Questions for the course "Scientific Methods" with the topics: Literature, use of theory and research methods (lecture 3).
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Why do literature review?
Provides the readers the results of other related studies (Knowledge of the topic)
Position your own work with respect to others works (doing something new or adding to a contribution?)
Motivates the importance of your own work (Current gap in the literature)
How to use literature (Qualitative studies) as suggested by the teacher?
Points out gap in the results or findings of existing work
How to use literature (Quantitative studies) as suggested by the teacher?
Introduce a theory to be examined
To provide direction for the research questions and hypothesis
What is a theory?
A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained
What is examples of theories?
Einstein's general relativity
Darwin's theory of evolution
What is the steps brought forward, for quantitative research?
Researcher tests ro verifies a theory
Researcher tests hypotheses or research questions from theory
Researcher measures or observes variables derived from theory
Researcher measures or observes variables using an instrument to obtain scores
What is the steps brought forward, for qualitative research?
Researcher gathers information (eg. interviews, observations, surveys)
Researcher asks open-ended questions
Researcher analyses data to form themes and categories
Researcher looks for a broad patterns, generalisations, or theories from themes and categories
Researcher poses generalisation or theories from past observations
What approach does quantitative research take?
Deductive
What approach does qualitative research take?
Inductive
What way does deductive reasoning work?
Down -> From a theory towards observations and measurements
What way does inductive reasoning work?
Up -> From observations and measurements towards a theory
What type of reasoning is used in mixed methods research?
Both deductive and inductive
What is a research problem?
A clear expression about an area of concers
A condition to be improved upon
A difficulty to be eliminated
A troubling question that exists in literature
What is a research question accordingly to bryman 2007?
Does not state how to do something, offers a vague or borad proposition, or presents a value question
How to identify a research problem (source)?
From the literature
Personal observations
Collective observations
What could a research problem be?
A gap in the literature
A conflicting result in the literature
A need to put attention to a (under-studied) topic
Where does research questions usually come from?
Expert advice
Literature & experience
Research problem
Research intent or purpose
What are some typical characteristics of good research questions?
Clear
Unambiguous
Show the Purpose of the research
Answerable
Not trivial
What category of research design does the following type of questions belong to? "Does X exist?", "How does X differ from Y?", "How does X normally work?"
qualitative
What category of research design does the following type of questions belong to? "How often does X occur?", "Do occurrences of X correlate with the occurences of Y?", "Does X cause more Y than does Z?"
Quantitative
What is a hypothesis?
Predictions, the researcher makes about the expected outcomes of relationships among variables
What to forms does a hypothesis take?
Null hypothesis
Alternative/directional hypothesis
What is a null hypothesis?
Makes a prediction that no relationship or no significant difference exists between groups on a variable
What is an alternative/directional hypothesis?
Makes a prediction (higher, more , lower, less, etc) about the expected outcome
What does RQ stand for?
Research question
Whoes does HO stand for?
Hypothesis
What type of hypothesis is the example research question (RQ) and hypothesis (HO): "RQ: Are teens better at math than adults? HO: Age as no effect on mathematical ability?"
Null hypothesis
What type of hypothesis is the example hypothesis (HO): "HO: People with a a high exposure to ultravielt light will have a higher frequency of skin cancer."
Alternative/directional hypothesis
What is the independent variable in the RQ: "Does the use of pair programming improve software quality compared to individual programming?"
Type of programming (pair vs individual)
What is the dependent variable in the RQ: "Does the use of pair programming improve software quality compared to individual programming?"
Software quality
What is the null hypothesis (H0) in the RQ: "Does the use of pair programming improve software quality compared to individual programming?"
There is no significant difference in software quality between projects using pair programming and projects using individual programming
What is the alternative hypothesis (H1) in the RQ: "Does the use of pair programming improve software quality compared to individual programming?"
Software projects using pair programming will have significantly higher quality than projects using individual programming
RQ: "How does the amount of time spent studying influence test score?". Identify variables
A researcher randomly assigns college students to a prescribed amount of study time. She plans to examine the extent to which study time leads to improved test scores.
Independent variable: Amount of time spent studying
Dependent variable: Test score
RQ: "How does the amount of time spent studying influence test score?". Formulate null and alternative hypothesis
A researcher randomly assigns college students to a prescribed amount of study time. She plans to examine the extent to which study time leads to improved test scores.
Null hypothesis: Study time has no effect on test scores
Alternative hypothesis: The students who spent more time studying will have higher test scores
RQ: "Does increasing the number of code reviews in a software development project have a significant effect on reducing the number of post-release defects??". Identify variables
A researcher aims to investigate the relationship between the number of code reviews conducted during the software development process and the subsequent number of post-release defects scores.
Independent variable: No. of code reviews
Dependent variable: No. of post-release defects
RQ: "Does increasing the number of code reviews in a software development project have a significant effect on reducing the number of post-release defects??". Formulate null and alternative hypothesis
A researcher aims to investigate the relationship between the number of code reviews conducted during the software development process and the subsequent number of post-release defects scores.
Null hypothesis: Number of code reviews in a software development project has no effect on the number of post-release defects
Alternative hypothesis: Increasing the number of code reviews in a software development project will lead to a decrease in the number of post-release defects
What defines the researchs method; Survey
Identify the characteristics of a broad population of individuals
Could be qualitative (exploratory w / open questions) or quantitative (confirmatory w / closed questions)
Questionnaires (web-based, telephone, paper-based, interviews)
Research question is about the nature of a particular target population (e.g., SW developers working with Agile in Denmark)
What defines the research method; Ethnography
Field Observation
Research question focuses on the cultural practices of a particular community
Study how developers (and maybe other roles) work and make sense of their work in their natural settings
What defines the research method; Case study
Offer in-depth understanding of how and why certain phenomena occur, and can reveal the mechanisms by which cause-effect relationships occur
Could be: exploratory (inductive) or confirmatory (deductive)
Research question focuses on “how”or “why”something occurs
What defines the research method; Experiment
A controlled investigation of two or more variables
Need to determine independent and dependent variables
Research questions formulated to understand correlation or causality
More often hypotheses are formulated
What defines the research method; Mixed methods (Convergent parallel)
Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis done in parallel
What defines the research method; Mixed methods (Sequential)
Collect and analyse quantitative data ->collect and analyse qualitative data (Explanatory)
Collect and analyse qualitative data -> collect and analyse quantitative data (Exploratory)