Back to: Paper 2 Unit 6: Research in Education (शिक्षा में अनुसंधान)
Lesson 2.7
| Qualitative (गुणात्मक) | Quantitative (मात्रात्मक) | |
| Focus is on | Exploring ideas and formulating a theory or hypothesis. | Testing theories or hypothesis and making generalization. |
| Used to | Understand concepts, thoughts or experiences. Gather in-depth insights on topics that are not well understood. | Used to test or confirm theories, assumptions or hypotheses. Establish generalizable facts about a topic. |
| Process | Theory is data driven, and emerges as part of the research process, evolving from the data as they are collected. | Research is used to test a theory and ultimately support or reject it. |
| Nature of data | Descriptive, and regards phenomenon which can be observed but not measured, such as language. | Quantitative data is information about quantities, and therefore numbers. |
| Examples of data | Photographs, videos, sound recordings, artifacts, documents, and cultural records, to the use of visual materials or personal experience. | Numerical questionnaire Categorical data, Scores (nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio) |
| Data collection methods | Interviews, ethnography, discourse analysis, Literature review, Case studies, Focus groups, diary accounts. | Surveys, experimental research, content analysis, Controlled Observations, rating scale, questionnaires |
| Sample size | Requires few respondents | Requires many respondents |
| Que. Type | Open-ended questions | Closed (multiple choice) questions |
| When to use | Use qualitative research if you want to understand something (concepts, thoughts, experiences) | Use quantitative research if you want to confirm or test something (a theory or hypothesis) |
| Environment | Researcher study things in their natural settings | Manipulative environment can be created by controlling variables |
| Key terms are | understanding, context, complexity, subjectivity | testing, measurement, objectivity, replicability |
| Design of the study | evolves during the research, and can be adjusted or changed as it progresses. | is determined before it begins. |
| Existence of reality | There is no single reality, it is subjective and exist only in reference to the observer. | Reality is objective and exist separately to the researcher, and is capable of being seen by anyone. |
| Answers | Approach is exploratory and seeks to explain ‘how’ and ‘why’ a particular phenomenon, or behavior, operates as it does in a particular context. | ‘What’ and ‘how much’ |
| Analysis | More difficult to analyze | Easy to analyze as compare to qualitative |
| Data Analysis techniques | Qualitative content analysis, grounded theory thematic analysis discourse analysis. | Descriptive and inferential Statistics can be used. Like mean, median mode, frequency, correlation or causation, reliability and validity. |
| Results are | Expressed in words. | Expressed in numbers and graphs |
| Results | Can be valid and reliable and depend on the skills and expertise of the researcher | Can be valid and reliable and depend on the measurable devices and statistical tools |
| Subjective/ Objective | Subjectivity is present (biased) researcher point of view is highly involve in the data. | Objectivity is present (without bias), researcher point of view is separated from the data. |
| More interactive and creative process | Less interactive and creative process. | |
| Approach | Holistic in approach, (researcher works on all aspects of different variable) | Particular in approach (focused on variable) |
| Process is | Inductive | Inductive to deductive |
| Sampling | Non- Probability sampling | Probability sampling |
| Data is | Verbal | Measurable |
| Validity/ reliability | The problem of adequate validity or reliability is a major criticism. | validity or reliability of data and results is easy. |
| Knowledge require | No need to know statistical analysis. But Analysis of qualitative data is still difficult and expert knowledge of an area is necessary to try to interpret qualitative data, and great care must be taken. | Poor knowledge of the application of statistical analysis may negatively affect analysis and subsequent interpretation |
| Study type | In-depth study of particular phenomena require. | Variability of data quantity require. |
| Software use | Less software are available… which require high expertise . | Rapid analysis can be done through software |
| Replication | Replication is difficulty to do | Replication can be done by others |
| economic- | Less economic-à require more time & cost | Economic in natureà require less time and cost |
| Researcher contribution | without the active participation of the researcher, no data can be collected. | No specific role of researcher in data collection. |
| Involvement in the field | Because of close researcher involvement, the researcher gains an insider’s view of the field. This allows the researcher to find issues that are often missed (such as subtleties and complexities) by the scientific, more positivistic inquiries. | Because of less researcher involvement directly with the subjects, the researcher not able to gain an insider’s view of the field. |
| Role | It plays the important role of suggesting possible relationships, causes, effects and dynamic processes. | It plays the important role of testing & verifying relationships, causes and effects. |
| Clarity | It allows for ambiguities/contradictions in the data, which are a reflection of social reality. | Less possibility for ambiguities/ contradictions in the data. |