Unit 1 - Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research

Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research

This article was very well written and laid out the difference between the types of research and also gave examples of when to use each of the research methods.

Quantitative Research depends on numeric data whereas Qualitative Research relies on non-numeric data I.e. images and text, Mixed Research is the amalgamation of the two.

The appropriate use of the type of research used or combination of research used depends on the question, situation, and environment. Quantitative Research uses hypothesis and theory testing primarily whereas Qualitative Research is used to describe what is seen usually resulting generating another hypothesis and/or theory. This method is successfully used when little is known about the subject matter. With all research methods the researcher uses either deductive or inductive reasoning when deciphering results. Inductive is when the researcher searches for patterns, on the other side of the spectrum deductive reasoning is when the researcher can see noticeable consequences.

Let me give you an example from my work as we provide evaluation surveys to calculate Quantitative results and we use inductive reasoning to decipher patterns within the responses to highlight areas that need improvement. We lay out the survey with an agreement scale as follows:

We ask a question and the participants reply within these categories. We then create a report that amalgamates all the responses and we calculate an average.

References:

Johnson, R.B., Christensen, L. (2014). Chapter 2: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research. In Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches (pp. 29-55). Sage Publishing.