Suchergebnisse

The purpose of research -- Reasons for research -- Demarcating the research topic -- Quantitative data collection methods -- Qualitative methods of data collection -- Applying the method : operationalization and sample -- Data collection -- Processing quantitative data -- Qualitative analysis -- Conclusion and discussion -- Compiling a research report

The landmark International Handbook of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities presents, explains, and illustrates key methods of research and evaluation of proven relevance and value to the field of intellectual disabilities. It features sections on the concepts and theoretical models underlying research and evaluation, the methods and techniques themselves, and the key application areas where the methods are demonstrated in action. Coverage includes applications in educational, social, family, health, and employment aspects of care and provision for those with intellectual disabilities

Communication Research Methodology- Front Cover -- Communication Research Methodology -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part I: A New Language -- HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW -- SUMMARY -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 1: Reality, What a Concept: Definition Is Everything -- DEFINITIONS -- THE PROCESS OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY . . . OR SCIENCE! -- SUMMARY -- Chapter 2: Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other: Explication, Validity, Reliability, and Measurement -- VALIDITY OF DEFINITION (CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL) -- VALIDITY OF MEASUREMENT -- EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS (CONSTRUCT VALIDITY) -- VALIDITY OF A TEST -- VALIDITY SUMMARY -- RELIABILITY -- MEASUREMENT -- SUMMARY -- REFERENCES -- Chapter 3: Ladies and Gentlemen, Place Your Bets: Probability, Sampling Theory, and Hypothesis Testing -- PROBABILITY -- HYPOTHESIS TESTING -- SUMMARY -- REFERENCE -- Chapter 4: Ask It in the Form of a Question, Please: Developing Questions and Creating Groups -- (THE RESEARCH) QUESTION, HYPOTHESES, AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS -- SAMPLING -- STRATIFIED SAMPLE -- SUMMARY -- Chapter 5: Are They Apples and Oranges, or Fruit?: Describing Groups -- DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS -- PARAMETRIC AND INFERENTIAL STATISTICS -- SUMMARY -- Part II: Methodologies/Making Observations -- Chapter 6: Getting to Know You: Empirical Qualitative Approaches -- QUALITATIVE APPROACHES -- QUALITATIVE OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES -- SUMMARY -- Chapter 7: Intelligent Design: Basic Approaches to Design -- EXPERIMENTS/GROUP DIFFERENCES -- INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL VALIDITY -- SURVEYS/CONTINUOUS RELATIONSHIPS -- SUMMARY -- Chapter 8: Kids, Don't Try This at Home: Experimental Design -- THE NATURE OF AN EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN -- PRE-EXPERIMENTAL MODELS -- TRUE EXPERIMENTAL MODELS -- COMMON THREATS TO VALIDITY -- QUASI EXPERIMENTS -- SUMMARY -- REFERENCE

This paper discusses how feminist methodologies can be pragmatic and far-ranging, and yet are often not accepted in feminist applied research, within the corporate sector. It raises a pertinent question about the perception of feminism and the challenges in adopting a feminist methodology in practice. It also questions why scholarship, rarely dwells on experiences of feminist action researchers in the Indian context. While documenting the dissent to feminist conscience, this paper deliberates the methodological and epistemological rubrics of feminism, the positionality of the researcher, commodification of feminism, binary overtones and the agency of researchers who are engaged by corporate houses as consultants.

This report was developed for the Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development at Memorial University to assess the impacts of the Centre's Applied Research Fund (ARF). The evaluation focused on the first three rounds of ARF funding (2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08), as 2008/09 projects have not yet been completed, however the latest round of projects are discussed in this report where appropriate. The evaluation was conducted by assessing ARF's impacts through the lens of the Harris Centre Evaluation Framework. Findings were drawn from Harris Centre documents and ARF reports as well as from interviews and discussions with Harris Centre staff, ARF researchers and relevant external stakeholders (i.e. community representatives, including government departments and agencies, community organizations, businesses and business organizations, and individuals). The Harris Centre has a mandate to coordinate and facilitate Memorial University's educational, research and outreach activities in the areas of regional policy and development. The Harris Centre created the Applied Research Fund to stimulate research activities relevant to Newfoundland and Labrador's regional policy and development needs and opportunities by offering funding up to $15,000 to Memorial faculty, students and staff to conduct such research. The Harris Centre also utilizes ARF to encourage researchers to mobilize the findings from their work to stakeholders in the community who can make use of them. ARF has received funding from the NL Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development (INTRD) and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA). In the first four rounds, funding to ARF totalled $100,000 each year. Consistent with the mandates of INTRD and ACOA, the Harris Centre places emphasis on providing ARF funding to projects that seek to contribute to economic and rural development in Newfoundland and Labrador's regions (see Appendix E for project descriptions). Since ARF's inception in 2005, 31 projects have been funded (21 in the first three years; see Appendix D for table of all projects). Two additional projects were awarded funding, but were cancelled due to extraneous circumstances; with permission from the funders, the Harris Centre reallocated these funds to further knowledge mobilization of other ARF projects (Appendix F). There were substantially more projects awarded to males and Memorial faculty than females and staff or students; the large majority of applications were from males and faculty members, which indicates that the Harris Centre should address the marketing of ARF so that it reaches and speaks to the other demographic groups. Gender parity was achieved in the latest round of funding (2008/09), so it appears that marketing has been corrected in this area. ARF funding is filling a valuable need by stimulating research that can assist external stakeholders in making policy and development decisions in Newfoundland and Labrador. ARF provides Memorial researchers with funding for projects that address Newfoundland and Labrador's regional policy and development issues, contributing to understandings of the province's unique context, needs and opportunities. Many projects funded through ARF would not likely have qualified for funding from other traditional academic sources, because other available sources are not likely to support: • NL-specific projects (which many other funders regard as only being of interest to a small readership), • the collection of base-line data (which is crucial in providing context for planning, but may not have direct or immediate impacts in itself), and/or • Research that crosses sectors (which is important for holistic approaches in policy and development). iv ARF also acts as a 'seed fund', in that once projects have received funding from ARF, researchers have been able to leverage much funding from other sources. The fifteen researchers interviewed were awarded a total of $202,950 through ARF. Three of these researchers reported that the funding they received directly led to leveraged funding of $5,215,000 plus in-kind funding, three researchers reported that ARF was helpful to them in obtaining more funding, one researcher reported that other sources took a greater interest in the project once ARF funding was received, and one researcher reported receiving $47,600 from other sources for a follow-up project (see 'Evidence of importance of funding to projects', Evaluation Question 3). The ARF projects funded between 2005/06 – 2007/08, provide context and understanding of Newfoundland and Labrador's unique history, needs and opportunities in regional policy and development. Some projects set out base-line data on which further inquiries can be addressed while other projects investigated assumptions, policies and practices relevant to management decisions. This evaluation categorizes the ARF projects by themes under Evaluation Question 2 and in Appendix E to identify the relevance of projects to Newfoundland and Labrador's regional policy and development issues. The six themes identified were among Newfoundland and Labrador's most pressing needs and opportunities: A) Fisheries B) Renewable energy C) Natural resources D) Economy E) Governance and Community Organization F) Culture Through ARF projects, Memorial researchers have developed expertise in applied regional policy and development research and in maximizing the impacts of their findings by transferring them to external stakeholders who can use them. External stakeholders have also developed expertise through the collaborations stimulated by ARF's emphasis on applied connections to community needs and opportunities. The expertise developed by researchers and external stakeholders were often viewed by interviewees as only incremental to their prior, substantial expertise. ARF had the most impact on developing expertise where researchers had little prior experience in applied research with community relevance and applicability. Overall, both researchers and external stakeholders gained appreciation for the potential for academic / community collaborations and felt optimistic about seeking out future opportunities for collaborations. Findings and reports from ARF projects have been widely communicated to external stakeholders through an array of means. ARF's requirement that applicants develop a Knowledge Mobilization Plan has encouraged researchers to think about how they can deliver their findings to maximize the likelihood of impact. The Harris Centre has provided many opportunities for researchers and external stakeholders to engage in two-way knowledge transfer, but should continue working to maximize dissemination opportunities as outlined in the current Request for Proposals (Appendix C). Directly connecting changes in policy and practices to a singular piece of research can be difficult. Before research is adopted and implemented by external stakeholders with capacity to affect change, there is often a substantial time lag in which knowledge is diffused and previous understandings and approaches in society must be shifted. Despite these difficulties, it is clear that the findings from many ARF projects are reaching external stakeholders who can make use of them – findings from many projects have been taken under advisement by external stakeholders and there is ongoing discussion between researchers and external stakeholders on several projects. Several ARF projects have substantial potential for affecting direct change, and are close to realizing their full impact in economic and regional policy and practices. Appendix E provides a summary of ARF projects (2005/06 – 2007/08) and their potential benefits and impacts. Some of the most notable of these are recapped below: • Dag Friis' design of a hull for a pleasure trawler boat will assist boat builders in Newfoundland & Labrador in adapting to changing market trends, while maintaining a 'home-grown' feel and developing v skills within the province. The Glovertown Shipyard is prepared to begin building the hull once it is ready. (2005/06 ARF project) • James Feehan's report on declining trends of federal government presence within the province (in both employment and decision-making capacity) has been relied on by NL stakeholders (including the provincial government and the City of St. John's) in applying pressure to the federal government to restore and improve levels of federal government presence. (2005/06 ARF project) • Tariq Iqbal designed hybrid energy systems for the northern and remote Labrador communities of Battle Harbour Island (2006/07 ARF project) and Port Hope Simpson and Cartwright (2007/08 ARF project), based on renewable resources available in each. The systems are being reviewed by stakeholders in the communities for feasibility. • Trevor Bell's workshop on the impacts of climate change on Labrador's renewable resources increased stakeholder (including government departments and local communities) understandings of the issues and their capacity to develop strategies for adaptation. (2007/08 ARF project) • Michael Wernerheim's report on the conditions in localities necessary to support industries can inform government on how to maximize the likelihood of economic success through strategic placement of industries within the province. (2005/06 ARF project) • Wade Locke's Atlantic Canadian contribution to the international study conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the role of higher education institutions in development brought together all four Atlantic provincial governments, the Atlantic associations of universities and of colleges, the Council of Atlantic Premiers and the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council. Locke's report inspired the Harris Centre to host an international conference on the role of Higher Education Institutions (Knowledge in Motion, Oct 16 – 18, 2008), attended by over 225 participants, from across Newfoundland and Labrador, every province in Canada, the United States, Iceland, Scotland, England, France, Denmark and Australia. (2005/06 ARF project)

This paper develops a framework for architectural research of an applied nature, that is, research that will generate 'operational knowledge' in relation to architecture's principal identifying characteristic, and that element which rests in the hands of the designer, namely the organisation of space. A theoretical framework is developed which insists upon a clear distinction between the characteristics of the space and the 'meanings' constructed upon the spatial object by 'consumers'. The nature of 'conflict' is defined, as that noncorrespondence within the system comprising a society and its architectural activity which propels the evolution of new spatial types forward over real time. Architectural objects are conceived as complex products of three categories of relationships; functional, compositional, and constructive. On the basis of those categories are defined architectural types, activity types, and 'applied' types, each of which may exist in conflict-bearing or canonical forms. The framework for an architectural science is then constructed which distinguishes its object, its subject matter, and its method. Measurements are identified as the fundamental elements of operational knowledge, and they are distinguished as being of two kinds—'parameters' of the object itself, and 'properties' describing its functioning in some human context. A methodology of applied architectural research is presented which comprises alternating deductive and inductive cycles. Each has three component operations, which are discussed in some detail. The discussion of parameters and properties leads to the distinguishing of three classes of object, the empirical (actual), the hypothetical (possible), and the type (the required), and a corresponding array of functional, compositional, and constructive models.

Recently the rise of research & development expenditures has met increasingly strong political priority resistance, & in the last decade there has been a tendency to return to fundamentals & reexamine the social warrants for research. It has been recognized that innovation in industry had very much more to do with market pull than technological availability push. Research must be disaggregated from development. A central problem is the status of scientific research of the normal academic variety; the majority of scientific researchers produce research out of deep motivations, ranging from curiosity about nature to doing useful things. As a vital accompaniment, they give valuable products or services. This accompaniment arises from the essential nature of science as a growing & universal body of knowledge. It is suggested that research is extrinsically valuable as an antiobsolescence phenomenon, & can be weighed & encouraged in terms of economics. The theory indicates that it is uneconomic to support more than the few consumption-good, creative geniuses in pure research posts unconnected with specifically valuable services. B. Hubinger.

Human trafficking is a phenomenon that lends itself to hands-on pedagogical practices and undergraduate research that, in turn, can create localised knowledge with anti-trafficking stakeholders. Research labs focused on human trafficking are one-on-one or small group applied research settings that build a bridge between the university and anti-trafficking stakeholders over multiple semesters. In this paper, I argue that one way of involving students in the anti-trafficking field is through research laboratories, like the Human Trafficking Research Lab (HTRL) at Millikin University. I explore how the HTRL develops pedagogical practices to enable students to work collaboratively with a faculty member and carry out the research process from idea to final draft. Multiple learning outcomes were found, including mentorship, a larger understanding of political science as a discipline, data compilation, presentation and critical thinking skills, and job or graduate school placement. I determined that the HTRL at Millikin offers students hands-on experience with community-engaged projects, including grappling with the ethical implications of knowledge production in social justice advocacy.

"This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as 'intervention', 'collaboration', 'interactive research', 'applied research', and 'practitioner research' to a number of different ways of knowing, extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real 'added value' in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research." (author's abstract)