Month: April 2009

Hypothesis: Forms and Samples

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Hypothesis is a wise guess prepared and temporarily adopted to explain the observed factors covered by the study.  It is a tentative conclusion or answer to a specific question raised at the beginning of the investigation.

Hypothesis helps the researcher in designing the study such as the methods, research instruments, and sampling design to be used as well as the data to be gathered. It also use as bases for determining assumptions and for the explanation about the data gathered.

Forms of Hypothesis

  • Operational Form – It is stated in the affirmative.  It states that there is a difference between two phenomena
  • Null Form – It is stated in the negative. It states that there is no difference between the two phenomena. It is more commonly used.

Examples:

Question:
Is there any significant difference between the perceptions of the teachers and those of the students concerning the different aspects in the teaching of science?

Operational hypothesis
There is a significant difference between the perceptions of the teachers and those of the students concerning the different aspects in the teaching of science.

Null hypothesis
There is no significant difference between the perceptions of the teachers and those of the students concerning the different aspects in the teaching of science.

Variables: Types and Characteristics

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Variable is a quantity or a characteristic that has or more mutually exclusive values or properties of objects or people that can be classified, measured or labeled in different ways.

Types of Variables

  1. Discrete Variable – only a finite or potentially countable set of values.
  2. Continuous Variable – an infinite set of values between any two levels of the variables.  They are result of measurement.
  3. Independent Variable – a stimulus variable which is chosen by the researcher to determine its relationship to an observed phenomena.
  4. Dependent Variable – a response variable which is observed and measured to determine the effect of the independent variable.
  5. Moderate Variable – a secondary or special type of independent variable chosen by the researcher to ascertain if it alters or modifies.
  6. Control Variable – a variable controlled by the research in which the effects can be neutralized by removing the variable.
  7. Intervening Variable – a variable which interferes with the independent and dependent variables, but its effects can either strengthen or weaken the independent and dependent variables.

Characteristics of Variable

1.    Capable of assuming several values representing a certain category.
2.    Values that may arise from counting and or from measurement.
3.    Raw data or figures gathered by a research for statistical purposes.
4.    Predicted values of one variable on the basis of another
5.    Observable characteristic of a person or objects being studied.