Quantitative or Qualitative

Quantitative or Qualitative

First let me clarify something. In a previous announcement here, it was stated that qualitative data was “just any other kind of information such as socioeconomic status, religious preference, sexual orientation.” That is actually wrong. This is what we call descriptive data and it is quantitative because it can be coded by number; it can even be used in multiple regression statistics (which we won’t even get into here).

Now, let’s go over a few differences. If you’re just looking at the ways in which data is analyzed, you can say that quantitative research is numerical and qualitative research is language-rich. Put another way, quantitative research uses statistics for analysis, while qualitative research uses content or discourse analysis, typically. That’s more language-rich and involves identifying specific themes. It’s much messier and time-consuming than stats, but quite informative. This is a simple explanation, but the differences go deeper than that.

· One important difference is the type of logic that is used – quantitative uses deductive reasoning, while qualitative uses inductive reasoning. This informs the way we ask questions as well as what we expect to find out in our research. Quantitative designs have a hypothesis going in; qualitative does not.

· Let’s also look at methods to collect data. Quantitative research is perfect for clinical or laboratory settings because these researchers want to maintain control of the environment. They are very much about accuracy and reliability. We see experiments here, with independent and dependent variables, and consideration of possible extraneous variables, too. (more on that in the resources). Qualitative research tends to happen in more natural environments (that is, where people are and what they’re doing on a normal day, like kids in preschool classes – you can still use quantitative measures here, too, but you would want more control of what’s going on). Qualitative utilizes a more flexible process for gathering data, too, and these researchers are “WILLING TO BE SURPRISED.” Quantitative researchers don’t like surprises.

· And finally, you can see differences in the tools used to collect data. In educational research, quantitative will have questionnaires or surveys where answers have already been proposed by the researcher (e.g., multiple choice). Sometimes they sneak in an “other” as a possible answer with a blank beside of it for people to write in a short-answer, but that’s still quantitative because it can be easily coded. Qualitative designs use interviews or focus groups where the researcher asks questions and then allows the participants to answer however they wish, often providing very long (but meaningful) answers.

· OBSERVATIONS: This method can be quantitative OR qualitative depending upon HOW you collect data. Quantitative observations are things like checklists, where you go in with a list of behaviors you think you will see and you make a mark every time it happens. Qualitative observations involve going in with a blank sheet of paper and writing down everything that you see, without assuming what you will see before you get there.

I hope these brief explanations help clarify how these two methods differ. Keep in mind that they also work very well TOGETHER, and we call that design “mixed methods.”

things I want you to keep in mind, based on my recent reviews of previously submitted assessments.

There are several types of qualitative research, and there are specific keywords you can use to identify which is which. Make note of what some of those keywords are as you look through the resources. Beyond that, you’ll want to critically analyze a study’s description in full before determining what type it is.

Semi-experimental and quasi-experimental designs are the same thing. They are like experimental except there is not any random selection of participants and, in many cases, there is no control over the independent variable. This makes it much easier to explore real-world scenarios without changing things or unethically engaging with participants.

When the rubric says that you “included an example from a peer-reviewed research article,” that doesn’t mean one of the articles or resources that are provided, but one that you have found on your own.