiner Waldorf DepartmentInterview wi th the Head of Steiner Waldorf Department in University of PlymouthEducational visit to one Steiner school in Plymouth where interviews were carried out with a few teachers from different backgroundsObservation of one science lesson and one practical or experiment sitting andExchange of emails with the few science teachers, lecturers and students who graduated from Steiner schools.Stage 5 at once the intended data were obtained from the UK, this stage will more focusing on data analysis and to find more evidence to further arrest the earlier findings.Conducted email interview with few Steiner science teachers, lectures and ex-students.Doing analysis on documents about Steiner curriculum specifically on science.Conducted a group interview with students from 2 different schools in Petaling district.Analyzed data gathered.3.4 Sampling dodgingA sample in a research study is the undivided or group on which information is obtained (Fraenkel Wallen, 2006). Another opinion, a sample con sists of a group of individuals drawn from the population where the sample is actually a fraction from the whole population (Holmes et al, 2008). A group of sample can be very small or maybe quite spacious depending on the number of population as the sample drawn is actually supposed to represent the entire population. There are two major types of sampling which is probability sampling and non-probability sampling.For this research, the researcher chose goal-directed sampling and widget sampling when conduct this research. A convenience sample is group of individuals who (conveniently) are available for study while purposive sample is chose based on the researcher judgment where the sample is believed could give useful information for the research (Fraenkel Wallen, 2006). On the other perspectives, Holmes et al (2008) in his book stated that purposive sampling is a way where the researcher, in choosing sample, considers the subjects that belong to a specific group. Basically this method is appropriate for a topic that has not been studied much before while convenience sampling is a actor studying of whomever or whatever is available.In attempt to study on Malaysian and Steiner Waldorfs science curriculum, the researcher was actually blended the method in sampling. Even though the sample might involve personal networking of the researcher, there were few aspects that the researcher gave due consideration and judgment. That is why the researcher chose to use purposive and convenience sampling. In order to go out a phenomenon from perspective of participants, the researcher chose sample who gave more useful information. In addition, the researcher also look at the participation, willingness and cooperation of the sample to involves with the research so that it will do much easier for the researcher.3.5 Sample3.5.1 Sample for Malaysian Science CurriculumThe samples that the researcher chose to gather useful information regarding Malaysian science curriculum can be divided into three categories, namely as expert (lecturer with science education background), practitioner (teacher) and students.3.5.2 Sample for Steiner Waldorf science curriculumThe samples that the researcher chose to understand about Steiner Waldorf education and its science curriculum also can be divided into three categories, namely as expert (lecturers with Steiner education background and Steiner science education background), practitioner (teacher) and students.3.6 Data AnalysisData analysis is one of the important parts in any research. It requires systematic procedures to mold the data gathered and the ability to analysis the data critically and thoroughly. However, to carry out the analysis, researcher will use the research questions and research objectives that constructed earlier as the guide. He believes that, it will help the researcher to shows the right worry of the exploration of the data.As the researcher employed observations, interviews and document a nalysis as the methods to gather the data, each method will undergo different levels of analysis at one point and later will be feature as a rich data that will be able to answer the research questions. Any notes that made by the researcher during his observations, informal interviews, transcript of email interviews, videos recorded, journals, and any publications related were organized accordingly into its own category.Next, the data were analyzed in order for the researcher to look at any existing patterns or themes and help the researcher to identify basic features of the data. This will help the researcher to develop and document a database structure and on the same time to describe about the data extensively by using qualitative software. The software will allow the researcher to code, retrieve and analyze data which could make the rich data rick more organized and useful.3.7 SummaryThe framework of this research took place within qualitative procedures since the aim of this research is compare the Malaysian and Steiner Waldorf science curriculum. Interviews conducted with the teachers, lectures and students from both systems as well as the observation that the researcher carried out in Malaysia and Britain were the main research tools. The information gathered was supported by the analysis of documents such as journals, articles, official publications and several ministry documents related to science education. The data transcribed with the aid of qualitative data analysis software helped the researcher to come out with the findings of the research.