Compare Qualitative Versus Quantitative Methods in Education Research
All educational (and other) research falls into two broad methodological categories: qualitative and quantitative (Lincoln & Denzin, 1994; Charles, 1998; Merriam, 1998; Holliday, 2001). "Research that relies on verbal data is called qualitative research, while research that relies on numerical data is called quantitative research [emphasis original]" (Charles, p. 30). Various opinions exist, depending on one's viewpoint, experience, or preference, about which of the two major approaches to education research, qualitative or quantitative, is better. In my own opinion, neither quantitative research in education nor qualitative research in education is inherently "better" or "worse"; one's research method must spring from the design and content of the project itself. To decide on one research method or another, based on other reasons, seems to me both artificial and possibly harmful to the project. I believe
Qualitative research in education involves using research methods that might include observation; interviewing, or shadowing of research subjects, and/or interpretation of data, from an individual, non-empirical perspective. Quantitative research, on the other hand, uses methods like statistical surveys; questionnaires with results are broken down by percentages, and interpreted on that basis, and other empirical (rather than interpretative) methods. It is also possible, within some education research projects, to combine qualitative and quantitative research into one project, for example, by doing both statistical surveys of minority high school students on their feelings about access to college-preparatory and advanced placement courses, and personal observations of minority students within their high schools. Salvador. We would try to document carefully who did what, and the data A conce
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