What research questions are well suited to quantitative analysis and when will a qualitative approach be better?
Introduction
Before getting started with quantitative research it is important to understand which questions it can answer. Both Quantitative and qualitative research offer powerful methods to deliver new insights. They do, however, excel at different things and it is important to use the right tool for the problem at hand.
Research Questions
What are some examples of research questions that are well suited to quantitative or qualitative analysis?
Take two sticky notes. On one of them, write a question that you would investigate using qualitative methods. Write a question better suited to quantitative analysis on the other.
Properties of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Take a look at the research questions that were assigned to the quantitative and qualitative research collections. What do questions in each group have in common? What are the differences between the groups?
Strengths of Qualitative Methods
There are many research questions that benefit from a qualitative approach. Qualitative research allows us to study how individuals or groups experience phenomena of interest. Typically, the focus is on studying people and their experiences in a natural environment to gain a deeper understanding of how and why a particular behaviour (or other phenomenon of interest) occurs.
Qualitative research relies heavily on the researchers, necessarily subjective, interpretation of observations, interviews, and other data. The data can take many forms, with the only real requirement being that information from the data sources can be processed by the researcher in some way.
As a researcher immerses themselves in the data (and the environment it is collected from) their understanding of the subject matter may change and the design of the study can be adjusted in response to this.
Qualitative methods have limits
As a result of the reliance on individual experiences and the researcher’s subjective interpretation of the data, qualitative studies are exploratory and can not usually be replicated. The intense engagement with the data required from the researcher means that it isn’t, usually, possible to collect large samples.
What can Quantitative methods contribute?
Quantitative methods can
Unlike qualitative methods, quantitative research assumes that a single, objective, reality exists and that it can be measured without bias by the researcher. This approach not only allows us to measure traits or properties of interest, it also enables us to measure how they change, e.g., over time or in response to an intervention.
The reliance on objective measurements means that research is reproducible (at least in theory!). Another researcher, using the same protocol to collect data from the same population should be able to arrive at the same conclusions.
Things to look out for
Challenges to Reproducibility
In theory, quantitative research should be reproducible. In practice, this is often not the case. What are some potential challenges you may have to overcome to make your research reproducible?
Ensuring data are actually collected in a way that allows objective measurement requires some care. Quantitative research requires that the study design is determined before any data are collected. This means that clear hypotheses and a detailed understanding of the phenomena under study is required before the research commences.
Quantitative Methods need Quantitative Data
To be able to quantify differences between groups or changes over time, the outcome has to be measured in a quantitative way. This means that the data can be recorded as numbers. For example, how many children are in a room, what is the ratio of children to educators, what is the average literacy of a group of children.
These data can then be used to make comparisons that help to answer more complex research questions. For example, What is the difference in average literacy between these two groups? and To what extend is this affected by child/educator ratios?
Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
How could you combine quantitative and qualitative analyses from the same study?
Using Qualitative Data in Quantitative Analyses
Many quantitative methods are able to incorporate some qualitative data, provided that it is structured appropriately. For example, different pedagogical approaches used in teaching. Typically, this information enters the analysis in form of a grouping factor. It can then help answer questions like Do numeracy skills of children taught with method A increase faster than than those of children taught with method B?
Some qualitative data can be turned into quantitative data through careful coding. For example, video recordings of class rooms could be examined to code the behaviour of teachers and students. The frequency with which different types of behaviour occur could then be used as a quantitative variable. Note that it is important to avoid bias to enter into the coding as much as possible to avoid biasing the quantitative analysis. Ideally, this would involve events being coded by more than one person. Due to the amount of work involved doing this for large volumes of data is often impractical.
Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses
Not all qualitative data is easily structured into a format suitable for use in a quantitative analysis but both types of analysis can complement each other. For example, a qualitative analysis can generate specific hypotheses that can then be tested with quantitative analyses. Alternatively, the analysis of quantitative data may establish differences between groups or over time, that could then be followed up through interviews with participants to gain insight into the reasons underlying the observed differences.
Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses
Take the two sticky notes from earlier (or come up with a new pair of quantitative and qualitative research questions).
How would you design a study that aims to address both questions?