QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an

understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the
problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.
Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper
into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-
structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions),
individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and
respondents are selected to fulfil a given quota.

Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating

numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to quantify
attitudes, opinions, behaviours, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a
larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts
and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more
structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods
include various forms of surveys – online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk
surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website
interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
 Women Leaders as Change Agents: Mary Campbell’s Story of Academic and
Community Leadership
Raelynn Parmely of Illinois Wesleyan University (2016)
Through this ethnographic study, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Mary
Campbell. Mary was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in a
household made up of her mom, her father, and three older brothers. Unlike families that
held their daughters and sons to different gendered standards, Mary always received
encouragement from her family that she could do whatever her brothers did (see Figure
1). Mary attributes her Catholic upbringing with instilling many of the values that she
maintains today, such as giving back to her community. During a service project in which
she participated during her senior year of high school, Mary was introduced to two nuns
who had devoted their lives to helping inner-city children. From this interaction with those
 two influential women, Mary was inspired to pursue both a bachelor’s and a master’s
degree in social work with concentrations in marriage and family studies.

 A Phenomenological Study of the Experiences of Higher Education Students with

Disabilities
Allen J. Heindel of University of South Florida (2014)
Distance education has the potential to offer a meaningful alternative for students
with disabilities. Colleges and universities have opportunities to provide quality online
courses to students with disabilities; yet data show these students may often choose to
discontinue higher education pursuits. Little is currently known about how students with
disabilities experience the distance learning environment or how institutions of higher
education. This phenomenological study focuses on the quality of the learning
experiences and learner satisfaction of students with disabilities in distance education
courses.
The purpose of this study is to investigate 1) how online learning is experienced
by students with disabilities, 2) what factors facilitate or inhibit their online learning, and
3) how what instructors do to facilitate online learning is perceived by students with
various disabilities. This study examines how students with various disabilities assess
the quality of distance education coursework in terms of three constructs: course
interaction, structure, and support. Data was gathered via interviews with consenting
participants who had affirmatively responded to a study participation solicitation email
and completed a brief survey.
Sadly, discussions of topics related to students with disabilities experiences are
still rare in the distance education literature. These interview data suggest that, despite
having many tasks to which they must attend, more training for instructors is needed on
how to work with students with disabilities. The Offices of Students with Disabilities
Services and instructors should develop a way to work together, rather than separately,
in a proactive rather than reactive xi fashion, to better serve the needs of students with
disabilities. Further research in this area may allow students with disabilities with online
courses in higher education to become more vocal about their needs from their
individual perspectives and in their own words, and pave the way for improving the
quality of the online learning environment for them.

 Exploring Engagement: A Grounded Theory Study of Young People’s Interactions

with Healthcare Professionals
Jason Vickers of University of Salford (2016)
There is growing recognition in health policies and professional guidance that
youth-friendly services must include the values and views of young people in their
healthcare. The term “engagement” has become increasingly used in literature to
recommend that healthcare professionals should involve young people in participatory
methods and include them in their decision-making. Yet, the engagement of young
people within health interactions remains a complicated process, often influenced by
lived contexts, value systems and lifestyle choices. Successful engagement of young
people is often cited to ameliorate health-related behaviours, improve health outcomes
 and increase awareness of their health needs; yet, a paucity of research exists for
healthcare professionals seeking to engage young people effectively in healthcare
interactions.
The grounded theory study identified that young people produce engagement-
related behaviour by means of an interpretive process. Three interconnected theoretical
categories emerged: (i) prejudgement, the beliefs with which young people enter into
health vi interactions; (ii) learning to be a patient, the means by which young people
learn from their interactions to develop in-context engagement-related behaviour; and
(iii) validation, the selective interpretation of information to justify their perception of the
interaction. The core category identified that young people demonstrate a reliance on
affect heuristics within healthcare interactions, which may influence the extent young
people feel able to engage with healthcare professionals. This was elevated into a
substantive theory of affect-mediated engagement.
Findings suggest that a dual-process perspective of cognition may be useful to
understand how young people engage in their healthcare; this could potentially be used
by healthcare professionals to target issues that impact on a young person’s
engagement. This study’s findings form a basis which would benefit nurses,
occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals in developing person-centred
interactions that empower young people in becoming stakeholders in their own health.

 Action Research on Improving Students’ Ability in Problem-Solving in “Principles

of Accounting”
A.S. Kannan of Dilla University (2014)
The purpose of this action research is to study how to improve students’ ability to
solve numerical problem questions in ‘Principles of Accounting’ course. The study was
conducted on and confined to select 12 students of the Group-3 of the First Year
Accounting and Finance Program of the School of Business and Economics of the Dilla
University, Dilla, Ethiopia. To identify the research issue, the following tools were used
for preliminary data collection: Focus Group Discussion with peer teachers, Interviews
with students, Analysis of Students’ Test Papers, and Preliminary Tests conducted.
Tutoring and Problem-Solving Assignment were used as Action Strategies.
Comprehensive Marking of test papers of the subjects for quantitative assessment, and
Accounting Course Problem Solving Rubrics developed for this purpose by the
researcher were used for qualitative assessment. Three levels of action interventions
were carried out, first with the tutoring strategy, second with the problem-solving
assignment, and the third with a combination of both. Graded problems selected from
standard textbooks were used to conduct the pre- and post-strategy tests, which
revealed marked improvements in performance of the subjects. Rubrics analysis
indicated quality improvement in ‘problem understanding’, ‘procedure of generating
solution’, and ‘neatness and clarity in presentation of answers’.

 Dialectical Pluralism: A Metaparadigm Whose Time Has Come

R. Burke Johnson (2017)
 There has been much debate about the role of paradigms in mixed methods
research. In the face of past calls for each researcher to operate within a single
paradigm, it turns out that some researchers/practitioners find many positive features
in more than oneparadigm. This “multiparadigmatic perspective” used in mixed methods
research needs a systematic framework for the practice of engaging in difference. Also,
individuals committed to a single paradigm need a philosophical/theoretical framework
for working in multiparadigmatic teams. This article provides such a framework. It is a
metaparadigm, and it is labeled dialectical pluralism 2.0 or more simply dialectical
pluralism. The word “pluralism” refers to the acceptance and expectancy of difference in
virtually every realm of inquiry, including reality, and the age-old word “dialectical” refers
to the operative process which is both dialectical and dialogical. Dialectical pluralism
provides a way for researchers, practitioners, clients, policy makers, and other
stakeholders to work together and produce new workable “wholes” while, concurrently,
thriving on differences and intellectual tensions.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
 Communications Research: Experimental Method
Nayeem Showkat and Huma Parveen of Aligarh Muslim University (2017)
In this chapter, we have learned the importance of experiments. We have
discussed the role played by experiments in the field of communication and media
research. Besides discussing the types of experimental errors, we also learned various
types of research designs. The module describes the types of experiments and also
throws some light on the advantages of field and laboratory experiments. Finally, the
module spells out various advantages and disadvantages of an experimental research.

 A Correlational Study Examining the Relationship Between Restorative Practices

and School Climate in Selected Elementary Schools in a Large Mid-Atlantic Urban
School District
Akil A. Boucaud of Concordia University (2017)
Punitive consequences are extensively utilized when dealing with school
discipline. Recently, positive approaches to discipline, such as restorative practices,
have been implemented in many schools to address school discipline concerns and to
improve school climate. Restorative practices is a philosophy that focuses on building
positive relationships by changing mindsets. This study took place in a large mid-atlantic
urban school district. The goal of the study was to determine the relationship between
restorative practices and school climate from the perspectives of school staff members
who utilize restorative practices in their schools. A quantitative correlational research
design was utilized for this study to examine the relationship between restorative
practices and school climate. Findings from this study indicated a strong positive
correlation between measures of restorative practice and school climate.

 A Descriptive Case Study: Investigating The Implementation Of Web Based,

Automated Grading And Tutorial Software In A Freshman Computer Literacy
Course
Glen J. Coulthard of Purdue University (2016)
Students in higher education require satisfactory computer skills to be
successful. While today’s students may have greater exposure to technology, research
shows that their actual computer knowledge and skills are superficial and narrow. As a
 result, the freshman computer literacy course remains an important curricular
component. This study investigates the implementation of an innovative Web-based
technology for delivering software proficiency training for Microsoft Office. Building upon
decades of end-user computing satisfaction and technology acceptance research, the
purpose of the study is to describe the instructor and student experiences that result
from the implementation and use of MyITLab educational software. The nature of the
study is descriptive, rather than evaluative, with the following goals: (a) to describe
instructors’ experiences with the software, (b) to identify patterns of technology usage
and utility, and (c) to elucidate levels of computing satisfaction and technology
acceptance among users.
The study applies a mixed-method, single-unit, embedded case study design to
focus the inquiry on an introductory computer applications course, offered in the Fall
2011 semester at a college in western Canada. The embedded units consist of five
instructors, with 322 students enrolled across 10 sections. Data were analyzed from
course documents, classroom observations, instructor interviews, and a student survey
that produced 149 satisfactory responses. The survey was constructed by adapting
instruments based on the Wixom and Todd (2005) integrated research model and the
Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model.
Results of the study are summarized into five assertions: 1) MyITLab effectively
eliminates or, at least, reduces instructor grading workloads for assignments, 2)
MyITLab provides students with frequent corrective feedback on assignments, 3) the
step-by-step presentation of instructions in MyITLab may not solely meet the needs of
solution-based learning outcomes, 4) instructors should be trained on MyITLab to
maximize the software’s utility, and 5) the MyITLab solution bank of acceptable
responses should be expanded to reduce potential grading inaccuracies. An enhanced
Wixom and Todd (2005) model is also presented for future research of educational
software. Lastly, the reader is encouraged to reconsider the information presented and
generalize it for their own purposes.

 A Quasi-Experimental Study Of The Effect Of Mathematics Professional

Development On Student Achievement
Zahid Kisa of University of Pittsburgh (2017)
Over the past couple of decades, teacher effectiveness has become a major
focus to improve students’ mathematics learning. Teacher professional development
(PD), in particular, has been at the center of efforts aimed at improving teaching practice
and the mathematics learning of students. However, empirical evidence for the
effectiveness of PD for improving student achievement is mixed and there is limited
research-based knowledge about the features of effective PD not only in mathematics
but also in other subject areas. In this quasi-experimental study, I examined the effect of
a Math and Science Partnership (MSP) PD on student achievement trajectories. Results
of hierarchical growth models for this study revealed that content-focused (Algebra1 and
Geometry), ongoing PD was effective for improving student achievement (relative to a
matched comparison group) in Algebra1 (both for high and low performing students) and
in Geometry (for low performing students only). There was no effect of PD on students’
achievement in Algebra2, which was not the focus of the MSP-PD. By demonstrating an
effect of PD on student achievement, this study contributes to our growing knowledge
base about features of PD programs that appear to contribute to their effectiveness.
Moreover, it provides a case study showing how the research design might contribute in
important ways to the ability to detect an effect of PD -if one exists- on student
achievement. For example, given the data I had from the district, I was able to examine
student growth within all Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2 courses, while matching
classrooms on aggregate student characteristics and school contexts. This allowed me
to eliminate the potential confound of curriculum and to utilize longitudinal models to
examine PD effects on students’ growth (relative to a comparison sample) for matched
classrooms. Findings of this study have implications for educational practitioners and
policymakers in their efforts to design and support effective PD programs in
mathematics, and these features likely transfer to the design of PD in all subject areas.
Moreover, for educational researchers this study suggests potential strategies for
demonstrating robust research-based evidence for the effectiveness of PD on student
learning.