Week 5--Methods/Ethics/Theory Readings

Key Concepts in Research—Week 5

Methods/Ethics/Theory Readings

Connaway and Powell, Chapter 3

Summative evaluation—is used in quantitative research to measure outcomes of a program.

Formative evaluation—is process evaluation, usually in qualitative research that looks for ways to improve the program that is being studied.

Connaway and Powell, Chapter 4

Snowball sample—a type of accidental sampling. If members of a certain population are difficult to identify, a researcher starts with the people they know that fall into the population the research is concentrated on, and have those individuals help locate other individuals of the same population. It is used in exploratory research and is considered a nonprobability sampling.

Simple Random Sample (SRS)—every member of a population has an equal chance of being chosen for a sample. If more than one draw of the population is made, the individuals who were chosen first need to be replaced in order for the random chance of being drawn to be the same. This however, is not generally practical, and if the same members are put back in the population from which the sample is taken, the chances are that some of the same individuals will be chosen. Mathematical formulas can be used to counteract this problem.

Wildemuth, Chapter 6

Middle-range theories—Imagine that theories are on a continuum from very specific to highly abstract and applicable to many phenomena. The middle-range theories fall in the middle of that continuum. They are specific enough to apply to a certain field, yet abstract enough that the phenomena could apply in a context of another field. For instance, if a research studied the use of libraries by online students it could also cross-over to the quality of education received by those students.

Grounded theory—Research in which the theory is established during and after the collection of data. Used in qualitative research, it allows the researcher to gather raw data, search for common themes and begin establishing a theory from these beginning concepts. The researcher then returns to the data and continue flushing out possible connections and theories. The memos that the research makes are then brought together to find a unified theory.

References

Connaway, L. & Powell, R. (2010). Basic research methods for librarians. 5th ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Wildemuth, B. M. (2009). Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science. Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.