OBJECTIVES

The learner should be able to:

Analyze the use of an unfamiliar term in a sentence to know its
meaning;

Obtain a thorough or in-depth knowledge of qualitative research;

Clarify your understanding of qualitative research;
Explain the elements or characteristics of qualitative research;
Justify the usefulness of qualitative research;
Compare and contrast the types of qualitative research; and
Match a given research topic with the right research type.

ACTIVITY 1: MAKING WORDS MEANINGFUL

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. You will encounter the following words
in the reading selection that you will read a few minutes from now.
Recall whatever previous knowledge you have about them to know their
meanings. Get clues also from how they were used in the sentences.

1. Premium Which must you put a premium on, good

reputation or material wealth?
2. Emanating Feelings that are emanating from the
orphan reflect his social indifference.
3. Constantly Pray constantly as if it was an act of
breathing and eating.
4. Fixated Dont allow yourself to be fixated on such line
of thinking.
5. Abound Cultivate an area abound with earthworms for
hamburger production.

ACTIVITY 1: MAKING WORDS MEANINGFUL

6. Vision He has a vision in life that makes him see
himself sitting in a place.
7. Gear To whom will he gear such ironical line, to Brutus
or Augustus Caesar?
8. Yield Watering it daily will make that tree yield fruits.
9. Diverse You may choose one from those diverse
Chinese products.
10. Indispensable In general, rice is indispensable to
Filipinos like pizza is to Italians.

ACTIVITY 2: BRAINSTORMING SESSION

Directions: How knowledgeable are you about your
surroundings? How can you know more about people,
places, and things in this world? Share with your
classmates some ways and techniques you know about
becoming knowledgeable about a lot things in this world
such as those within your own world, among your friends,
schoolmates, loved ones, and so on.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Resulting from internal aspects, people cannot measure
worldviews but can know them through numbers.
Obtaining world knowledge in this manner directs you to
do a research called Qualitative Research. These is a
research type that puts premium or high value on peoples
thinking or point of view conditioned by their personal
traits. As such, it usually take place in soft sciences like
social sciences, politics, economics, humanities,
education, psychology, nursing, and all business-related
subjects.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an
individual or a group under study, but also for you, the
researcher, because of your personal involvement in
every stage of your research. For instance, during
interviews, you intend to admire or appreciate peoples
ideas based on their answers to your observations and
analysis of certain objects. By carefully looking at or
listening to the subject or object in a natural setting, you
become affected by their expressions of what they think
and feel about a topic. (Coghan 2014)

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by
society and peoples intentions are involved in explaining
cause-effect relationships. Things are studied in their
natural setting, enough for you to conclude that qualitative
research is an act of inquiry or investigation of real-life
events. Giving you more concepts about a qualitative
research are the following paragraphs that
comprehensively present the elements or characteristics,
types, and advantages of this kind of research (Silverman
2013; Litchman 2013; Walliman 2014; Suter 2012)

RESEARCH IN CONTEXT

Research is analogous to inquiry, in that, both involve investigation

of something through questioning. However, the meaning of
research is more complicated than inquiry because it does not
center mainly on raising questions about the topic, but also on
carrying out a particular order of research stages. Each stage of the
research process is not an individual task because the knowledge
you obtain through each stage comes not only from yourself but
other people as well. Thus similarly to inquiry, research involves
cooperative learning.
Central to research is your way of discovering new knowledge,
applying knowledge in various ways as well as seeing relationships
of ideas, events, and situations. Research then puts you in a context
where a problem exists. You have to collect facts or information,
study such data, and come up with a solution to the problem based
on the results of your analysis. It is a process requiring you to work
logically or systematically and collaboratively with others.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. Human understanding and interpretation
Data analysis and results show an individuals mental, social, and
spiritual understanding of the world. Hence, through their worldviews, you
come to know what kind of human being he or she is, including his or her
values, beliefs, likes, and dislikes.
2. Active, powerful, and forceful
A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of a qualitative
research. As you go through the research process, you find the need to
amend or rephrase interview questions and consider varied ways of
getting answers, like shifting from mere speculating to traveling to places
for data gathering. You are not fixated to a certain plan. Rather, you are
inclined to discover your qualitative research design as your study
gradually unfolds or reveals itself in accordance with your research
objectives.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

3. Contextualization
A quantitative research involves all variables, factors, or conditions
affecting the study. Your goal here is to understand human behavior.
Thus, it is crucial for you to examine the context or situation of an
individuals life the who, what, why, how, and other circumstances
affecting his or way of life.
4. Diversified data in real-life situations
A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural setting like
observing people as they live and work, analyzing photographs or videos
as they genuinely appear to peoples intentional observations.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

5. Abounds with words and visuals
Words, words, and more words come in big quantity in this kind of
research. Data gathering through interviews or library reading, as well as
the presentation of data analysis results, is done verbally. In some cases,
it resorts to quoting some respondents answers. Likewise, presenting
peoples world views through visual presentation (i.e., pictures, videos,
drawing, and graphs) are significantly used in a qualitative research.
6. Internal analysis
Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the subject
individuals (i.e., emotional, mental, spiritual characteristics). You study
peoples perception or views about your topic, not the effects of their
physical existence of your study. In case of objects (e.g., books, and
artworks) that are subject to a qualitative research, the investigation
centers on underlying theories or principles that govern these materials
and their usefulness to people.

TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

1. Case Study
This type of qualitative research usually takes place in the field of
social care, nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers, education, etc.
This involves a long-term study of a person, group, organization, or
situation. It seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs to the subject.
Finding the reason/s behind such occurrence drives you to also delve into
relationships of people related to the case under study. Varieties of data
collection methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, and
documentary analysis are used in a case study.
2. Ethnography
Falling the field of anthropology, ethnography is the study of a
particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its organizational
set-up, internal operation, and lifestyle. A particular group reveals the
nature or characteristics of their own culture through the world perceptions
of the cultural groups members.

TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

3. Phenomenology
Coming from the word phenomenon, which means something known through
sensory experience, phenomenology refers to the study of how people find their
experiences meaningful. Its primary goal is to make people understand their experiences
about death of loved ones, care for handicapped persons, friendliness of person, etc. In
doing so, other people will likewise understand the meanings attached to their
experiences. Those engaged in assisting people manage their own lives properly often do
this qualitative kind of research.
4. Content and Discourse Analysis
Content analysis is a method of quantitative research that requires an analysis or
examination of the substance or content of the mode of communication (letters, books,
journals, photos, video recordings, SMS, online messages, emails, audio visual materials,
etc.) used by a person, group, organization, or any institution in communicating. A study of
language structures used in the medium of communication to discover the effects of
sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the content makes it a
discourse analysis. In the studying the content or structures of the material, you need a
question or a set of questions to guide you in your analysis.

TYPES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

5. Historical Analysis
Central to this qualitative research method is the examination of primary documents
to make you understand the connection of the past events to the present time. The result
of your content analysis will help you specify phenomenological changes in unchanged
aspects of society through the years.
6. Grounded Theory
Grounded theory takes place when you discover a new theory to underlie your study
at the time of data collection and analysis. Through your observation on your subjects, you
will happen to find a theory that applies to your current study. Interview, observation, and
documentary analysis are the data gathering techniques for this type of qualitative
research.

ADVANTAGES OR STRENGTHS OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that
those involve in the research understand things based on what they find
meaningful.
2. It promotes full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in
their natural setting.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
4. It engenders respect for peoples individuality as it demand the
researchers careful and attentive stand toward peoples world views
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
6. It increases the researchers interest in the study as it includes the
researchers experience or background knowledge in interpreting verbal
and visual data.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about
something.

DISADVANTAGES OR WEAKNESSES OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. It involves a lot of researchers subjectivity in data analysis.
2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
3. Its open ended questions yield data overload that requires
long time analysis.
4. It is a time-consuming.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend
on the researchers views or interpretations.

ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.
1. What comes to your mind the moment you hear qualitative research?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
2. If you want to conduct a research study about your favorite restaurant
in town, what method of qualitative research is appropriate for your
study? Explain your choice.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.
3. Differentiate subjectivity from objectivity.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
4. Explain the connection between subjectivity/ objectivity and your
research work/
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.
5. How is grounded theory different from other qualitative research
methods?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
6. Is the researcher himself the data gathering instrument? Why? Why
not?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.
7. Can all research methods be used in one research study? Give
reasons for your answer.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
8. Pretend you are the subject of a phenomenological study, how will
the researcher obtain data through you?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 3. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Explain the concepts you have learned
by answering the following questions.
9. Given the chance to research, would you right away choose
qualitative research? Give reasons for your answers.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
10. If you will do a qualitative research about the area in which your
house is situated, what could be your problem or topic?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

ACTIVITY 4. EXPLAINING LEARNED CONCEPTS

Directions: Name the type of qualitative research best situated
for the following topics.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

The Mangyans Burial Practices _________________________

Relatives of Typhoon Victims ___________________________
The effectiveness of K-12 Curriculum_____________________
Spiderman: The Very First Film in the 21st Century_________
Philippines Political Party System: Then and Now ___________
Filipino Caregivers in Japan _____________________________
Travails of Senior Citizens at LRT/MRT Stations _____________
The Lone Grade VI Speed Reader of UST High School _______
Grade 11 Science Textbook ____________________________
Student Activism Since the Marcos Era____________________