Characteristics Which Differentiate Qualitative and Quantitative Research

QUALITATIVE
Overall Purpose
Explain, and gain insight and understanding of, phenomena through intensive collection of narrative data

QUANTITATIVE

Explain, predict, and/or control phenomena through focused collection of numerical data

Approach to Inquiry
Inductive, value-laden (subjective), holistic, and process oriented Deductive, value-free (objective focused, and outcome-oriented)

Hypotheses
Tentative, evolving, and based on particular study Specific, testable, and stated pro to a particular study

Review of Related Literature

Limited, does not significantly affect particular study Extensive, does significantly affect particular study

Research Setting
Naturalistic (as is) to the degree possible Controlled to the degree possible

Sampling
Purposive: Intent to select small, not necessarily representative, sample in order to acquire in-depth understanding Random: Intent to select large representative sample in order to generalize results to population

Measurement
Non-standardized, narrative, ongoing Standardized, numerical, at the end

QUALITATIVE

QUANTITATIVE

Design and Method

Flexible, specified only in general terms in advance of study Involve non-intervention, minimal disturbance Historical Ethnographic Case study Structured, inflexible, specified in detail in advance of study Involve intervention, manipulation, and control Descriptive Correlational Casual-comparative Experimental

Data Collection Strategies

Document collection Participant observation Unstructured, informal interviews Taking of extensive, detailed field notes Non-participant observation Semi structured, formal interviews Administration of tests and questionnaires

Data Analysis
Raw data are words Essentially ongoing, involves synthesis Raw data are numbers Performed at end of study, involves statistics

Data Interpretation
Conclusions tentative, reviewed on an ongoing basis, generalizations speculative or nonexistent Conclusions and generalizations formulated at end of study, stated with predetermined degree of certainty

Trends
More-structured qualitative research Increased application of both inquiry strategies in same study

Qualitative and Quantitative Research

Study education issues Survey research methods

Qualitative researchers: reject the idea that social sciences (such as education and training) can be studied with the same methods as the natural or physical sciences;

feel that human behavior is always bound to the context in which it occurs; therefore, behavior must be studied holistically, in context, rather than being manipulated; employ an "insider's" perspective; this makes qualitative research an intensely personal and subjective style of research.

Quantitative researchers: argues that both the natural and social sciences strive for testable and confirmable theories that explain phenomena by showing how they are derived from theoretical assumptions;

reduce social reality to variables in the same manner as physical reality; attempt to tightly control the variable in question to see how other variables are influenced.

Modes of data collection - Qualitative research for education Intensive interviewing Focus groups interviews Field research Case studies Discourse/conversational analysis