Learning Diary Entry 2

I’ve finally figured out what my project topic is going to be and so now I need to be looking into ways that I might be able to research that project idea.

Although I could not attend Campus Session 2, I was able to access the slide show that was presented on the day about ‘Developing a Research Design’. As I understand it, a research design is a plan that you make for yourself in order to organise your research so that you are collecting the appropriate information for your specific topic. It makes the job of researching easier by giving you a clearer focus on what type of information you are going to collect and how you are going to collect it.

The slide show introduced me to many different research approaches, Quantitative research,
Qualitative research, Secondary research, Primary research, Exploratory research, Descriptive research and Causal research.

Quantitative Research is concerned with the collection and analysis of data in numeric form. It involves interviewing a large number of people in order to try and quantify the relationship between two or more things.

Qualitative Research is more concerned with the individual and their perception of the world. It aims to gain insights into the thoughts and feelings of the participants. Its purpose is to try and specify the quality of a relationship between two or more things.

Secondary Research gathers data from already existing pieces of research or information.

Primary Research is information that is collected directly by the researcher and is specific to the particular problem they are investigating.

Exploratory Research helps the researcher to develop an understanding of their specific problem or topic and is often used in the initial stages of the research.

Descriptive Research describes the behaviour of phenomena in a research problem by answering the questions ‘who?’, ‘what?’, ‘when?’, ‘where’? and ‘how?’ Descriptive research has a clear statement of the research problem and specifies exactly what needs to be measured.

Causal Research describes the relationship between two or more variables. It is used to gather evidence on cause and effect relationships, and is basically used to answer the question ‘why?’
Although many of these approaches will be touched upon whilst conducting my research, as many of them can be used alongside one another, I have already selected three that I know will be of particular use regarding my own project topic.

These are Secondary Research, Primary Research and Qualitative Research.

I will be relying a lot on the secondary research that I will gather to give me an understanding of exactly what nerves and stress are and why people in general suffer from them. I will also need to use secondary research to find out about existing forms of stress relief and their effectiveness in order for me to formulate my own ideas on how those ways might be better applied or adapted to dancers.

The primary and qualitative research I will conduct will overlap as the evidence that I will collect myself will be mostly that of people’s personal opinions, their perception of how to deal with nerves and stress and their thoughts and feelings on the topic. I will most likely conduct a survey and have in depth interviews with the participants in order to gather this information.