Qualitative Research: The Current Trends In The World Of Research

Personally, I am not fond of doing research because I knew it was gonna be stressful and challenging to do. Aside from the hardships of doing research, it is also difficult for me to find a topic that I am interested in, but after the seminar, I was able to learn more about a qualitative and a quantitative research paper and I was able to find research topics that I have an interest in.

In the seminar, one of the speakers had started several national research agendas and I think the environment and pollution control research agenda is urgent and should be focused more because there are a lot of environmental issues that are happening today such as climate change, forest fires and many more. In order to address these issues, the agency must further research on the environment on solutions that could address the problems that the earth is facing.

One of the research trends that were mentioned was disaster risk reduction specifically the technology development and application for disaster risk management that I would want to focus for a possible topic for quantitative research because I think it is relevant in our country as many natural hazards are happening to the Philippines, so I will be able to do observations on the hazards that occurred/occurring. As for a qualitative research topic, I would want to focus on the environment and pollution control because I would be able to form questions and interpretations about environmental management such as solutions or methods in improving it.

One of the qualities of qualitative research that were presented in Dr. Domingo’s paper was inductive analysis because Dr. Domingo first formed a background about his research topic, then there were questions that were formed throughout his study, and he started forming hypotheses as he started doing in-depth interviews on his participants of science teachers. It was also seen that throughout the study hypothesis was changed depending on the participant’s response to his questions. Another quality that was seen in his research work was the use of a research methodology by using a purposively sampling technique in selecting his participants for his research as it was the most appropriate technique to use.

Among the titles that were presented in the seminar was the “Ply trolley- evaluation of a stair-climbing hand trolley”, wherein a trolley would be attached by the wall of a staircase for those people who are not able to walk or not capable to climb the stairs. I was interested in this because it was an invention that was made to assist the people in need, and the title was eye-catching for me since it was something unique in my perspective yet I am familiar with the words of the title.

As the speakers were sharing their own research work to us, they told us about young students who were researchers that we’re able to publish their work online. This made me realize that even as young as a student, we’re capable of doing such qualitative and quantitative research work. The research works that were shared also inspired me to create my own research because it was relevant to me as I am part of STEM and it made me more aware of the issues that are actually happening within the field. Knowing these issues, I would want to discover more learnings and topics about the field I am interested in.

Before the seminar, I was unsure of my research topic because I didn’t know what would be a good research topic according to my strand. But after the seminar, I was more confident about the research topic I’m interested in doing because I learned that finding a good research topic for myself is take interest in the topic, and it must also have relevance to the world today.

Before, I would get anxious when I hear that we will have to present research work, and I thought that I was not capable in doing a qualitative research paper, but now, I feel more confident or less scared in doing research because I was exposed to new learnings and experiences upon doing research. Doing qualitative research in the field of STEM made me more determined in doing it because it will be something that I’m interested in.