QUANTITATIVE

RESEARCH
 RESEARCH METHODS
TWO MAIN TYPES
1. Quantitative Research
2. Qualitative Research
 RESEARCH METHODS
Quantitative Research Qualitative Research
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
“Quantitative research is ‘Explaining phenomena by
collecting numerical data that are analyzed using
mathematically based methods (in particular statistics)”.
 QUANTITATIVE METHODS
 “Quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements and the

statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected

through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-
existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative
research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it
across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon”.
WHAT IS QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
 In a nutshell, quantitative research generates numerical data or
information that can be converted into numbers.
 Only measurable data are being gathered and analyzed in quantitative research.
 Goal or Aim of the Research:
– The primary aim of Quantitative Research is to focus more in counting and classifying features and
constructing statistical models and figures to explain what is observed.

 Quantitative Research is highly recommended for the late phase of research

because it provides the researcher with a clearer picture of what to expect in
his research compared to Qualitative Research.
WHAT IS QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH
 Data Gathering Instrument
– Quantitative Research makes use of tools such as questionnaires, surveys, measurements, and other
equipment to collect numerical or measurable data.

 Type of Data
– if you are conducting Quantitative Research, what will most likely appear in your discussion are
tables containing data in the form of numbers and statistics.

 Approach
– In Quantitative Research, researchers tend to remain objectively separated from the subject matter.
This is because Quantitative Research is objective in approach in the sense that it only seeks precise
measurements and analysis of target concepts to answer its inquiry.
WHY & WHEN DO QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH?

 If your study aims to find out the answer to an inquiry through numerical
evidence, then you should make use of Quantitative Research.
 In general, use qualitative research at the beginning of a design process to
uncover innovations. Use quantitative research at the end of a design process
to measure improvement.
 French sociology Pierre Bourdieu followed a typical arc to the narrative
research by first investigating economic class in an open-ended fashion. Once
he established what he thought was going on, he tested these ideas with large
surveys.
 The main activity for which quantitative research is especially suited is the
testing of hypotheses.
QUANTITATIVE DATA
“ Quantitative data is information about quantities; that is,
information that can be measured and written down with
numbers.”

 Some examples of quantitative data are your height, your shoe size, and the length of your
fingernails.

 Quantitative data defines whereas qualitative data describes.

UNITS AND VARIABLES IN
QUANTITATIVE DATA
 Units:

When we collect data in quantitative educational research, we

have to collect them from someone or something. The people or
things (e.g. schools) we collect data on or from are known as
units or cases.
 Variables:

The data that we are collecting from these units are known as
variables. Variables are any characteristic of the unit we are
interested in and want to collect (e.g. gender, age, self-esteem).
 UNITS AND VARIABLES
 The label ‘variable’ refers to the fact that these data will differ between units.

For example, the achievement will differ between pupils and schools, gender will differ between
pupils, and so on.

 If there are no differences at all between the units we want to study, we

probably aren’t going to be able to do any interesting research (for example,
studying whether pupils are human would not yield interesting findings).
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
Quantitative research design is the standard experimental method of most
scientific disciplines.

 They are most commonly used by physical scientists, although social sciences, education, and
economics have been known to use this type of research. It is the opposite of qualitative research.
 Quantitative experiments all use a standard format, with a few minor inter-disciplinary differences, of
generating a hypothesis to be proved or disproved. This hypothesis must be provable by mathematical
and statistical means and is the basis around which the whole experiment is designed.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
 Randomization of any study groups is essential, and a control group should be included,
wherever possible. A sound quantitative design should only manipulate one variable at a time,
or statistical analysis becomes cumbersome and open to question.

 Ideally, the research should be constructed in a manner that allows others to repeat the
experiment and obtain similar results.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
DESIGN
There are four main types of Quantitative research:
1. Descriptive
2. Correlational
3. Causal-Comparative/Quasi-Experimental
4. Experimental Research.
DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
 This type of research describes what exists and may help to uncover new facts and
meaning. The purpose of descriptive research is to observe, describe, and document
aspects of a situation as it naturally occurs.
 This involves the collection of data that will provide an account or description of
individuals, groups or situations. Instruments we use to obtain data in descriptive
studies include questionnaires, interviews (closed questions), observation (checklists,
etc.)
 There is no experimental manipulation or indeed any random selection to groups, as
there is in experimental research.
 The characteristics of individuals and groups such as nurses, patients, and families
may be the focus of descriptive research. It can provide a knowledge base that can act
as a springboard for other types of quantitative research methods.
CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH
 Quantitative correlational research aims to systematically investigate and
explain the nature of the relationship between variables in the real world.
Often the quantifiable data (i.e. data that we can quantify or count) from
descriptive studies are frequently analyzed in this way.
 Correlational research studies go beyond simply describing what exists and are
concerned with systematically investigating relationships between two or more
variables of interest (Porter & Carter 2000).
 Such studies only describe and attempt to explain the nature of relationships
that exist, and do not examine causality (i.e. whether one variable causes the
other).
CAUSAL-COMPARATIVE/
QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL
RESEARCH
 Quasi-experimental research attempts to establish cause-effect relationships among the
variables. These types of design are very similar to true experiments, but with some key
differences.
 An independent variable is identified but not manipulated by the experimenter, and the effects
of the independent variable on the dependent variable are measured.
 It is not the same as true experimental research because quasi-experimental research studies
lack one or both of the essential properties of randomization and a control group.
 The researcher does not randomly assign groups and must use ones that are naturally formed
or pre-existing groups.
 The major drawback with quasi-experimental research is that, compared to experimental
research, it has a weakness in that is not possible to deliver cause and effect results.
 In other words, we cannot infer from quasi-experimental research that, for example, doing one
thing causes a particular phenomenon (e.g. smoking cigarettes causes cancer).

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
 often called true experimentation, uses the scientific method to establish the cause- effect
relationship among a group of variables that make up a study.
 The true experiment is often thought of as a laboratory study, but this is not always the case; a
laboratory setting has nothing to do with it. A true experiment is any study where an effort is
made to identify and impose control over all other variables except one.
 An independent variable is manipulated to determine the effects on the dependent variables.
Subjects are randomly assigned to experimental treatments rather than identified in naturally
occurring groups