Data Gathering Methods - Math 7 4th Quarter

Data Gathering Methods
Math 7 4th Quarter

1. DATA GATHERING METHODS

2. What is data gathering? It is a process by which the researcher collects/gathers the information needed to answer the research problem.

3. The task of data gathering begins after a research problem has been defined.

4. In collecting or gathering data the researcher must consider the following questions: Which data to gather? How to gather the data? Who will gather the data? When to gather the data?

5. TWO ESSENTIAL TYPES OF DATA GATHERING METHODS PRIMARY DATA SECONDARY DATA

6. Primary data are those which are gathered for the first time and are original in character. Primary data may be collected through: 1. Experiments 2. Surveys(sample surveys or census surveys) 3. Interviews 4. Observations 5. Questionnaires 6. Schedules

7. experiment An experiment is a data collection method where a researcher change some variables and observe their effect on other variables. The variables that you manipulate are referred to as independent while the variables that change as a result of manipulation are dependent variables. Imagine a manufacturer is testing the effect of drug strength on the number of bacteria in the body. The company decides to test drug strength at 10mg, 20mg and 40mg. In this example, drug strength is the independent variable while number of bacteria is the dependent variable. The drug administered is the treatment, while 10mg, 20mg and 40mg are the levels of the treatment.

8. survey It is a data collection method where you select a sample of respondents from a large population in order to gather information about that population. The process of identifying individuals from the population who you will interview is known as sampling .

9. survey To gather data through a survey, you construct a questionnaire to prompt information from selected respondents. When creating a questionnaire, you should keep in mind several key considerations. First, make sure the questions and choices are unambiguous. Second, make sure the questionnaire will be completed within a reasonable amount of time. Finally, make sure there are no typographical errors. To check if there are any problems with your questionnaire, use it to interview a few people before administering it to all respondents in your sample. We refer to this process as pretesting .

10. Interview When you use this method, you meet with the respondents face to face and ask questions. This technique has excellent response rates and enables you to conduct interviews that take a longer amount of time. Another benefit is you can ask follow-up questions to responses that are not clear.(if you cannot do it on face to face interview you can have an on-line interview)

11. OBSERVATION METHOD In an observation data method, the data from the field is gathered with the help of observation by the observer.

12. Questionnaires A questionnaire is sent (by post or by mail) to the persons concerned with a request to answer the questions and return the questionnaire.

13. Schedules . Very similar to questionnaire method. The main difference is that schedule is filed by the enumerator who is specifically appointed for the purpose. Enumerator goes to the respondents, asks them the questions from the questionnaire in the order listed, and records the responses in the space provided.

14. SECONDARY DATA Secondary data are those which have already been gathered by someone else and which have gone through some statistical analysis. Examples of secondary data are census data published.