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Electronic Textbook - According to Its Own Design: Research Design Methodology

"Population and Sampling" is but one subpart of the overall master plan: research design and procedures. The "who" (or more grammatically correct, with whom) of population and sampling is generally preceded by the "how:" the blueprint, or design methodology. That will be our major topic this time out!

Open this link for a very good overview of Research Design from Bill Trochim's site at Cornell.

Research Design

We'll start out with a schematic that identifies the major subsections of research design and procedures. Next, we'll review the major "families" or types of design methodologies. This will be done by way of my asking you to review the EDR 610 Intro to Research Module #2 that deal with these families of designs. Finally, I'll introduce you to two subtopics that are closely related to design methodology: limitations and delimitations. Although not expressly a part of our proposal framework, these do come into play in the eventual prospectus. They will be an integral part of Chapter One. Because they typically cause a lot of confusion for researchers, especially the delimitations, I'd like to give you a "jump start" on what they mean and how they are different in our course!

So, sit back, relax, and we'll cruise on through...!

I. Research Design & Procedures: The Key Components

WARNING! The following terms are often confused by novice researchers:

Research Design and Procedures;
Design Methodology; and
Data Analysis Procedures

TIP: "Research Design and Procedures" is the major subheading - it will drive a good chunk of your all-important prospectus Chapter 3! And it contains the other two components!

Perhaps the following flow diagram of the parts of Research Design and Procedures may help sort things out:

Figure 1.
Flow Chart of the Key Components of the
Research Design and Procedures

Please note the following key characteristics of the above flowchart:

* Research Design and Procedures encompasses the entire "master plan" of your research. In your eventual Chapter Three, you'll create a centered subheading with a subtitle of the same name.

Under this Design and Procedures subheading, you'll provide a brief (1-2 paragraphs) overview of what you will do and how you will do it.
It is also highly advisable for you to consider creating your own visual paradigm or flowchart of Design and Procedures to also be presented in this subsection. You might have a flow of shapes like those, above, but with add'l. detail as to your particular choices in the boxes (e.g., relevant population and sampling buzzwords; keywords to characterize your data analysis/reporting procedures; in cases of multimethod designs and procedures, separate diagrams or shapes to characterize each aspect - i.e., written survey and focus group interviews). Some dissertation chairs, in fact, virtually 'insist' on the inclusion of such a visual flow chart or paradigmatic depiction of Design and Procedures!

* Design methodology, or Research Design, is actually the first major sub-component of your Design and Procedures. As such, it would be a "side subheading" (under the overall "umbrella" centered subheading of Design and Procedures) in your Chapter Three prospectus.

As you saw in our initial handout on "What Is A Doctoral Research Proposal?" the design methodology narrative consists of chaining together any/all relevant buzzwords that characterize overall "blueprint" your particular research study. Therefore, this subsection is as "lean and mean" as our "Statement of the Problem:" ideally a single sentence (although it may need to be broken up into two or more sentences just for readability), identifying the methodology buzzwords that correspond to your study.

***: In order to give us all a common base and frame of reference, I'd urge you at this time to study the EDR 610 Intro to Research Module 4 / materials. These web pages identify, define and illustrate the various "families" of design methodology labels and how certain design terms "link to" certain related keywords of your problem statement. These are as follows:

Module 4, Lesson #1, including Figures 1 and 2: Part I of Design Methodology "Families;" and
Module 4, Lesson #2: Part II of Design Methodology "Families," a special look at newly developed terminology for qualitative (in whole or in part) studies.

Please study or review these materials and of course, please let me know if you should have any questions!

* Some dissertation writers like to include a brief rationale as to why a given methodologic label pertains to their particular study. That is: they not only tell what the study is under methodology - the buzzword or label itself - but also why that particular label "fits." This is fine and even advisable, particularly in the case of the relatively 'new' qualitative design terminology. I also like to see a brief rationale in the case of ex post facto/causal comparative designs. This helps me to see that you understand the "after-the-fact," non-experimental nature of this particular type of methodology, and how it is different from the true experimental designs.

As long as such rationale is focused and brief, it is fine for your Design Methodology sub-sub-heading! But I would caution against getting "too carried away." I've seen some (well-intended! and perhaps a bit insecure - believe me, I know that feeling ... !) dissertation writers cross the line into several paragraphs or even pages of such rationale. Before they know it, they find themselves citing narrative and authors of several research books in what is meant to be a brief and focused rationale.

One way to compromise on this issue is the following: write up a brief rationale in your Design Methodology subsection. If your chair and/or committee members need for you to 'defend' this particular choice of term, let it emerge in the questioning during your prospectus hearing (or proposal meeting if your chair goes the formal-meeting route for the proposal). If and when you are indeed questioned in this manner, my advice to you would then be to ask if your chair and/or committee members would like to see such rationale (that you've just verbally discussed) expanded in the written narrative for Chapter 3. More often than not, they won't need a lengthy write-up; they just wanted to ask you in the meeting to be sure that you, and they, understood exactly what you are doing and why. But if they do prefer such written elaboration, you will have had a golden opportunity to find this out!

Again, my cardinal rule here prevails: when in doubt, ask your chair if he/she has a preference! My own advice, which seems to be the preference of most if not all chairs with whom I've worked, is to focus on lean and mean "what" (design terms) and only very brief rationale.

� Biggest mistake I see made here! is in not pinning down all of the relevant design methodology 'buzzwords' that may be pertinent to your study! Perhaps this happens because (subconsciously, at least) you may be thinking: "one design term per study." But it is very rare for this to be the case. In fact, I can't think of a single instance where at least two or three, and even more, terms applied to a given dissertation topic - especially considering all of the sub problems. By carefully rereading Intro to Research Module 4, Lessons #1 and #2, you'll probably come to realize that the design terms are far from "mutually exclusive:" that is, there is considerable interrelationship and overlap possible regarding a given study. As you'll also probably see from these two lessons, many of them "naturally go together" as well. The "methods person(s)" on your committee will take a careful look at these, matching your stated design terms to your problem statement, sub problems, etc. - and by dialoguing with you, 'draw out' some more possibilities of relevant design labels that you might not have thought of. (You guessed it: that's what I do...! I speak from experience!)

* Another common point of confusion: "DESIGN" vs. "ANALYSIS." Occasionally I'll see someone tell me their "methodology" is "analysis of variance," or "focus group interviewing" or "chi square."

Think of design methodology as the overall 'blueprint' terms - like the ones in the Intro to Research Module #2 and #4 lessons.
Analysis, on the other hand, is "how will you compile and report your data to answer your questions?" These would be our friends the descriptive or inferential statistical procedures for quantitative (e.g.,frequencies, percentages, t-test, chi square) or the 2 most popular ways to compile and report data in qualitative studies: summary narrative and matrices/visual displays.

Take a look at the link below to refresh your understanding of methods of analysis.

Analysis

Once you have finished you should:

Go on to Assignment 1: Your Design Methodology
or
Go back to Topic 2:According to its Own Design: Research Design Methodology

E-mail M. Dereshiwsky at statcatmd@aol.com
Call M. Dereshiwsky at (520) 523-1892