Why Take Your Research Design for Granted? By Dr. Lam Ho Cheong
- HKERA
- Dec 17, 2025
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 7
Event Highlights: Why take your research design for granted?
By Lam, Ho Cheong, PhD
Abstract:
We often hold methodological assumptions behind our research design, which are of crucial importance as to their effects on the validity of our results. As a phenomenographer and teacher educator at the Education University of Hong Kong, I have been teaching research methods for more than 15 years. I found that learners often take methodological assumptions for granted without scrutiny.
Examples of these assumptions are: i) If statistical significance cannot be achieved, our results are of no use. ii) The major difference between quantitative and qualitative research is that the former deals with numbers while the latter texts. (iii) We need a large sample size. Otherwise, our results are not valid. (iv) Questionnaire can be used for finding out how well people do something (e.g. speak a language). (v) Interviews can be used in pre- and post-tests to investigate people's change of views. If you believe in any one of these assumptions as self-evident, this will be the seminar for you. In this seminar, we will explore and reflect upon the pitfalls of these assumptions together in hopes of deepening our understanding of how we should design a research study appropriately.
Highlight (1)
Highlight (2)
Highlight (3)
Highlight (4)
We value the perspectives shared by our seminar speakers. The opinions expressed in these videos are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Hong Kong Educational Research Association. We share these recordings for educational purposes only.