All posts by Regoniel, Patrick A.

Dr. Patrick A. Regoniel is a graduate school professor of research, statistics, and environmental science at the Palawan State University. He has helped many graduate students complete their theses or dissertations by providing research and statistical advice and services since 1991. A Ph.D. in Environmental Science graduate of the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 2004, Dr. Regoniel is a member of the Gamma Delta Sigma Honor Society of Agriculture. He currently serves as Vice President for Research & Extension at the Palawan State University.
Ecosystem Dynamics

Biodiversity Differences in Freshwater and Estuarine Ecosystems

Leave a comment

There are very few references available on the biodiversity that can be found in freshwater and estuarine ecosystems of tropical countries. Students, therefore, are not able to appreciate the differences between these two ecosystems. Most of the published literature are descriptions of freshwater and estuarine ecosystems in temperate regions. Recognizing this gap, this article provides an overview of the two ecosystems and provides links to detailed descriptions of freshwater and estuarine ecosystems in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

Why the Dearth of Literature on Freshwater and Estuarine Ecosystems?

Information on freshwater and estuarine ecosystems of tropical regions is lacking. It may be due to the lack of regard to the important role these ecosystems play in the life of people in communities or cities. It may also be due to the inability of educators in many tropical countries to develop and publish material which are in tune with their local settings.

Apparently, many of the teachers are still locked in their traditional modes of teaching. They are occupied with class work and traditional lecture sessions, limited by their four-cornered classrooms. Or probably, they have devoted themselves to economic activities to keep up with the ever-growing prices of goods and services.

Whatever the reason, the point is that many students in tropical countries learn from the books published by authors in other places which may not be relevant to their specific location. There should be a change in paradigm among teachers.

Recognizing this, I always take the opportunity to engage my environmental science and marine biology students in field work as I teach subjects that require them to go to the field and explore the environment. It may be a Dynamics of Ecosystems course or  the subject Research 01 where they need to familiarize themselves with actual research situations, i. e., in the field. I always attempt not to teach them but mentor them along the way.

Let them discover – so to speak.

Field Trip to Freshwater and Estuarine Ecosystems

There were two separate occasions of field work that I undertook with my students so they will get familiar with these ecosystems. These are

1) a trip to the freshwater ecosystem of Balsahan by graduate students enrolled in the Dynamics of Ecosystems course, and

2) a recent trip to the estuarine portion of Iwahig River.

Freshwater Ecosystem of Balsahan

We discovered a very diverse array of wildlife in the upper freshwater portion of Balsahan River. Among these is a species of Insulamon,  a crab endemic (or only found) to Palawan.

Insulamon sp., a freshwater crab endemic in Palawan.
Insulamon sp., a freshwater crab endemic to Palawan.

We did the survey in 2010 but then references on proper identification of the crab is not available so we were not able to identify it correctly. No taxonomist was also available for consultation at that time. What we lack in taxonomic skills we compensate by taking a photo of the crab for future reference. I posted a recent picture of the crab in my travel and wildlife website, Palawaniana.net, for comments but there were none.

Eventually, Dr. Hendrik Freitag, animal ecologist of Ateneo de Manila University, properly identified the crab as Insulamon palawanense in 2012. It was featured in the National Geographic Online Magazine. Dr. Freitag happened to visit Palawan State University and saw the picture in one of my online articles. He confirmed the crab indeed belongs to the same species he discovered.

Also, we saw a small, almost inconspicuous leaf frog, also an endemic species, hiding under the leaves along the riparian zone of Balsahan River. This is a funny looking frog with skin protruding like horns on its head.

A more detailed account of this trip and the diverse wildlife of Balsahan is published in another site. You may read it here.

Estuarine Ecosystem of Iwahig River

Estuarine ecosystems are also not well studied in the tropical regions especially in the unique Island of Palawan which has wildlife species in more affinity with nearby Borneo Island than the rest of the Philippines. Experts attribute this similarity to land bridges that connect mainland Palawan with Borneo.

Despite the itchy bites of the sandfly (local name: niknik), the marine biology students braved the waist deep waters near the mouth of Iwahig River. Many species of wildlife were photographed and then released back into the water. The mangroves growing in the estuarine portion of the river were likewise identified and photographed for reference.

Notable among the animals is another crab of purple color. Is it another Insulamon? We don’t know because no information on a crab with such appearance is available. Proper identification requires a considerable number of crabs, some measurements, and a whole lot of descriptions filled with jargon. The picture says it all anyway.

The whole trip lasted only for about two hours but a diverse collection of photographs on biodiversity of the estuarine ecosystem was obtained. This collection is better than any book published in printed format.

See all these biodiversity in the article I posted online for everybody. It is titled Tropical Ecosystem: Estuarine Biodiversity in Iwahig.

© 2012 October 27 P. A. Regoniel

Notes from the Administrator

Another Important Note to Readers

3 Comments

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking time in reading my articles. I just would like to inform you that I have set a spam filter for this site to maintain quality experience for users who browse the articles.

If you would like to comment, please make sure that it is relevant to the content you are commenting on. If not, then your comment will be considered as spam and deleted permanently. It will take time to post relevant comments as I review each comment for relevance. I do not have an automatic service to do this.

I really would like the materials herein to be enriched by the readers. So I will appreciate if you post comments that enrich the experience of the users of the site, particularly our younger generation hungry for information, as they visited the site hoping to find answers to their questions related to the topics that I posted.

I focus my efforts and time on writing and editing my posts before publishing them. This takes a lot of my time. So I also expect those who would like to contribute educational articles here to do the same. Quality of articles published in this site should always be ensured.

This site is dedicated to students as well as teachers. I created it in response to my students’ enthusiastic remark that they like the way I teach because they are able to understand otherwise difficult topics especially in research and statistics. This is enough motivation for me to write on those topics I have had a good grasp although occasionally I have to verify or consult other relevant materials to enrich reader experience.

Further, I was encouraged to share my knowledge because a colleague once thanked me for providing her niece a very good background on research and statistics. She gratefully acknowledged that I was instrumental in her niece’s being able to enroll in the graduate school in a prestigious school without the need to take these subjects. Thus, she saved both time and money when she was upgraded to higher level after she passed the admission or qualifying exam.

I would like to share my knowledge and skills along this area to the best that I could. I dedicate this site to people like me who once browsed the web but found a lot of irrelevant stuff and who wished to have a site which is devoted mainly to educational materials that are easy to read and understand.

I hope you enjoy learning from my posts. – admin

Research

5 Qualities of a Good Researcher

27 Comments

Can anyone be a good researcher? Do researchers possess specific qualities that make them succeed in the field of scientific inquiry? Find out in the article below if indeed you have any of the qualities a good researcher must have.  If not, then you train and build yourself up on those qualities that you find yourself wanting.

While everyone in college will be given the opportunity to do research, not everyone can do it unless they possess the qualities required of a good researcher. Just like leaders, scientists can also be made, not just born.

But there are innate qualities that researchers must possess to succeed in this challenging task that requires a lot of imagination and perseverance.

What then are the qualities of a good researcher? Here are five notable attributes of people who tread the path towards discovery:

1. A good researcher manifests thirst for new information.

A good researcher shows an open mind about things. He does not just take things by themselves but explores new grounds. He adopts the philosophy of “thinking beyond the box“, leaving out the conventional for something innovative. A good researcher treads the unknown frontier.

Pieces of evidence of this thirst for new information manifest in people who do not stop learning. Those persons who maintain an open mind for new possibilities to happen, even when everything appears to have been discovered or studied, or options exhausted.

Two hundred years ago, has anyone ever thought that man could go to the moon, or explore the depths of the sea? Or tap on the keys of the cell phone to communicate with another person so far away?

2. A good researcher has a keen sense of things around him.

Keenness is a quality developed through an observant attitude. A good researcher sees something more out of a common occurrence around him. And he sees this quickly.

He can see a wiggling worm inside a flower, or the beautiful color combinations of a wild plant, or simply, notices the small fly in the burger.

Do you know which part of the vertically-oriented traffic light is green?

keenness

Image Source

3. A good researcher likes to reflect or think about the things he encounters.

Researchers who pause and reflect on the knowledge that they gained, either formally in school or through their experience, gain insights. Insights are creative thoughts that make one nod his head and say, “Aha, this is something I have been looking for!” An original idea was born.

4. A good researcher must be intelligent enough to express his ideas.

How can you express your thoughts if you cannot write? The point here is that a good researcher must be adept in the written language.

How can people understand your point when you are the only one who can understand what you have written?

Intelligence to express ideas is a quality that appears to reside in gifted individuals. But if you recognize your weakness in this realm, why not seek someone who can? After all, ideas are more important; but of course, better if you present them in such in a way that others understand well what you want to say.

5. A good researcher applies a systematic approach in assessing situations.

Research requires systematic and objective thinking to arrive at something. Logical reasoning, therefore, is applied by a good researcher.

He can analyze things, meaning, he can break down a complex situation into manageable bits that he can focus his attention into (see article on conceptual framework).

Do you have these qualities? If not, then it’s time for you to harness the hidden talents in you through training and continuous learning.

© 2012 October 24 P. A. Regoniel

Notes from the Administrator

Note to Readers

Leave a comment

This website adopted the simplest, minimalist web design in WordPress created by Galin Simeonov to facilitate learning among readers, primarily those who look for no-nonsense answers to their questions in the quickest way possible. It was designed with the student in mind, free of distracting pop-ups and unnecessary graphics that slow down the internet connection, draw away one’s concentration and clutter the mind.

In fact, when this note was written, a free, downloadable word processing utility, OmmWriter, was used by the author for better concentration. He can hear a slow paced, soothing background sound in a refreshing and calming snowy backdrop.

To make the most of this site, you may read the text on its own and/or click on the links for more information or clarification of concepts and let the linked article load in the background while you read the rest of the paragraph to save time. It’s multitasking. You save on time and you save on money especially if you are paying by the minute using a portable connection like USB Globe Tattoo Stick.

All of those links are related to the subject discussed. Those linked articles have advertisements on them, but these are not necessarily evil or bad, because the advertisements on those articles help the administrator pay for his internet connection, keep up with the electrical consumption bills, upgrade his computer, and recover his small investment for domain hosting. The is no such thing as free lunch.

People benefit from the advertisements, both the users who click on them and those who advertise because they keep the economy going. If we don’t have any idea on what to buy, then we don’t have enough choices to make. If we don’t have stores, then where do we go? How can people who work on those establishments survive?

But of course, we don’t just click away for no reason at all. If it’s relevant to us, then we click on them and decide anyway, whether we buy something or not.

Most of the topics discussed and will be discussed in this collection of articles arose from frequently encountered questions from students in both classroom and field work settings. It is the author’s philosophy that answers to these questions should be simple, succinct or straightforward without lacking in substance.

Thus, the slogan, “Don’t talk too much, simply educate me.” – admin

Research, Statistics

What are Examples of Research Questions?

126 Comments

To effectively write the statement of the problem of your thesis, you will need to bear in mind certain principles that will guide you in framing those critical questions.  Well-written research questions determine how the whole research process will proceed.

At least three basic research outcomes are expected. These are described below along with examples of research questions for each outcome.

There are already many pieces of literature written on how to write the research questions required in investigating a phenomenon. But how are the research questions framed in actual situations? How do you write the research questions?

You will need to bear in mind certain rules and principles on how to go about writing the research questions. Before you start writing the research questions, you should be able to discern what you intend to arrive at in your research.

What are your aims and what are your expected research outcomes? Do you intend to describe something, determine differences or explain the causes of a phenomenon?

Three Basic Research Outcomes

There are at least three basic research outcomes that will arise in writing the research questions. These are 1) come up with a description, 2) determine differences between variables, and 3) find out correlations between variables.

Research Outcome Number 1. Come up with a description.

The outcome of your research question may be in the form of a description. The description is provided to contextualize the situation, explain something about the subjects or respondents of the study or provide the reader an overview of your study.

Below are examples of common research questions for Research Outcome Number 1 on a research conducted on teachers as respondents in a study.

Example Research Questions

  • What is the demographic profile of the teachers in terms of age, gender, educational attainment, civil status, and number of training attended?
  • How much time do teachers devote in preparing their lessons?
  • What teaching styles are used by teachers in managing their students?

The expected outcomes of the questions above will be a description of the teachers’ demographic profile, a range of time devoted to preparing their lessons, and a description of the teaching styles used by the teachers. These research outcomes can be presented in the form of tables and graphs with accompanying descriptions of the highlights of the findings. Highlights are those interesting trends or dramatic results that need attention such as very few training provided to teachers.

Research Outcome Number 2. Determine differences between variables.

To be able to write research questions that integrate the variables of the study, you should be able to define what is a variable. If this term is already quite familiar to you, and you are confident in your understanding, you may read the rest of this post.studying

You might want to find out the differences between groups in a selected variable in your study. Say, you would want to know if there is a significant difference in long quiz score (the variable you are interested in) between students who study at night and students who study early in the morning. You may frame your research questions thus:

Example Research Questions

  • Non-directional: Is there a significant difference in long quiz score between students who study early in the morning and students who study at night?
  • Directional: Are the quiz scores of students who study early in the morning higher than those who study at night?

The intention of the first research question is to find out if a difference exists in long quiz scores between students who study at night and those who study early in the morning, hence is non-directional. The second research question aims to find out if indeed students who study in the morning have better quiz scores as what the review of the literature suggests. Thus, the latter is directional.

Research Outcome Number 3. Find out correlations or relationships between variables.

The outcome of research questions in this category will be to explain correlations or causality. Below are examples of research questions that aim to find out correlations or relationships between variables using a combination of the variables mentioned in research outcome numbers 1 and 2.

Example Research Questions

  • Is there a significant relationship between teaching style and long quiz score of students?
  • Is there a significant association between the student’s long quiz score and the teacher’s age, gender, and training attended?
  • Is there a relationship between the long quiz score and the number of hours devoted by students in studying their lessons?

Note that in all the preceding examples of research questions, the variables of the study found in the conceptual framework of the study are integrated. Therefore, research questions must always incorporate the variables in them so that the researcher can describe, find differences, or correlate them with each other.

If you find this helpful, take the time to share this with your peers so that they can likewise discover new, exciting and interesting things along their fields of interest.

© 2012 October 22 P. A. Regoniel

Cite this article as: Regoniel, Patrick A. (October 22, 2012). What are Examples of Research Questions?. In SimplyEducate.Me. Retrieved from http://simplyeducate.me/2012/10/22/what-are-examples-of-research-questions/
Research, Statistics

What are Examples of Variables in Research?

99 Comments

In the course of writing your thesis, one of the first terms that you encounter is the word variable. Failure to understand the meaning and the usefulness of variables in your study will prevent you from doing good research. What then are variables and how do you use variables in your study? I explain the concept below with lots of examples on variables commonly used in research.

You may find it difficult to understand just what variables are in the context of research especially those that deal with quantitative data analysis. This initial difficulty about variables becomes much more confusing when you encounter the phrases “dependent variable” and “independent variable” as you go deeper in studying this important concept of research as well as statistics.

Understanding what variables mean is crucial in writing your thesis proposal because you will need these in constructing your conceptual framework and in analyzing the data that you have gathered. Therefore, it is a must that you should be able to grasp thoroughly the meaning of variables and ways on how to measure them. Yes, the variables should be measurable so that you will be able to use your data for statistical analysis.

I will strengthen your understanding by providing examples of phenomena and their corresponding variables below.

Definition of Variables and Examples

Variables are those simplified portions of the complex phenomena that you intend to study. The word variable is derived from the root word “vary”, meaning, changing in amount, volume, number, form, nature or type. These variables should be measurable, i.e., they can be counted or subjected to a scale.

The following examples of phenomena from a global to a local perspective. The corresponding list of variables is given to provide a clear illustration of how complex phenomena can be broken down into manageable pieces for better understanding and to subject the phenomena to research.

  • Phenomenon: climate change

Examples of variables related to climate change:

  1. sea level
  2. temperature
  3. the amount of carbon emission
  4. the amount of rainfall
  • Phenomenon: Crime and violence in the streets

Examples of variables related to crime and violence:

  1. number of robberies
  2. number of attempted murders
  3. number of prisoners
  4. number of crime victims
  5. number of laws enforcers
  6. number of convictions
  7. number of car napping incidents
  • Phenomenon: poor performance of students in college entrance exams

Examples of variables related to poor academic performance:

  1. entrance exam score
  2. number of hours devoted to studying
  3. student-teacher ratio
  4. number of students in the class
  5. educational attainment of teachers
  6. teaching style
  7. the distance of school from home
  8. number of hours devoted by parents in providing tutorial support
  • Phenomenon: Fishkill

Examples of variables related to fish kill:

  1. dissolved oxygen
  2. water salinity
  3. temperature
  4. age of fish
  5. presence or absence of parasites
  6. presence or absence of heavy metal
  7. stocking density
  • Phenomenon: Poor crop growth

Examples of variables related to poor crop growth:

  1. the amount of nitrogen in the soil
  2. the amount of phosphorous in the soil
  3. the amount of potassium in the ground
  4. the amount of rainfall
  5. frequency of weeding
  6. type of soil
  7. temperature
Arid land
Poor crop growth in the arid soil of a hill in an island.

Notice in the above examples of variables that all of them can be counted or measured using a scale. The expected values derived from these variables will, therefore, be in terms of numbers, amount, category or type. Quantified variables allow statistical analysis. Variable correlations or differences are then determined.

Difference Between Independent and Dependent Variables

Which of the above examples of variables are the independent and the dependent variables? The independent variables are just those variables that may influence or affect the other variable, i.e., the dependent variable.

For example, in the first phenomenon of climate change, temperature (independent variable) may influence sea level (dependent variable). Increased temperature will cause expansion of water in the sea. Thus, sea level rise on a global scale may occur. In the second phenomenon, i.e., crime and violence in the streets, the independent variable may be the number of law enforcers and the dependent variable is the number of robberies.

I will leave to you the other variables so you can figure out how this works.

How will you know that one variable may cause the other to behave in a certain way? Finding the relationship between variables require a thorough review of the literature. Through a review of the relevant and reliable literature, you will be able to find out which variables influence the other variable. You do not just simply guess relationships between variables. The whole process is the essence of research.

At this point, I believe that the concept of the variable is now clear to you. Share this information to your peers who may have difficulty in understanding what the variables are in research.

©2012 October 22 P. A. Regoniel

Cite this article as: Regoniel, Patrick A. (October 22, 2012). What are Examples of Variables in Research?. In SimplyEducate.Me. Retrieved from http://simplyeducate.me/2012/10/22/what-are-examples-of-variables-in-research/
Research

4 Steps in Writing Your Thesis Proposal

5 Comments

Are you looking for information on how to write your thesis proposal? Here’s just what you need to be able to do so. Write your thesis with confidence by following the 4 steps outlined below.

If you are a graduating student, writing your thesis proposal will be one of the challenges that you will have to face. Before you write your thesis proposal, you will need to be very familiar and should be equipped with a good understanding of many things before you write your thesis.

The following are the things that you need to bear in mind to write your thesis in a more effective manner.

Step 1. Know where to begin.

It is important that in writing your thesis, the specific topic or topics that you will need to investigate should be within your specific discipline or interest to begin with. Actually, I would say this is one of the most challenging tasks that you need to do in writing your thesis.

So you how will you be able to begin in a more systematic manner? There are four ways on how to do this and I detail it here.

Step 2. Write your problem statement.

How do you write a problem statement? After you have gone through Step 1, you should be able to write your problem statement. The problem statement is just a question or a statement that is not answerable by just a simple Yes or No but will require deeper study.

The specific details on how to do this can be found here.

Step 3. Come up with your conceptual framework.

What is a conceptual framework? This concern was partly discussed in Step 2.concept

Just to refresh your mind, the conceptual framework is your own concept of things after reading theories that try to explain the phenomenon that you want to look into in writing your thesis proposal. It will serve as your map or guide so that you will be able to figure out what are the specific things you need to do in order to pursue clearly your goal or intention in writing your thesis.

How do you construct your conceptual framework? Here is a simple example on how the conceptual framework is prepared. But of course, before you come up with your conceptual framework, you will need to have a good review of literature.

Step 4. Write your Methodology Section

Once you have already drawn out your conceptual framework in Step 3, you are now ready to write the methodology section of your thesis proposal. You just have to go back to your problem statement and figure out what you should do for each question in order to be able to provide answers to each one.

There should be a one-to-one correspondence between the statement of the problem and the method section. That is, statement of the problem number 1 should be matched with method number 1. You can do this better by preparing a matrix or table.

You methodology section should contain at least the following things:

  • make sure that the methods you describe can be replicated or can be repeated by someone who will investigate along the same line as yours
  • describe the specific materials that you will use in the course of conducting your study
  • state which statistical tools you will need to use to analyze the data that you will gather
  • state the limitations, assumptions and scope of your thesis
  • make a detailed description of your sampling technique and what will be the source of your data

At this point, you should now be able to write your thesis proposal. You can add dummy tables to show what you will expect to present as findings in writing your thesis.

Find time to share this article if you think it has helped you in writing your thesis proposal.

© 2012 October 20 P. A. Regoniel

Notes from the Administrator

What I Intend to Do With This Blog

Leave a comment

Greetings everyone!

I am a college professor and I intend to use this site as an educational resource for college and graduate students. My blog will provide information on the common and not-so-common issues and concerns in college and graduate school life. The issues that I will tackle will be on those topics which the students have difficulty trying to understand.

I teach both undergraduate and graduate students covering the fields of research and statistics, the environment, among other things. I hope that the articles I write and the links I provide will be helpful resources so that students will learn.

I write in the simplest way possible, to transfer knowledge to my students. I discuss each topic thoroughly and with focused themes so that the difficult concepts encountered in college life are well understood. I will be providing links to make clear the issues and concerns I raised.

It is my philosophy that education is ineffective unless the knowledge and skills learned are applied in real life. If students are able to apply what they have learned from my articles, then the existence of this website is justified.

Comments will be appreciated. I hope you enjoy my blogs.

—–

Interested writers have contacted me on their intention to share their knowledge in line with the intention of this site. Now, two of them have been approved and started contributing worthy articles for visitors of this site. Here are the articles they have written:

How to Write Survey Questions

Defining a Research Topic for Your Thesis

If you have what it takes, you may send your intention to admin@simplyeducate.me including two links to your best articles online.

Share the Love!

Updated: July 14, 2013