Unit 5: Research Methodology in Extension Education
The methods unit. Research design, sampling, measurement, scaling and the statistics an Extension researcher is expected to know.
What this unit covers
Unit 5 is the unit most candidates postpone and most candidates regret postponing. It is methodological rather than descriptive, which makes it feel harder than it is, and it rewards practice rather than reading. Scaling techniques, reliability and validity, and the choice of statistical test are asked repeatedly and asked precisely. If you can define a Likert scale, distinguish reliability from validity and say when to use chi-square rather than a t-test, most of this unit is already yours.
The unit is broken into 10 syllabus areas, listed below. ASRB has set 19 descriptive questions from it that are on record, and there are 112 practice questions for it on this site.
Syllabus areas in this unit
- Types and steps of social science research; the research problem and objectives
- Hypothesis: types, formulation and testing
- Research designs: exploratory, descriptive, diagnostic and experimental
- Sampling: probability and non-probability methods, sample size, sampling error
- Variables, operationalisation and measurement
- Scaling techniques: Thurstone, Likert, Guttman, semantic differential
- Reliability and validity of measuring instruments
- Tools of data collection: interview schedule, questionnaire, observation
- Statistical analysis: measures of central tendency and dispersion, correlation, regression, chi-square, t-test, ANOVA
- Report writing, referencing and research ethics
Key concepts
Reliability. Whether a measuring instrument gives consistent results when repeated. A reliable scale can still be measuring the wrong thing.
Validity. Whether the instrument actually measures the concept it claims to. Content, construct and criterion validity are the usual forms tested.
Likert scale. A summated rating scale where respondents indicate agreement on an ordered set of statements, most often five points.
Previous year questions from Unit 5
Descriptive questions ASRB has actually set from this unit, with the year in brackets.
- Difference between case study and success story (2014)
- Write steps of case study (2021)
- How ITK can be validated? (2014)
- What is TAR and write steps to conduct TAR? (2021)
- Advantages and disadvantages of non-parametric statistics (2014)
- Strengths and limitations of survey research (2014)
- Define scale. Steps in construction of scale (2014)
- Levels of Measurement (2014)
19 previous year questions from this unit in total. The full list is on the PYQ page.
Practice for this unit
- 112 descriptive practice questions across 5, 10 and 15 marks, in the Mains section.
- Objective practice for this unit in the MCQ section, with ASRB marking and full analysis.
- Full-length tests that draw on this unit alongside the other nine, in the mock tests.
The other units
- Unit 1: Fundamentals of Extension Education & Communication
- Unit 2: Extension Methods & Agricultural Journalism
- Unit 3: Information Communication Technologies
- Unit 4: Training & Human Resource Development
- Unit 5: Research Methodology in Extension Education (this page)
- Unit 6: Programme Planning, Evaluation & Impact Assessment
- Unit 7: Extension Management & Organizational Behaviour
- Unit 8: Entrepreneurial Development
- Unit 9: Agricultural Innovation System & Extension Approaches
- Unit 10: Gender Sensitization & Empowerment