Which research design is best for my research work?
Burney, S., & Saleem, H. (2008). Inductive & Deductive Research Approach. Lecture delivered on 06-03-2008 at Auditorium of Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan. ResearchGate
Show Understanding the different research methods There are two general approaches to collecting data: quantitative and qualitative research. Let us understand in detail. Quantitative research In this type of research, the data collected is generally expressed in numbers and graphs to confirm theories and assumptions. The data collected are factual information on the topic. Under the quantitative research method, the factual information can be collected in many ways such as:
In quantitative research, you can include information on:
An example of quantitative research approach Consider this scenario. You are surveying some 300 students at your university and ask them questions such as: "On a scale from 1-5, how satisfied are you with your professors’ teaching skills?" You can perform statistical analysis on the data and draw a conclusion such as "On an average, students rated their professors 4.4." Qualitative research This method is used to understand thoughts, concepts, or experiences of people via interviews, focus groups, case studies, discourse analysis, and literature review. It is basically a survey done to gather people thoughts and experience. Let us look at the techniques in qualitative research.
Qualitative research approach example Let us consider a situation where you conduct in-depth interviews with say 20 students and ask them questions like: "How content are you with your curriculum study?", "What is the positive aspect of the study program?", and "What the students feel can be done to improve the study program?" Based on the answers you get you transcribe all interviews using transcription software and find commonalities and patterns in the responses. Mixed methods This includes a combination of in-depth exploration and numerical measurement. Let's say you conduct interviews to find out how satisfied the students are with their studies and their answers provide new insights. Later, you use the survey as a tool to test the insights on a large scale. Another approach could be to start with a survey to find out trends or opinions or beliefs, followed by interviews to better understand the reasons behind the trends. Understanding differences between quantitative and qualitative research Quantitative and qualitative research methods collect data in different ways, and they allow you to answer different kinds of research questions.
When to use qualitative vs quantitative research A thumb rule for deciding whether to use qualitative or quantitative data is:
For most research topics, you can choose between qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approach. Which type you want depends on, among other things, whether you're taking an inductive vs deductive research approach; your research question(s); whether you're doing experimental, correlational, or descriptive research; and other considerations such as money, time, availability of data. Analyzing qualitative and quantitative data Once you obtain data using the quantitative method, you can analyze the combined data by using statistical analysis to discover patterns or commonalities in the data. The results can be reported in graphs and tables.
Qualitative data is more challenging to analyze than the quantitative data. It consists of images, text or videos instead of numbers. Some conventional approaches to analyze the qualitative data are:
Conclusion Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods, but to show how and why you applied them and demonstrate that your research was rigorously conducted. You should be able to convince the reader why you choose either qualitative or quantitative method and how it suits your objective. The approach used must be clear to answer the research question and the problem statement. Always, relate the choices towards the main purpose of your dissertation, throughout the section.
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