Chapter 3
Methodology
The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate how it effects the IT
aspirants if their knowledge about Microsoft Office is low-level. This chapter presents
the research design, research locale, the respondents of the study, the research
instruments used in the treatment of the gathered in the study.
Research Design
The research does not attempt to manipulate the research setting, as in an
proficiency study, but rather to understand naturally occurring phenomena in their
naturally occurring states. This is the most suitable research method because the
main intention of the study was to find the significant variable.
The research drew on a mixed methods approach because according to
Johnson, Onwuegbuzie and Turner (2007), it incorporated the diverse perspectives,
qualitative and quantitative viewpoints, data collection, and analysis and reference
techniques. A carefully crafted mix of qualitative research methods: participant
observation, focus groups and interviews, and quantitative research methods and
survey questionnaires allowed the researcher to build on the strength of each type of
data collection. This minimized the weaknesses of the individual approaches and it
also increased both the validity and reliability of the evaluation data (Johnson et al.,
2007).
The strong point of the qualitative research is that the participant observation,
face to face communications using interviews and the focus group sessions provided
information about the “human side” of this issue. It provided rich contextual
descriptions of the participant’s involvement, their personal experiences and
perceptions of the laptop programme ( Joniak, 2003 29 ; Power, 1998).
Research Locale
The study was conducted in Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Colleges – Annex
a private educational institution in General Santos City established in 1957 as the
Mindanao Vocational School (MVS). The school was named in honor of former
Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay. Located at Pioneer Avenue, General
Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines.
Respondents of the study
The respondents of the study were the Information Technology aspirants of a
Grade 12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics strand of Ramon
Magsaysay Memorial Colleges. All of this participants were selected through random
sampling. This sample method is conducted where each member of a population has
an equal opportunity to become part of the sample. In order to conduct this sampling
strategy, the research defined the population first, listed down all the member of the
IT aspirants. In addition, the review was guided by a document review frame that
indicated what was relevant and what was not. Interviews, focus group, survey
questionnaires, and data from observation were used to gather information, as
shown in Table 1.
The preferred sampling methods for quantitative studies are those that will
enable researchers to make statistical inferences from the sample to the population
(Lund Research, 2012).
Table 1
Research Questions Data Collection Instrument Participants
Table 1 Reports Sub questions, Data Collection Methods and Participants
Research Instruments
The research instruments used in the study are the IT aspirants. The data
collection methods used was participant observation, face to face interviews and a
focus group session, a structured questionnaire was created for the IT aspirants.
These were formulated by the researcher and were properly validated by the
experts. The primary aim of the questionnaire is to determine the strategy used by
the researchers of STEM A of Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Colleges to overcome
the challenges given by the IT aspirants.
According to Stephenson, Brown, Griffin, 2006 Computer-based instruction is not as
useful as traditional methods despite it being found to be user friendly and being
recommended to educational staff.