Numbers do not speak for themselves. Interpretation is giving meaning to the data that has been collected, analyze and presented after a study.

1. Prepared by:
MS General Science Education
Central Mindanao University
Education 241
Methods of Research in Education

2. Objectives:
1. Interpret research data;
2. Deal with expected and unexpected results

3. What does it mean that 55 youth reported
change in behavior, or 25% of participants
rated the program a 5 and 75% rated it a 4?
What does these numbers mean?
Why Interpret Research Results?
For example,

4. What is Interpretation in Research?
Interpretation refers to
the task of drawing inferences
from the data that has been
collected, analyzed, and
presented after an analytical
and or experimental study.
It involves making “inferences pertinent to the research
relations” investigated from where generalizations are
drawn (Calderon & Gonzales, 1993).

5. Interpretation reflects the
researcher’s own
understanding of the research
results which are guided by
logic and reason, established
theories and previous
findings.

6. Putting it simply….

7. 2 Types of Data to Interpret
• Quantitative
Data
• Qualitative
Data

8. Qualitative data includes narratives, logs,
experience from Focus groups, interviews,
open-ended survey items, diaries and
journals, notes from observations and etc.

9. • demographic data
• answers to closed-ended survey items
• attendance data
• scores on standardized instruments
• etc.
Quantitative data are data that is numerical,
counted, or compared on a scale

10. Qualitative data interpretation tends to
be more subjective in nature and many
times can be influenced by the
researcher’s biases ( Leed and
Ormrod, 2001)
Qualitative data requires understanding,
digesting, synthesizing, conceptualizing
descriptions of feelings, behaviors,
experiences and ideas.

11. Interpreting numerical data or
Quantitative data in order to make
predictions is known as inferential
statistics.
Some measures used in inferential
statistics include the standard error of
the mean, estimators and the p-value.

12. Techniques in Interpreting Research Results
• Give reasonable explanations of the
relations found.
• Find out the thread of
uniformity that lies under the
surface layer of diversified
research findings.

13. Expected vs. Unexpected Results

14. Do you consider negative results as
equivalent to bad results? Yes or No
Questions:
How will you deal with
unexpected results?

15. A contradictory result does not mean
that the study is bad or incorrect, but it
suggest the idea of further investigation.
An unexpected result maybe
attributed to the research
methodology- the research design,
sampling procedure, the research
instrument, data gathering
procedure and statistical treatment.