School of Advanced Studies The ConceptualTheoretical Framework on

School of Advanced Studies The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Dr. Armando Paladino Lead Faculty Area Chair – Research

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research • This presentation is not: o A lecture on Conceptual/Theoretical Framework o The only view of Conceptual/Theoretical Framework o A recipe to write Conceptual/Theoretical Frameworks • This presentation is: o An open discussion on different views of the Conceptual/Theoretical Framework topic o An opportunity for faculty to share their ideas and best practices o An opportunity to create an outline of best practices to teach this important topic

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Suggested Outline for Chapter 1 Proposals • • • Introduction Background Problem Statement Purpose of the Study Significance of the Study Nature of the Study, including the following information: – Appropriateness of the method – Two potential designs with support for the most appropriate design – Proposed population and sample size – Proposed data collection instrument – Proposed data analysis approach Research Questions/Hypotheses (if applicable) Theoretical/Conceptual Framework Definitions of Terminology Scope, Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations Summary

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Three Typical Student Cases • Student completed a draft of his/her dissertation and his/her advisor said he/she needs a theoretical framework (without saying why) • For the second student, the professor told him/he what theoretical framework to use and the students was struggling because after finding books and articles he/she could not figure how that framework would fit his theory • The third student was able to link topic and theory but his/her proposal was not aligned methodologically

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Same Topic Three Different Frameworks: Research on street children with three Scenarios Imenda, S. (2014 ). First Student • Looked at the issue from the sociology lenses o Looked at the sociological factors o Reviewed of the literature centered on theories and empirical research related to: • Social relations among young people living on the streets • Socio-economic home backgrounds • Social relations in the home • Parental structure • (single versus two parent homes) Second Student • Looked at the issue from the psychological lenses o Looked at the consequences to living on the streets with respect to the children living away from parental guidance o Located his study within development and cognitive psychological thoughts and theories o Empirical studies within the psychological frame of reference

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Same Topic: research on street children with three Scenarios Imenda, S. (2014). Third Student • Came with a unique angle to the incidence of street children o Being a education student he had theory that children were on the streets because school o Student was convinced that there were something on schooling that repelled the students and made them to live on the streets o Looked at different theories • School governance • School curriculum • Curricular relevance and implementation • The teacher-learner interface • Accessibility of schools • Bullying • School support

The conceptual/theoretical Framework on Research my published dissertation: The power of unstructured data: A study of the impact of tacit knowledge on business performance. Paladino, A. E. , Hargiss, K. M. , & Howard, C. (2016). • Looked at the Polanyi tacit knowledge theory o Regarding tacit knowledge, Polanyi (2009) stated, “I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell” (p. 4). He also declared, “We recognize the moods of the human face, without being able to tell, except quite vaguely, by what signs we know it” (p. 4) • Looked at theory of organizational knowledge creation that is originated from the tacit knowledge theory (Nonaka, 1991, 1994; Nonaka & Toyama, 2003) o Nonaka (1994) called the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge the epistemological dimension to organizational knowledge o Dissertation was based on the fourth mode of theory of organizational knowledge creation: converting tacit into explicit knowledge, called externalization. • The study was a quasi-experimental study that converted IT field engineers tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and analyzed its impact on productivity

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Some important quotes • “A conceptual framework explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied—the key factors, variables, or constructs—and the presumed relationships among them. Frameworks can be simple or elaborate, commonsensical or theory driven, descriptive or causal (Miles and Huberman, p. 20) • Maxwell (2013) defines the conceptual framework as a key part of your design and they are the belief, concepts, theories that support your research and refer to the actual ideas and structure about the phenomena whether these are written down or not and it states that the “conceptual framework for your research is something that is constructed, not found. It incorporates pieces that are borrowed from elsewhere, but the structure, the overall coherence, is something that you build, not something that exists readymade” (p. 41).

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Some important quotes • Ravitch and Riggan (2017) definition borrows from the previous mentioned authors and also states “For us, a conceptual framework is an argument about why the topic one wishes to study matters, and why the means proposed to study it are appropriate and rigorous. By argument, we mean that a conceptual framework is a series of sequenced, logical propositions the purpose of which is to ground the study and convince readers of the study’s importance and rigor (p. 351) • ‘I define conceptual framework as a network, or “a plane, ” of interlinked concepts that together provide a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon or phenomena. The concepts that constitute a conceptual framework support one another, articulate their respective phenomena, and establish a framework-specific philosophy. Conceptual frameworks possess ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions, and each concept within a conceptual framework plays an ontological or epistemological role” (Jabareen, 2009, p. 51).

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Some important quotes paladino (2018) • Conceptual Framework – let us compare the conceptual framework to a criminal case: – We interview witnesses, collect facts, arguments and details of the particular case or cases. (this represents the conceptual framework) • Theoretical Framework – The theoretical framework, can be compared to the evidence(s) of the above mentioned criminal case • Some times (similar to qualitative studies) we do not have a clear evidence (or theory) but we create our case (conceptual framework) from all the narrative and details hoping that the jury will conclude with a theory of what happened

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Final Thoughts • Research is a controlled, empirical evidence guided by Theory and Hypothesis about presumed relations o Without theory research would lack direction (Even though on qualitative research theoretical framework may not be explicitly articulated o On research and dissertations, we are expected to present a theoretical/conceptual framework like the students example o The conceptual model represents a synthesis of theories to support the way the variables are set up in relationship to test. o For example, every hypothesis must be reflected in the conceptual model and there must be some theoretical basis from the literature to support the variables and the way they operate. o Many dissertations have a Theoretical Framework with just one theory o Dr. Dian Gavin’s blog post: o https: //research. phoenix. edu/blog/using-theoretical-or-conceptual-frameworks-scholarly-study

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research Final Thoughts • The theoretical framework is theory that the researcher uses to guide his/her research o Scientific theories are based on facts that have been repeatedly confirmed and are less abstract than conceptual models • On the other hand sometimes the research cannot be encapsulated on a single theory but on a group of theories and concepts and the researcher has to synthesize the existing views on the literature. This may be called model or conceptual framework. o Some authors associate this with the inductive process but other like Ravitch and Riggan (2017) argue otherwise • Conceptual frameworks are structures that serve as guidance for the researcher. The framework is used as a mirror and this is fine tuned and reviewed to see if the results agree with the framework o “A conceptual or theoretical framework. . . Is the specific perspective which a given researcher uses to explore, interpret or explain events or behavior f the subjects or events s/he is studying” Imenda, S. (p. 188, 2014)

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research A proposed methodology Jabareen (2009) proposed a new qualitative method for building conceptual frameworks for phenomena that are linked to multidisciplinary bodies of knowledge. I argue that his method can be applied to any method of research (qualitative, quantitative and non-multidisciplinary as well). Jabareen (2009) proposed an eight steps technique to build a conceptual framework • Phase 1: Mapping the selected data sources – This phase is very similar to a literature review, but Jabareen (2009) suggest interview with practitioners, specialists and scholars from various disciplines • Phase 2: Extensive reading and categorizing of the selected data – Once the data has been collected the data must be categorized by both discipline and by a scale of importance • Phase 3: Identifying and naming concepts – In this phase (that includes read and reread the data), we aim to discover concepts emerging from the literature Phase 4: Deconstructing and categorizing the concepts – In this phase, we organize and categorize the concepts according to the ontological, epistemological and methodological role •

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research A proposed methodology Phase 5: Integrating concepts In this phase the concepts are integrated based on similarities (allowing for a simplification and reduction of concepts) Phase 6: Synthesis, resynthesize, and making it all make sense This phase is the beginning of the synthetization of concepts to create theoretical framework Phase 7: Validating the conceptual framework In this phase we validate the conceptual framework against our own research and we validate it to find out if the concepts make sense to other scholars Phase 8: Rethinking the conceptual framework In this phase we revise the conceptual framework

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research The use of Concept Maps • Some researchers use concepts maps for a good visualization on the conceptual/theoretical framework – A Concept map is not the conceptual/theoretical framework as some researchers confuse – The concept maps are diagrams that depicts suggested relationships between concepts – The technique is called concept mapping

Conceptual Model on Quality and Patient Safety Copyright@t. Conchita Freitag

Application of the Tripartite Model of Attitudes (Adapted from Rinaca, 2006). copyright@Hezedean Smith

The Conceptual/Theoretical Framework on research References Imenda, S. (2014). Is There a Conceptual Difference between Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks? Journal of Social Sciences, 38(2), 185 -195. doi: 10. 1080/09718923. 2014. 11893249. Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. (3 rd ed. ). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Miles, M. B. , & Huberman, M. A. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2 nd ed. ). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Paladino, A. E. , Hargiss, K. M. , & Howard, C. (2016). The Power of Unstructured Data: A Study of the Impact of Tacit Knowledge on Business Performance. International Journal of Strategic Information Technology and Applications (IJSITA), 7(4), 64 -93. doi: 10. 4018/IJSITA. 2016100102 Ravitch, S. M. , & Riggan, M. (2017). Reason & rigor: How conceptual frameworks guide research Dr. Dian Gavin’s blog post: https: //research. phoenix. edu/blog/using-theoretical-or-conceptual-frameworks-scholarly-study