Samples, Sampling Size, sampling method

Samples, Sampling Size, sampling method
Sample
Our research study aims to examine the role of single-sex schools towards ineffective inter-gender
cooperation between university students. As such, the target sample will include students from
universities in particular, from private universities.
The study sample will exclusively include participants who learned in either single sex schools or
multiple sex schools. Any participant who transferred between schools having different sexes will be
excluded from the final sample.
Particularly, data obtained from participants from single sex schools will be used to test the study’s
hypothesis that “persons who went to single sex schools have trouble cooperating with persons from
different gender” while data from participants who went exclusively to multiple sex schools will be used
as a control.
Sampling Size
Our research will use a sample of size 200. Our choice of sample follows the assumption of lowest
margin of error i.e. the choice of a sample size that will lead to the lowest margin of error and realistic at
the same time (Burmeister & Aitken, 2012).
According to Burmeister &Aitken (2012), a larger sample of size 200 is most likely to have a 0.071
margin of error which is relatively low hence suitable for use.
Sampling Method
In order to select a representative sample from the university population, we will use a purposive
sampling technique also known as selective/subjective sampling with a specific adoption of typical case
sampling. Ideally, typical case sampling is appropriate in the event that the research objective is to study
a given trend or phenomena in the target population (Crossman, 2018) as it is in this study’s case in which
the phenomena is to examine if going to a single sex school influences inter-gender cooperation among

college students. The objective of using purposive sampling is that we will get to work with participants
who the specified characteristics in the target population.
Inclusion Criteria
In order for a participant to qualify to be included in the research they will have to meet the following
selection criterion:
i. Exclusively went to a single sex school for both their primary/ elementary and secondary school
education
ii. Went to a multiple sex school for elementary studies but to a single sex school for their entire
secondary studies
iii. Went to a multiple sex school for elementary studies, then to a single sex secondary school for
the first 3 years and 1 year in a multiple sex school
Exclusion Criteria
Participants are excluded from the sample if they fall into the following criterion:
i. They went to a single sex school for their primary education but a multiple sex school for their
secondary education
ii. At some point in their secondary school education they went to a multiple sex school for a period
exceeding 1 year
iii. A participant went to multiple sex school for both their primary and secondary school education
Merits of Purposive Sampling
We can utilize numerous qualitative research designs
When adopting purposive sampling, a researcher is often able to adopt a range of different research
designs given the various techniques that are possible in purposive sampling approach which allow
adaptability of the research designs