The Hypothesis Sampling

The Hypothesis Sampling

 It is the method of choosing subjects in a particular study.

 It is selected from a large group, which is called a population.

Four Strategies for selecting samples:

1. Random Sampling – Each person has an equal chance of being included.

2. Stratified sampling – subjects are deliberately selected from variety of levels or types of people (strata) in the population.

3. Matched groups – Two or more groups of subjects are selected who are similar on many dimensions.

4. Volunteer sampling – Subjects are selected from among those who volunteer

Classifying samples According to Hurt et al. (1966) 1. Simple random sampling –

2. Probability sample 3. Area Sampling 4. Stratified sampling 5. Cluster sampling

Best (1981) has pointed out that the ideal method is random selection: He has a practical observation about the sample size:

1. The larger the sample, the smaller the magnitude of sampling error

2. Survey-type studies probably should have larger samples than needed in experimental studies.

3. When sample groups are to be subdivided into smaller groups to be compared, the researcher initially should select large enough samples so that the subgroups are of adequate size for his or her purpose.

4. In mailed questionnaire studies, since the percentage of responses may be as low as 20 to 30 percent, a larger initial sample mailing is indicated.

5. Subject availability and cost factors are legitimate considerations in determining appropriate sample size.

Types of Statistical Analysis

1. Descriptive statistics –is used to describe the data that have been collected on the research

sample. The mean, median and standard deviation are the main descriptive statistics: They are

used to indicate the average score and the variability of scores for the sample.

2. Inferential Statistics – is used to make inferences from sample statistics to the population parameters. Inferential statistics can be used: a) to estimate the probability that the

observations made in one sample are also true a larger population, b) to infer whether a pattern of observations was due to a particular independent variables or whether it might well have been due to chance alone.

3. Test statistics – It is a mathematical methods for describing and analyzing the psychometric properties of tests and other instruments.

The Review of Related Literature

Five important functions of RRL according to Gay (1976):

1. It provides the conceptual or theoretical framework of the planned research.

2. It provides the researcher with the information about past researcher related to his intended study.

3. It gives the investigator a feeling of confidence since by means of the review of related literature he will have on hand all constructs (concepts) related to his study.

4. It give the researcher information about the research methods used, the population and

sampling considered, the instruments used in gathering the data, and the statistical computation in previous research.

5. It provides findings and conclusions of past investigations which the researcher may relate to his own findings and conclusions.

Guides to Use in the Review of Related Literature 1. Comprehensive or general guide

2. Guides to periodical and serials 3. Guides to books and monographs 4. Guides to graduate theses

5. Guides to special educational areas and problems

6. Continuing or serial bibliographies and summaries in limited areas of education 7. Extensive individual bibliographies and summaries in limited areas of education 8. Biographical, institutional, and statistical directories and handbooks in education Evaluation of Materials

1. Accuracy and dependability 2. Up-to-dateness

3. Suitability of specific requirements 4. Authority

5. Scope

6. Treatment and style

7. Arrangement

8. Illustrations, tables, and diagrams 9. Author

10. Publisher

Sources of Information:

1. Experimental

2. Firsthand investigation: the interview and questionnaire 3. Doctoral dissertations and monographs in professional journals 4. Letters, diaries, and autobiographies

5. Original creative work in art and literature

6. Reports of governments and their agencies: national, regional, provincial, city and municipal 7. Annual reports of research foundations, universities, and corporations.

8. Newspapers Collection of Data Data

– are things we think with.

_ They are the raw materials of reflection, until by comparison, combination, and evaluation they are stepped up to higher levels of generalization, where again they serve as basic materials for higher and higher thinking (Whitney, 1950).

- Data constitute “an accepted number, quantity, facts, or relation used as a basis for drawing conclusions, making inferences, or carrying out investigations” (Good, 1954)

Classification of Data:

1. Primary sources of data

a. Official records and other documentary materials. These includes records and reports of legislative bodies and departments, surveys, text books , examinations, report cards, pictures, drawings, maps, letters, diaries, autobiographies, etc.

b. Oral Testimony

c. Relics – includes buildings, furniture, teaching materials, equipment, murals, decorative pictures, textbooks, examinations and samples of student work.

2. Secondary sources of data

Tools or techniques used in the collection of data:

1. Observation

It is neither haphazard nor unplanned. It must be expert, directed by a purpose, systematic, carefully focused, and thoroughly recorded. It must be subject to the usual check for accuracy, validity and reliability. The observer must know just what to look for. He or she must be able to distinguish the significant from the insignificant aspects of the situation.

Types of Observations:

a. Naturalistic – means watching and describing behavior as it occurs in its natural setting.

- No attempt is made to alter or manipulate the behavior.

- This can be done by placing a trained observer in a setting where he or she can watch the flow of events.

b. Participant – Anthropologists who live in a foreign culture in order to study its life patterns are participants observers.

The preferred method for conducting observation nowadays involves the use of unobtrusive techniques. It means that the observer are not visible in the setting or that they do not play an active role. One-way mirrors, hidden cameras, and films are some of the techniques that have been developed to enable researchers to observe behavior unobtrusively.

Devices for Recording Information:

a. Check list. It is a simplest of the devices, the check list consists of a prepared list of items. This simple “laundry-list” type of device systematizes and facilitates the recording of observation, and helps to ensure the consideration of the important aspects of the object or act observed.

b. Ratting Scale. It involves qualitative description of a limited number of aspects of a thing, or of traits of a person. The classifications may be set up in five to seven categories:

Superior above average average fair inferior

Excellent good average bellow average poor

Always frequently occasionally rarely never

c. Score Card. It provides for the appraisal of a relatively large number of aspects. This usually used in evaluating communities, building sites, schools, textbooks.

d. The scaled specimen. It provides method for evaluating certain observed levels of performance or measure of a quality in question.

Standards for Observers and Their Observations:

a. Observation is carefully planned, systematic, and perceptive. Observers know what they are looking for, and what is irrelevant in a situation. They are not destructed by the dramatic or the spectacular.

b. Observers are aware of the whole ness of what is observed.

c. Observers are objective. They recognize their likely biases, and they strive to eliminate their influence upon what they see and report.

d. Observers separate the facts from the interpretation of the facts. They observe the facts, and make their interpretation at a later time.

e. Observations are checked and verified, whenever possible, by repetition, or by comparison with those of other competition, or by comparison with those of other competent

observers.

f. Observations are carefully and expertly recorded. Observers use appropriate instruments to systematize, quantify, and preserve the results of their observations.

2. Interview

- It is a data-gathering device which, in a sense, is an oral questionnaire. Instead of writing the response, the subject or interviewee gives the needed information verbally in a face-to-face relationship.

- Advantages:

a. The interviewees may provide personal and confidential information which they would be ordinarily put in writing on paper; they may wish to see the investigator who is securing the information and to receive guarantees as to how the facts will be used; they may need the stimulation of personal contacts in order to be “draw out”; and some interviewees may be too ignorant to read and write.

b. The interview enables the investigator to follow up leads and to take advantage of small clues; in dealing with complex topics and questions, the development or trend of the conservation is likely to proceed in any direction, and no instrument prepared in advance can fully meet the situation.

c. The interview permits the investigator to form an impression of the person who is giving the information, to arrive at some judgment of the truth of the answers, and to “read between the lines” things that may not have been said in words.

d. The interview provides an opportunity for the interviewer to give information and to develop certain attitudes on the part of the respondent, a procedure that is not possible in using a questionnaire or a test.

Preparation for the Interview:

- The interviewer must have a clear conception of just what information he or she needs.

- The interviewer must clearly outline the best sequence of questions and stimulating comments that will systematically bring out the desired responses.

Some “Do’s and Dont’s” for the Interviewer : a. Don’t argue

b. Don’t appear erudite or learned

c. Don’t use big words

d. Don’t irritate worn spots e. Don’t tell inappropriate stories f. Don’t talk too much

3. Inquiry Forms

- It includes data-gathering instruments through which respondents answer questions or respond to statements in writing.

a. Questionnaire – It is a list of planned, written questions related to a particular topic, with space provided for indicating the response to each question, intended for submission to a number of person for reply.

Types of Questionnaire:

- Structured – asks question and provides several possible answers.

- Unstructured – Asks question but no suggested answer are given by the investigator.

Principles to consider in Constructing Questionnaire:

1. Define or qualify terms that could easily be misinterpreted.

2. Be careful in using descriptive adjectives and adverbs that have no agreed-upon meaning.

3. Be careful of inadequate alternatives 4. Beware of double negatives.

5. Avoid the double-barreled question

6. Underline a word if you wish to indicate special emphasis

7. When asking for ratings or comparisons a point of reference is necessary 8. Avoid unwanted assumptions

9. Phrase questions so that they are appropriate for all respondents 10. Design questions that will give a complete answer

11. Provide for the systematic quantification

12. Consider the possibility of classifying the responses yourself, rather having the respondent choose categories.

Characteristics of a Good Questionnaire:

1. It deals with significant topic, one the respondent will recognize as important enough to warrant spending his time on.

2. It seeks only that information which cannot be obtained from other sources such as school reports or census data.

3. It is as short as possible, only long enough to get the essential data.

4. It is attractive in appearance, nearly arranged, and clearly duplicated or printed 5. Directions are clear and complete, important terms are defined, each question deals

with a single idea, all questions are worded as simply and as clearly as possible, and the

categories provided an opportunity for easy, accurate and unambiguous responses

6. The questions are objective, with no leading suggestions as to the responses desired.

7. Questions are presented in good psychological order, proceeding from general to more specific responses.

8. It is easy to tabulate and interpret.

Guidelines in Preparing and Administering the Questionnaire:

1. Get all the help you can in planning and constructing your questionnaire.

2. In the process of designing an inquiry from (questionnaire or opinionaire) it is advisable to use a separate card or slip for each item.

3. Try out your questionnaire on a few friends and acquaintances.

4. Choose respondents carefully.

5. If questionnaires are planned for use in a public school, asking for the responses of teachers or pupils, it is essential that approval of the project be secured from the authorities.

6. If the desired information is delicate or intimate in nature, consider the possibility of providing for anonymous responses.

7. Try to get aid of sponsorship.

8. Be secure to include a courteous, carefully constructed cover letter to explain the purpose of the study.

9. To increase the number of returns, a vigorous follow-up procedure may be necessary.

b. Opinionnaire, or attitude scale

- It is the information form that attempts to measure the attitude or belief of an individual.

- Two methods of attitude assessment:

1. Thurstone techniques. – A number of statements, usually twenty or more, that express various points of view toward a group, institution, idea, or practice are gathered. They are the submitted to a panel of a number of judges, who are arranges them in eleven groups, ranging from one extreme to another in position.

2. Likert Method – The likert method of summated ratings, which can be carried out without the panel of judges, has yielded scores very similar to those obtained by the Thurstone method.

- The likert scaling technique assigns a scale value to each of the five responses.

Starting with a particular point of view, all statements favoring this position would be scored:

Scale Value

a. Strongly agree 5

b. Agree 4

c. Undecided 3

d. Disagree 2

e. Strongly disagree 1

For statement opposing this point of view, the items are scored in the opposite order:

Scale Value

a. Strongly agree 1

b. Agree 2

c. Undecided 3

d. Disagree 4

e. Strongly disagree 5

c. Q Methodology

- It is a technique for scaling objects or statement.

- It is a method of ranking attitudes or judgments and in particularly effective when the number of items to be ranked in large.

- Illustrate Below:

Most important Least important

Most approve least approve

Most liberal least liberal

Most favorable least favorable

Most admired least admired

Most like me Least like me

- The respondent is asked to place a specified number of items on each pile, usually on the basis of an approximately normal or symmetrical distribution. If nine piles were established, the assignment of slips or cards would be based upon an approximate stanine percentage distribution. From 50 to 100 items should be used.

Most like me Least Like me

# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

% 4 7 12 17 20 17 12 7 4

d. Sociometry

- It is a technique for describing social relationships that exist between individuals in a group. In an indirect way it attempts to describe attractions or repulsions between individuals by asking them to indicate whom they choose or reject in various situations.

- Procedures:

1. To count the number of times an individual is chosen, disregarding the order of choice.

2. To score a first choice three points a second choice two points, and a third choice

one point.

3. It is based upon the concept of the normal curve standard score distribution, which can be roughly translated into the following scheme, depending upon the size of the group of participants:

Size of group

Rank 10 30 70

1

10 11 12

2

7 11 12

3

5 6 9

Not c chosen 0 0 0

e. “Guess=who” Technique

- The process consists of description of the various roles played by children in a group. In this technique, children are asked to name the individuals who fit certain verbal descriptions:

This one is always happy.

This one is always picking on others.

This one is always worried.

This one never likes to do anything.

This one will always help you.

f. Social-distance Scale

- This device attempts to measure to what degree an individual, or group of individuals, is accepted or rejected by another individual or group.

- When applied to an individual in a classroom situation, the choices might range between these extremes:

Complete acceptance I’d like to have this student as my best friend.

Partial acceptance I wouldn’t mind sitting near this student Rejection I wish this student weren’t in my room 4. Psychological Tests and Inventories

5. Library techniques