...The role of theory in research Division for Postgraduate Studies (DPGS) Post-graduate Enrolment and Throughput Program Dr. Christopher E. Sunday Outline Some definitions of ‘theory’. Some characteristics of ‘theory’. Theories vs. hypotheses. How to evaluate the quality of a theory or explanation. The dynamic relationship between theory and research. Deductive theory. Inductive theory. Example of theories relevant to a particular research question. Theories and findings related to second language learning. The Behaviourist Approach The Cognitive Approach Linguistic Universals Social Models The Humanist Approach Some definitions of ‘theory’ Theory is a model or framework for observation and understanding, which shapes both what we see and how we see it. Theory allows the researcher to make links between the abstract and the concrete; the theoretical and the empirical; thought statements and observational statements etc. Theory is a generalised statement that asserts a connection between two or more types of phenomena – any generalised explanatory principle. Theory is a system of interconnected abstractions or ideas that condenses and organises knowledge about the world. Theory explains and predicts the relationship between variables. Some characteristics of ‘theory’ Theory guides research and organises its ideas. The analogy of bricks lying around haphazardly...
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...Outsourcing IT Services for Data Center Consolidation | Applied Research Project | | IS535 | | 6/10/2011 | | Executive Summary Outsourcing IT Services for Data Center Consolidation California Natural Resource Agency’s Best Option for the Consolidation Project into Department of Water Resources Tier III-Equivalent Data Center The Department of Water Resources for the state of California is responsible for managing “the water resources of California in cooperation with other agencies, to benefit the State's people, and to protect, restore, and enhance the natural and human environments.” (http://www.water.ca.gov/about/mission.cfm) In late 2009 the Department of Water Resources (DWR) launched a multi-million dollar project to build a modernized IT infrastructure that is to house several of the California Natural Resources Agency’s (CNRA) commissions and conservatories. This project would make DWR a certified tier III data center. There are only four tier III data centers currently operating in California. The project was broken into two phases; the first was the build-out of the IT infrastructure, and the second phase is the migration and consolidation of the various agencies computer rooms and data centers. The first phase was completed in early 2011 and consisted of: * Better performance. New servers boost performance of key business solutions and applications by up to four times while enabling system engineers to keep computer intensive...
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...МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ І НАУКИ, МОЛОДІ ТА СПОРТУ УКРАЇНИ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ УНІВЕРСИТЕТ «ЛЬВІВСЬКА ПОЛІТЕХНІКА» Л.В.Бордюк ЖАНРИ НАУКОВОГО СТИЛЮ МЕТОДИЧНІ ВКАЗІВКИ до виконання практичних робіт для студентів спеціальностей 8(7).02030303 «Прикладна лінгвістика» Затверджено на засіданні кафедри прикладної лінгвістики Протокол № 7 від 20.02.2013 р. Львів – 2013 Жанри наукового стилю: Методичні вказівки до виконання практичних робіт для студентів спеціальностей 8(7).02030303 «Прикладна лінгвістика». /Укл.Л.В.Бордюк – Львів: Видавництво «Львівська політехніка», 2013. - 40 с. Укладач Бордюк Л.В., канд.філол.наук, доц. Відповідальний за випуск Левченко О.П., д-р філол.наук, проф. Рецензенти Маркелова С.П., канд.філол.наук, доц. Романишин Н.І., канд.філол.наук, доц. Процес здобуття університетської освіти містить навчальну та науково-дослідну складові...
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...School of Computing and Mathematics Faculty of BCL Request for Ethical Approval for Individual Study / Programme of Research by University Students Students conducting PG Independent Scholarship (PG IS), UG Applied Research Project (UG ARP), UG Maths Projects (UG MP) or Learning-through-Work (LTW) projects must complete this form and submit to their project supervisors for approval. After initial approval, project supervisors need to submit these forms to PG IS, UG ARP, UG MP or LTW coordinator who would then submit these to the Chair of the Computing Ethics Committee (CREC) for further consideration. Students conducting PG Research projects (eg MPhil, PhD etc) must also complete this form and submit to their research supervisors for approval who would then submit these to the Chair of the CREC for further consideration. Feedback on your application will be via the Project/Research Supervisor. 1. Your Name: | | 2a. Programme name and code: BSc (Hons) Information Technology (G502)2b. Your student ID: | 3. Contact Info | Email: Tel No. Address: | 4. Module name and code | Applied Research Project | 5. Name of project/research supervisor: | 6. Title or topic area of proposed study: Assessing the benefits and fears of Cloud computing for the Small and Medium Enterprises | | 7. What is the aim and objectives of your study? | The aimThe aim of this study will be to perform an assessment of the extent of benefits...
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...Team Meeting #1 9/25/2013 -All team members were present -Decided on our topic: Security Issues involved with the transition from IPv4 to IPv6-Goal for next week: have all of our research papers together to divide among the team Team Meeting #2 10/2/2013 -All team members were present -Shared research papers among the team. Discussed potential topics for next semester to get a better idea of what to include in this phase of the paper. Team Meeting #3 10/9/2013 -All team members were present. - Discussed important points to cover based on our research, and laid down a rough outline for the background and introduction. Created and shared Google docs for the outline and for collaborative list of citable resources. Goal for this week: continue research and begin filling in the outline. Team Meeting #4 10/16/2013 -All team members were present -Continued filling in the outline. -Goal for next week: Have it mostly complete! Team Meeting #5 10/23/2013 -All team members were present -Busy week for everyone. Continued filling in the outline. Team Meeting #6 10/30/2013 -All team members present. -Continued filling in rough draft. Working on continuity. Team Meeting #7 11/6/2013 -All team members were present -Mostly done with rough draft. Working to add more technical info into body. Team Meeting #8 11/13/2013 -All team members were present -Not much progress this week. Team focused on project 2. Team Meeting #9 11/20/2013 -All team members were...
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...Graduate School Writing a research proposal for a PhD or MPhil application: A guide for potential students Some Schools and Departments may require you to write an outline research proposal and submit this with your application to study for a PhD or MPhil. The content and structure of the proposal will inevitably vary depending on the discipline area and the nature of the project you wish to pursue. In some cases you may be provided with some guidance in terms of what information should be included in the proposal and, if this is the case, you should read this carefully and follow it. However, where this is not the case, the general guidance, and suggested headings, provided here should help you to structure and present your ideas clearly in your proposal. Your overall aim is to produce a research proposal that is clear and coherent in every respect. You should therefore avoid the use of overly long sentences and of technical jargon. It is important that the proposed research is realistic and feasible so that the outcomes can be achieved within the scale of a typical research degree programme, which is typically three years full-time for a PhD (or two years for an MPhil). Although you should write the proposal yourself, it is best if you discuss its contents with your proposed supervisor before you submit it. Your research question For most projects there is usually one main question that you would like to address, which can sometimes be broken down into several sub-questions...
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...TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1.3 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY CHAPTER TWO 2.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 RESPONDENT OF THE STUDY 2.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS USED 2.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURE 2.5 DATA ANALYSIS CHAPTER THREE 3.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 INTRODUCTION 3.2 DISCUSSION / ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS 3.2.1 SECTION A: LEVEL OF WORK 3.2.2 SECTION B: EMOTIONAL ASPECTS 3.2.3 SECTION C: PHYSICAL ASPECTS 3.2.4 SECTION D: SOCIAL / WORKING ENVIRONMENT ASPECTS CHAPTER FOUR 4.0 CONCLUSION 4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY CHAPTER FIVE 5.0 RECOMMENDATION 4.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH REFERENCES APPENDIXES CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY Stress is body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. These chemicals give people more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing, if their stress is in response to something...
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...Write a REPORT based on * Key changes back to late 19 century i.e post Industrial Revolution, and also post 1st and 2nd world wars.( Many authors consider most changes occurred after the 1950’s) * Map the key most impacting changes which have affected the Seller/Buyer relationship& conduct research regarding the evolution of selling over these years. * Study historic and contemporary attitudes to sales and selling; current and past techniques, methods and attitudes towards selling. * Discuss your findings and embellish your work with plenty of examples * Look at the CRITERIA SHEET on the next page to explore the criteria against which you will be marked to help you with your tasks and allocate time and effort accordingly! * Fill in and download a criteria sheet which you will find on Bb under ‘Assignments’ and attach to your essay FOR YOUR REFERENCE….. A REPORT is.. ‘A document, which conveys information and (sometimes) recommendations from a researcher who has investigated a topic in detail.’ People who need the information for a specific purpose will usually request a report like this ’ Headings, diagrams, tables, etc may be used ensuring you SOURCE them. Title page This should for this assignment include a title which indicates the central theme of the report, tutor, module, author’s name and P number, word count Executive summary The purpose of an executive summary is to provide the briefest possible statement of the subject...
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...The Business Research Process Kelly Van Fossen Business Research / RES351 December 9, 2013 Marcus Sherrill The Business Research Process The business research process is a sequential process involving several clearly defined steps. This paper will illustrate how the process is implemented in a business environment using a real-life example. The business research process involves six stages that include clarifying the research question, research proposal, research design strategy, data collection and preparation, data analysis and interpretation, and research reporting (O’Neil, V.J). The real-life model that will be used for this paper is the case study of evaluating storytelling as a method for training at Wisconsin Electric-Wisconsin Gas Company (O’Neil, V.J.). The theory of storytelling as a method for training versus field training is the motivation for performing the research. They identified the research question (stage 1) as “Is storytelling an effective method for training Wisconsin Electric-Wisconsin Gas?” (O’Neil, V.J.). The research proposal (stage 2) was skipped in this case study. The research design strategy (stage 3) was “to determine the effectiveness of storytelling” (O’Neil, V.J.) in the case study. They used Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation where they identified four primary questions to guide the research. These questions included participant reaction, what was learned from the technical and leadership lessons, was the behavior transferred...
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...Semester: 6 Date of Submission: April 27, 2013 Course: Business Research Methods Abstract Do you ever notice what do you watch during the Prime Time; An Indian Drama, or a Turkish one, or any local? Now days, mostly people are inclined towards these Turkish dramas like “Ishq-e-Mamno”, “Fatima Gul” and so many more and are so mesmerized by their outlook that they have started to forget their own culture. This problem was identified by observation and through a survey. We conducted a survey on different age groups like mothers, teenagers (13-18) and minors (8-13). We conducted this research to see the impact of this media on our generation whose minds are so innocent. In back 2001 it was common to view Indian news channels in our country and it was to believe what they say as we don’t have our 1 single news channel but finally from 2003 and onwards Pakistani media and news channel over came this threat. After news channels we had a fever of daily soups to watch again from India and it was common to have knowledge of their rituals. Finally got rid of them and we faced a challenge of foreign content again and this time we had turkey as our opponent. Now a day’s according to the interviews conducted and data collected from our research we concluded that it’s very hard for our people to escape from the web of foreign content Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 Research Question and Objective 9 Conceptual Framework 9 Selection of...
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...ACTIVITY TWO Introduction The HR area I have chosen to investigate is absence/sickness levels. I chose this particular area as I knew the organisation I was researching had a particular problem with its on-going sickness levels. After researching more about this HR area I noticed that this year overall both in private and public sectors there have been a noticeable decrease in absence levels. However this year also sees an increase in “presenteeism” – people continuing to work when not well. This can have an effect for not only the individual but the organisation. Despite decreasing absence levels, it is imperative to continue to manage absence effectively, focusing on employee well-being. How I analysed and interpreted data The attached graph has been taken from a Hotel’s absence/sickness levels. I have looked at each department’s sickness records and figures from the last financial year 2012. After analysing the organisations sickness over the last 12 months and having taken figures from monthly HR records, I have interpreted the data and devised a graph. Each line on the graph shows the amount of days off sick each department has had per month. Findings The graph shows me that the organisation’s sickness levels could be better and are below average from other similar organisations that I further researched. It shows that it has a higher level of absence in the winter months than the summer months. This could be due to temperatures of weather and employees...
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... | | |Research Methods in Criminal Justice | Copyright © 2010, 2009 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description Students learn and demonstrate knowledge of research methodology within the criminal justice system and become acquainted with the range and scope of quantitative and qualitative tools available to the criminal justice researcher. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Bennett, J. O., Briggs, W. L., & Triola, M. F. (2009). Statistical reasoning for everyday life (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Addison Wesley. Hagan, F. E. (2010). Research methods in criminal justice and criminology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Software Students must have the plug-ins...
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...The Impact of Social Media use on Academic Performance at one Urban University: A Pilot Study Sam Mozee, MPPA Mississippi Urban Research Center Abstract. The purpose of this study was to begin exploring the possible impact of social media use on the academic performance of students attending one urban university. The study's primary goal is to identify key themes, trends, and/or perceptions that can be used as a foundation for more in-depth empirical research, and can be used to develop policy recommendations to deal with this growing phenomenon. A qualitative research design was used, and three preliminary research questions were formed to guide this study: (1) How common is the use of social media (i.e., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkIn) among college students? (2) For those students who do utilize social networking sites, on average how much time do they spend on those sites collectively per day and/or per week? and (3) How does the academic performance of students compare between students who utilize social media sites and students who do not use social media sites? Findings from this study seem to confirm perceptions of high student usage of social media among college students; however, they also seem to contradict other research literature findings regarding intensity of usage and gender-usage inclinations. Introduction Recently, there has been considerable discussion regarding the frequent use of social media tools (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Xanga, Friendster)...
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...Dilemma of Philosophy Debates in Research Philosophy and research approach debates are timeworn and even in the present era, present a great deal of difficulty for the doctoral researcher. Students are often overwhelmed by research philosophy. The classifications of old are duplicated, expanded, and evolving interchangeably (Mkansi & Acheampong, 2012). In many cases the students of today cannot make a correlation with a particular method in order to make the method relative to the subject matter in which they are researching (Mkansi & Acheampong, 2012). The following philosophical classifications: quantitative, qualitative, epistemology, and ontology all have variances but do contain several interconnected qualities. Many in higher education perpetuate these philosophies. Could researchers and students benefit from a standardized and more structured template for conducting research? Should there be a different standard for the social sciences and another for natural sciences. According to a study conducted with PhD students in North West Universities in the UK, not only did students not completely comprehend philosophy and classifications, they did not find them necessary in finding their approach to their research method (Mkansi & Acheampong, 2012). Most found they were not partial to one philosophy or another based on personal beliefs but were influenced more by typical methods for their field of study and the opinions of their superiors (Mkansi & Acheampong...
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...Public Relations Research Comm 3000 Syllab us Jan uary 1 I n s t ru c t o r : Z h u o B a n E m ai l : b a n z u @ u c m a i l . u c. e d u O f f i c e : M c M i c k e n H a l l R o o m 11 9 C O f f i c e h o u rs : T / R b y a p p o i n t m e n t INSIDE THIS SYLLABUS Course Objectives Unfortunately, no one can learn all there is to learn about research. Thousands of research methods have been created and used already, and thousands more are being developed as we speak. No, this course won’t teach you all you need to know about PR research. It will, however, provide you with an overall picture about the most popular research tools and practices. Students will be guided through a number of hands-on research projects that help them to develop a basic skill set to tackle the research (related) tasks most commonly issued to PR professionals. More essentially, students are encouraged to contemplate the philosophy of research for PR. It sounds abstract, but a philosophy of research provides answers to such important, and practical, questions as: When to conduct research? Who should be included in the research process? To what end should the research be carried out? 1 Course Objectives 2 Course Material 3 Course Requirements 4 Expectations 5 Class Schedule Upon completion of the course, you should be able to: • Explain how public-relations professionals frame research questions, set goals and objectives, and select the best methods to answer specific research questions; Plan...
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