LEARNING FROM OTHER STUDIES AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
Importance of Related Theories and Concepts
What, Where and How to Find Information
• A theoretical framework can be thought of as a
• It is necessary that you list down all the important
map or travel plan.
variables which you need in your study and any
It is important to consider relevant theory
theories which you think can generate your
underpinning the knowledge base of the
hypothesis and those that can explain the
phenomenon to be researched.
relationships among your variables.
1. What do I know about the phenomenon that I
• After the variables are determined, the
want to study?
relationship between them posited and either a
2. What types of knowledge are available to me?
preliminary hypothesis or investigative question
3. What theory will best guide my teaching
stated, you continue your search for information
practice?
related to your problem being studied.
4. Is this theory proven through theory-linked
• Check the population you want to include in
research?
your study.
5. What other theories are relevant to this
• Know how to write citations where you can
practice?
include the author, the title, the publisher and the
6. How can I apply these theories and findings in
date of publication, the volume number, the page
practice?
number, information about the study and the
findings.
Definition of Literature
• Review and synthesize those findings that
• Written works collectively, especially, those
support or reject your hypothesis or research
enduring importance, exhibiting creative
questions. • Use online computers for searching
imagination and artistic skill which are written in a
and retrieval of information.
particular period, language and subject.
• Synthesize the reviewed literature.
• Any written materials published in book, journal,
magazine, novel, poetry, yearbook and
Types of Literature Reviews
encyclopedia are considered literature.
•Argumentative Review
•Integrative Review
Definition of Studies
•Historical Review
•Published and unpublished research studies such
•Methodological Review
as thesis, dissertation, and research proceedings
•Systematic Review
are sources of materials that are included in this
•Theoretical Review
section.
Rules for Writing a Literature Review
Functions of Review of Literature and Studies
•Define the topic and audience.
• To provide justification of the study
•Search and re-search the literature.
• To identify gaps, problems and needs of related
•Take notes while reading.
studies
•Choose the type of review you wish to write.
• To provide rationale of the study as well as the
•Keep the review focused, but make it of broad
reasons of conducting the study
interest.
• To have basis that will be used to support the
•Be critical and consistent.
findings of the study
•Find a logical structure.
•Make use of feedback.
Characteristics of the Materials Cited
•Include your own relevant research.
• The materials must be as recent as possible, may
•Be up to date in your review of literature and
be 10 years back.
studies.
• Materials must be as objective and unbiased as
possible.
• Materials must be relevant to the study.
• Coherence principle must be observed in writing
literature review.
Citation Style Guides
• APA (American Psychological Association) – is
an author/date-based style. This means emphasis
is placed on the author and the date of a piece of
work to uniquely identify it.
• MLA (Modern Language Association) – is most
often applied by the arts and humanities,
particularly in the USA. It is arguably the most well
used of all the citation styles.
• Harvard – is very similar to APA. Where APA is
primarily used in the USA, Harvard referencing is
the most well used referencing style in the UK and
Australia, and is encouraged for use with the
humanities.
• Vancouver – is mainly used in medical and
scientific papers.
• Chicago and Turabian – are two separate styles
but are very similar, just like Harvard and APA.
These are widely used for history and economics.
APA
In text citation Direct quotation – use quotation
marks around the quote and include page
numbers Samovar and Porter (1997) point out that
“language involves attaching meaning to
symbols” (p.188). Alternatively, “Language involves
attaching meaning to symbols” (Samovar & Porter,
1997, p. 188) Indirect quotation/paraphrasing – no
quotation marks Attaching meaning to symbols is
considered to be the origin of written language
(Samovar & Porter, 1997). Citations from a
secondary source As Hall (1977) asserts, “culture
also defines boundaries of different groups” (as
cited in Samovar & Porter, 1997, p. 14)
Research Ethics Ethical writing is clear, accurate,
fair and honest.
Basic Principles of Ethical Practice
• Obtained informed consent from participants
• There should be no pressure on individuals to
participate. • Respect individual autonomy. •
Avoid causing harm.
• Maintain anonymity and confidentiality.
• Take particular care in research with vulnerable
groups.
Plagiarism
• It is the most widely recognized and one of the
most serious violations of the contract between
the reader and the writer.
• It is the using of someone else’s words or ideas,
and passing them off as your own.
Twenty-Five Ethical Guidelines
• An ethical writer always acknowledges the
contributions of others and the source of his/her
ideas.
• Any verbatim text taken from another author
must be enclosed in quotation marks.
• We must always acknowledge every source that
we use in our writing; whether we paraphrase it,
summarize it, or enclose it in quotations.
• When we summarize, we condense, in our own
words, a substantial amount of material into a
short paragraph or perhaps even into a sentence.
• Whether we are paraphrasing or summarizing,
we must always identify the source of the
information.
• When paraphrasing and/or summarizing others’
work we must reproduce the exact meaning of
the other authors’ ideas or facts using our words
and sentence structure.
• In order to make substantial modifications to the
original text that result in a proper paraphrase, the
author must have a thorough understanding of the
ideas and terminology being used.
• A responsible writer has an ethical responsibility
to readers, and to the author/s from whom s/he is
borrowing, to respect other’s ideas and words, to
credit those from whom we borrow, and whenever
possible, to use one’s own words when
paraphrasing.
• When in doubt as to whether a concept or fact
is common knowledge, provide a citation.
• Authors who submit a manuscript for publication
containing data, reviews, conclusions, etc. that
have already been disseminated in some
significant manner must clearly indicate to the
editors and readers the nature of previous
dissemination.
• If the results of a single complex study are best
presented as a “cohesive” single whole, they
should not be partitioned into individual papers.
• Because some instances of plagiarism, selfplagiarism, and even some writing practices that
might otherwise be acceptable can constitute
copyright infringement, authors are strongly
encouraged to become familiar with basic
elements of copyright law.
• Authors are urged to adhere to the spirit of
ethical writing and avoid reusing their own
previously published text, unless it is done in a
manner consistent with standard scholarly
conventions. Twenty Five Ethical Guidelines
• Authors are strongly urged to double-check their
citations.
• The references used in a paper should only be
those that are directly related to its contents.
• Authors should follow a simple rule: Strive to
obtain the actual published paper.
• Generally, when describing others’ work, do not
rely on a secondary summary of that work.
• If an author must rely on a secondary source to
describe the contents of a primary source, s/he
should consult writing manuals used in his/her
discipline to follow the proper convention to do so.
• When borrowing heavily from a source, authors
should always craft their writing in a way that
makes clear to readers, which ideas are their own
and which are derived from the source being
consulted.
• When appropriate, authors have an ethical
responsibility to report evidence that runs contrary
to their point of view.
• Authors have an ethical obligation to report all
aspects of the study that may impact the
independent replicability of their research.
• Researchers have an ethical responsibility to
report the results of their studies according to their
a priori plans.
• Only those individuals who have made
substantive contributions to a project merit
authorship in a paper.
• Faculty-student collaborations should follow the
same criteria to establish authorship.
• Academic or professional ghost authorship in the
sciences is ethically unacceptable.
Protecting the Intellectual Property in the
Philippines
• It is enshrined in the Intellectual Property Code of
the Philippines, officially known as Republic Act
No. 8293.
• Under Philippine law, original intellectual
creations in the literary and artistic domain are
copyrightable.
UNDERSTANDING DATA AND WAYS TO
SYSTEMATICALLY COLLECT DATA
Research Design
•Refers to the overall plan and scheme for
conducting the study. Thus, the researcher may
utilize a historical design, descriptive design or an
experimental design.
Descriptive Research Design
• The purpose of this design is to describe the
status of an identified variable such as events,
people or subjects as they exist. It usually makes
some type of comparison, contrasts, correlation
and sometimes, in carefully planned and
orchestrated descriptive researches, cause and
effect relationships may be established to some
extent.
Experimental Research Design
•They are also known as longitudinal or repeatedmeasure studies. They are also referred to as
interventions, because you do more than just
observe the subjects. It uses the scientific method
to establish the cause and effect among a group
of variables that make up a study.
Historical Research Design
•The purpose of this research is to collect, verify
and synthesize evidence from the past to establish
facts that defend or refute your hypothesis.
Sampling
• Is the process of getting information from a
proper subset of population.
The fundamental purpose of all sampling plans is
to describe the population characteristics through
the values obtained from a sample as accurately
as possible. It is therefore evident that if one were
to draw conclusions based on a small sample then
the sample must imitate the behavior or
characteristics of the original population as closely
as possible.
Sampling Plan
• Is a detailed outline of which measurements will
be taken at what times, on which material, in what
manner, and by whom that support the purpose of
an analysis. Sampling plans should be designed in
such a way that the resulting data will contain a
representative sample of the parameters of
interest and allow for all questions, as stated in the
research objectives to be answered.
Steps in Developing a Sampling Plan
1. Identify the parameters to be measured, the
range of possible values and the requires solution
2. Design a sampling scheme that details how and
when samples will be taken
3. Select sample sizes
4. Design data storage formats
5. Assign roles and responsibilities
Probability Sampling
• It refers to a sampling technique in which
samples are obtained using some objective
chance mechanism, thus involving randomization.
They require the use of a sampling frame. The
probabilities of selection are known.
Non-Probability Sampling
•This is a technique when there is no way of
estimating the probability that each element has
of being included in the sample and no assurance
that every element has a chance of being
included.
Instruments
•Are the data gathering devices that will be used
in the study. It is a testing device for measuring a
given phenomenon, such as a paper and pencil
test, questionnaires, interviews, research tools, or
set of guidelines for observation.
Sources of Data
• Primary Sources – known as primary data/raw
data. These are data obtained from your own
researchers, surveys, observations and interviews.
• Secondary Sources – known as secondary data.
These are data obtained from secondary sources
such as reports, books, journals, documents,
magazines, internet and more.
Data Collection Methods
1. Interviews Kinds of Interview:
a. Structured Interview – the researcher asks a
standard set of questions and nothing more. The
interview follows a specific format with the same
line of questioning. The aim of this approach is to
ensure that each interview is presented with
exactly the same questions in the same order.
b. Face to Face Interview – most frequently used. It
can be conducted in the respondent’s home or
workplace, halls or even simply in the street.
c. Telephone Interview – less consuming and less
expensive. The researcher has ready access to
anyone who has a telephone.
d. Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing – is a
form of personal interview but instead of
completing a questionnaire, the interviewer brings
along a laptop or handheld computer to enter the
information directly into the database.
2. Questionnaires Five Sections:
a. Respondent’s Identification Data –include
respondent’s name, address, date of the interview
and name of the interviewer.
b. Introduction –is the interviewer’s request for
help. It is normally scripted and lays out the
credentials of the market research company, the
purpose of the study and any aspects of
confidentiality.
c. Instruction – refers to the interviewer and the
respondent’s directions on how to move through
the questionnaire such as which questions to skip
and where to move to if certain answers are
given.
d. Information –is the main body of the document
and is made up of the many questions and
response codes.
e. Classification Data and Information –establish
the important characteristics of the respondent,
particularly related to their demographics which
are sometimes at the front of questionnaire or
sometimes at the end.
Types of Questionnaires:
a. Paper-pencil Questionnaire – can be sent to a
large number of people and saves the researcher
time and money.
b. Web-based Questionnaire – is a new and
inevitably growing methodology using the internet
based research. c. Self-administered
Questionnaire – are general distributed through
mail, filled out and administered by the
respondent themselves which is returned via email
to the researcher.
3. Observations – is a way of gathering data by
watching behavior, events, or noting physical
characteristics in their natural setting.
Kinds of Observations:
a. Overt – when everyone knows they are being
observed.
b. Covert –when no one knows they are being
observed and the observes is concealed.
4. Tests –provide a way to assess subject’s
knowledge and capacity to apply this knowledge
to new situations.
Kinds of Tests:
a. Norm-referenced tests –provide information on
how the target performs against a reference
group or normative population.
b. Criterion-referenced tests –constructed to
determine whether or not the
respondents/subjects have attained mastery of a
skill or knowledge area. c. Proficiency test –
provides an assessment against a level of skill
attainment, but includes standards for
performance at varying levels of proficiency.
5. Secondary Data – a type of quantitative data
that has already been collected by someone else
for a purpose different from yours. These data are
collected by researchers, government and private
agencies, institutions or organizations or
companies that provide important information for
government planning and policy
recommendation and theory generation.
a. Paper-based sources – are those from books,
journals, periodicals, abstracts, indexes, directories,
research reports, conference papers, market
reports, annual reports, internal records of
organizations, newspapers and magazines.
b. Electronic sources – are those from CD-ROMs,
on-line databases, internet, videos and
broadcasts.
Pointers to Remember in Reporting the Results:
• Explain the data you have collected, the
statistical treatment and all relevant results in
relation to the research problem that you are
investigating.
• Describe unexpected events that occurred
during your data collection. Explain how the
actual analysis differs from the planned analysis.
Explain how you handled the missing data and
why any missing data did not undermine the
validity of your analysis.
• Explain the techniques you used to “clean” your
data set.
• Choose a statistical tool and discuss its use and
reference for it. Specify any computer programs or
software used in the study.
• Describe well the assumptions for each
procedure and the steps you took to ensure that
they were not violated.
• Provide the descriptive statistics, confidence
intervals and sample sizes for each variable.
• Avoid interfering causality, particularly in nonrandomized designs or without further
experimentation.
• Use tables to provide exact values and use
figures to convey global effects. Keep figures small
in size ad include graphic presentations of
confidence intervals whenever possible.
• Inform the reader what to look for in tables and
figures.
Writing of Methodology
• Participants – describe the participants in your
research study, including who they are, how many
there are, and how they are selected. Explain how
the samples were gathered, any randomization
techniques and how the samples were prepared.
• Materials –describe the materials, measures,
equipment, or stimuli used in your research study.
This may include testing instruments, technical
equipment, books, images or other materials used
in the course of your study.
• Design – describe the research design used in
your research study. Specify the variables as well
as the levels and measurement of these variables.
Explain whether your research study uses a within
groups or between-groups design. Discuss how the
measurements were made and what calculations
were performed upon the raw data. Describe the
statistical techniques used upon the data.
• Procedure – the detail of the research
procedures used in your research study should be
properly explained. Explain what your
participants/respondents do, how you collected
the data, the order in which steps occurred.
Observe some ethical standards in gathering your
data