Lesson 2: Sampling Procedure and the Sample

The next question you have to answer is, how many of the subjects, participants, or respondents
should be selected as a source of data? This lesson will teach you how to describe sampling procedures in
quantitative research. Note that the sampling procedure should be aligned to your chosen research
design. Since you have already decided the research design of your study, then you are ready for this
lesson.

Population and Sample

The first step in determining the sample size is identifying the population of the topic of interest.
The population is the totality of all the objects, elements, persons, and characteristics under
consideration. It is understood that this population possesses common characteristics about which the
research aims to explore.

There are two types of population: target population and accessible population. The actual
population is the target population, for example, all Senior High School Students enrolled in Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the Division of Cagayan de Oro City. While the
accessible population is the portion of the population in which the researcher has reasonable access, for
example all Senior High School enrolled, STEM strand at Marayon Science High School – X.

When the whole population is too costly or time-consuming or impractical to consider, then, a
sample representative is identified. Sampling pertains to the systematic process of selecting the group to
be analyzed in the research study. The goal is to get information from a group that represents the target
population. Once a good sample is obtained, the generalizability and applicability of findings increases.

The representative subset of the population refers to the sample. All the 240 Senior High School
Students enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Strand in a school, for
example, constitute the population; 60 of those students constitute the sample. A good sample should
have characteristics of the represented population – characteristics that are within the scope of the study
with fair accuracy. Generally, the larger the sample, the more reliable the sample be, but still, it will
depend on the scope and delimitation and research design of the study.

Approaches in Identifying the Sample Size

Heuristics. This approach refers to the rule of the thumb for sample size. The early established
approach by Gay (1976) stated by Cristobal and Dela Cruz-Cristobal (2017, p 172), sample sizes for
different research designs are the following:
 Literature Review. Another approach is by reading similar or related literature and studies to your
current research study. Since you are done writing your review of related literature and studies, you
might want to recall how these studies determine sample size. Using this approach increases the validity
of your sampling procedure.

Formulas. Formulas are also being established for the computation of an acceptable sample size.
The common formula is Slovin’s Formula.

Power Analysis. This approach is founded on the principle of power analysis. There are two
principles you need to consider if you are going to use this approach: these are statistical power and
effect size.

The probability of rejecting the null hypothesis is called statistical power. It suggests that indeed
there is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables of the research study. The
ideal statistical power of a research study is 80%. With the statistical power, it will be used to identify the
sufficient sample size for measuring the effect size of a certain treatment. The level of difference
between the experimental group and the control group refers to effect size.

If the statistical power tells that relationship between independent and dependent variables, the
effect size suggests the extent of the relationship between these two variables. Henceforth, the higher
the effect size, means the greater the level difference between the experimental and control groups. For
example, your research study reveals that there is a difference in the pretest and posttest scores of the
students in the given anxiety test after implementing a psychosocial intervention. With the effect size,
you will have an idea of how small or large the difference is.

Probability Sampling in Quantitative Research

Simple Random Sampling. It is a way of choosing individuals in which all members of the
accessible population are given an equal chance to be selected. There are various ways of obtaining
samples through simple random sampling. These are fish bowl technique, roulette wheel, or use of the
table of random numbers. This technique is also readily available online. Visit this link
https://www.randomizer.org/ to practice.
 Stratified Random Sampling. The same with simple random sampling, stratified random sampling
also gives an equal chance to all members of the population to be chosen.

However, the population is first divided into strata or groups before selecting the samples. The
samples are chosen from these subgroups and not directly from the entire population. This procedure is
best used when the variables of the study are also grouped into classes such as gender and grade level.

You can simply follow the steps from this given example: A population of 600 Junior High School
students includes 180 Grade 7, 160 Grade 8, 150 Grade 9, and 110 Grade 10. If the computed sample size
is 240, the following proportionate sampling will be as follows. The number of members per subgroup is
divided by the total accessible sample size. The percentage result of members per subgroup will be
multiplied from the computed total sample size. After obtaining the sample size per strata, then simple
random sampling will be done for the selection of samples from each group.

Sample Size per Subgroups

180/600 = .30x 240 = 72 Grade 7 students

160/600 = .27x 240 = 65 Grade 8 students
150/600 = .25x 240 = 60 Grade 9 students
110/600 = .18x 240 = 43 Grade 10 students 100% 240 respondents
Cluster Sampling.
This procedure is usually applied in large-scale studies, geographical spread out of the population
is a challenge, and gathering information will be very time-consuming. Similar to stratified random
sampling, cluster sampling also involves grouping of the population according to subgroups or clusters. It
is a method where multiple clusters of people from the chosen population will be created by the
researcher in order to have homogenous characteristics.

For example, a researcher would like to interview of all public senior high school students across
Mindanao. As a researcher cluster will be selected to satisfy the plan size. In the given example, the first
cluster can be by region, the second cluster can be by division, and the third cluster can be by district.

Another way of doing cluster sampling is illustrated on the figure on the right side.
Systematic Sampling. This procedure is as simple as selecting samples every nth (example every 2nd, 5th)
of the chosen population until arriving at a desired total number of sample size. Therefore the selection is
based on a predetermined interval. Dividing the population size by the sample size, the interval will be
obtained. For example, from a total population of 75, you have 25 samples; using systematic sampling,
you will decide to select every 3rd person on the list of individuals.
Practice Exercises:
1. A company has 500 employees. Compute the sample size at 5% margin of error.
2. A barangay has 2,000 residents. Compute the sample size at 10% margin of error.
3. A university has 5,000 students. Compute the sample size at 3% margin of error.
Part B – Heuristic (Rule of Thumb) Sampling
📌 Often researchers use a fixed rule such as 10–20% of the population or a minimum of 100
respondents
4. A population of 600 teachers, take 10%.
5. A population of 1,200 residents, take 20%.
6. A population of 400 employees, researcher sets a minimum of 100 respondents. Which is
larger: 10% of the population or 100? Choose the sample size.

7. A company has 300 employees: 150 in production, 100 in sales, 50 in admin. Heuristic
sample = 20% of population. Divide proportionally.

8. A university has 6,000 students across four colleges:

 College of Arts = 2,500

 College of Science = 1,500
 College of Education = 1,000
 College of Business = 1,000

a) Compute the total sample size using Slovin’s formula at 5% margin of error.
b) Divide the sample size proportionally among the four colleges.