Sport And Exercise Science Portfolio

Research Skills for Sport and Exercise Science Portfolio
Introduction
First part of this research report I will be providing an overview of the research process including both quantitative and qualitative approaches as well research design. I will then follow on explaining the terms of validity and reliability and identifying the factors that may affect both of these in research. I will then go on to a small explanation on the differences between descriptive and inferential statistics and how important it is in sport. In the second part of this report I will work specifically with the data we have collected in the lab session, this will include me writing a suitable method to include information on participants and a descriptive method on how

Difficulties of this stage is having an interest in the topic, knowing relevant information and thinking if it’s achievable. However if you don’t take care at this stage it can lead to having difficulties later on in your research. Element number two is reviewing the literature; this is the stage where you should aim to become an ‘expert’ in your field of research. Extra readings will help you identify any similar research that has been done. Element number three is development of theoretical and conceptual frameworks; this stage is a more fundamental consideration than looking at literature it will warn you to potential errors that may appear, this is an underlying theoretical approach that you adopt to underpin your study. Element number four is clarification of the research question; this stage is almost like an evaluation where you find out that the question is lack of sufficient focus, too complex to access the problems or that the concepts are not clearly defined or measureable. Element number 5 is research design at this stage you have to consider a few questions, number one being what data do I need to collect in order to answer this questions and number two what is the best way to collect this data. This leads on to a variable, there are two variables one being Qualitative and the second Quantitative research

Reason researchers use qualitative approach is because it enables them to explore d the nature of human behavior, feelings and wide range of different people experiences (Holloway and Wheeler, 2010). However there is a negative side to it, it can be extremely time consuming (Willig, 2001). Quantitative research is less use of words; it’s a numerical data that are analysed using mathematically based methods (Muijs, 2004). Getting back onto the research process elements, element number 6 is data collection. At this stage you should have a clear idea of what data you will be collecting, you also should consider what methodology you are going to choose. The seventh element is Data Analysis, most of the data you are going to collect will be quantitative and all the data needs to be analysed to provide answers to your research question. Element number 8 is the last stage of the research process and this stage is Drawing conclusion, at this stage you should find out the answer to your research question and evaluate how successful you have been throughout the research, you may also come up with some recommendations that you may want to suggest for further research however It is not mandatory (Gratton and Jones,