TABLE OF CONTENTS One of the most abused words in the English language, "research" means many things to many people. The high school student who visits the library to gather information on the Crusades is doing research. A man who checks the monthly sales of his company for the year 1995 is doing research. Many such studies make use of bibliothecal or statistical tools or similar research tools but are a far cry from a scientist's conception of the term. Let us narrow the concept a bit and define research as "a systematic quest for undiscovered truth." (See Leedy [18]. [1])
In this definition we note that the quest must be "systematic," using sound scientific procedures not a haphazard, seat-of-the-pants approach to solving a problem. The truth sought should be something that is not already known, which implies a thorough literature search to ascertain that the answer is not available in previous studies.
Not all studies are necessarily research, nor is all research experimental. A true experiment may be defined as a study in which certain independent variables are manipulated, their effect on one or more dependent variables is determined, and the levels (values) of these independent variables are assigned at random to the experimental units in the study. Such experiments allow the researcher to develop a statistical model and estimate its validity.
An experimental unit must be carefully defined. It may be a part, a person, a class, a lot...
