The Design Strategies of the Research Methodologies, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Generally, research design preference is recognized by the relevance of quantitative or qualitative methods. Quantitative, qualitative or mixed strategies and methods can contribute to research design.  The difference between qualitative and quantitative research is use of words (qualitative) rather than numbers (quantitative). Qualitative research derives from a qualitative research and can be very powerful tool to measure any matter.

“Based on the idea that, as compared to experiment or quantitative methods, qualitative studies more thoroughly and feasibly lend themselves to contextually sensitive phenomena, combining both qualitative and quantitative techniques in the present study will help to provide a more comprehensive understanding” (Crescentini, et. al, 2009). This paper will explain qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods of research and their characteristics.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is very beneficial in the study of several projects. It is very wide term for different verities of research approaches and can handle the understanding of why and how questions. Qualitative research is a field of inquiry rather than an entity; therefore, it is hard for researchers to come up with the specific definition of it. “First, qualitative research, as all kinds of research, needs a research question – and the same holds for qualitative research reports. In some traditions the term “problem(s)” is preferred to “question(s)” (Crescentini, et. al, 2009). The process of qualitative research can be delivered as way from theory to text and again from text back to theory.

In a natural setting it is executed by a researcher involved in and can be a part of the data collection process. This means that the objective of qualitative research is to gain deep, holistic perspective of people, environments, programs, and events that one wants to study, by the close interaction with the people one is studying. It is also leads to the critique that qualitative strategies can never be completely value free. As a source of evidence qualitative are less extensively valued. Quantitative research also need interpretation, even statistics need to be interpreted to prevent criticism. Qualitative research is inductive and deal with words or pictures rather than numbers.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research in different treatment programs can be mentioned to as interference, experimental program, experimental design, research design, etc. To employ qualitative or quantitative research in performing, the statistical concepts are the best techniques to use.

“It is for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured, typically on instruments, so that numbered data can be analyzed using statistical procedures” (Borrego, et. al, 2009).

Those who use this type of inquiry have theories concerning testing hypothesis deductively, improving protections against bias, regulating for additional theories and being capable of generalizing as well as replicating the discoveries, similar to qualitative researchers.

“Quantitative methods are a good fit for deductive approaches, in which a theory or hypothesis justifies the variables, the purpose statement, and the direction of the narrowly defined research questions. The hypothesis being tested and the phrasing of the research questions govern how data will be collected as well as the method of statistical analysis used to examine the data” (Borrego, et. al, 2009).

Mixed methods are the research strategy which associates qualitative and quantitative forms. It involves philosophical presumptions, the use of qualitative and quantitative concepts, and the mixing of both concepts in a study. Thus, it is more than simply gathering and evaluating both kinds of data: it also incorporates the use of both concepts in tandem so that the overall strength of a study is bigger than either qualitative or quantitative research. Two important sections in each definition are that the approach to research involves philosophical assumptions as well as exceptional methods or processes.

“The researcher not only chooses a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods study to conduct; the inquirer also makes a decision on a kind of study within these three choices. Techniques of inquiry are types of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods design or models that supply certain way for processes in a research design” (Borrego, et. al, 2009). Other has labeled them as strategic methods to inquiry or research methodologies. The strategies accessible to the researcher have grown over the year s as computer technology has moved forward our data analysis and capability to determine complex models and as individuals have explained new processes for conducting social science research.

This paper will explain few strategies of inquiry: surveys and experiments.

Survey produces a quantitative or numeric classification of trends, behavior or viewpoints of a population by investigating a sample of that population.

Experimental research intends to discover if a certain method affects a outcome. This impact is evaluated by giving a particular treatment to one group and withholding it from another and then calculating how both groups measured an outcome.

References

Crescentini, A., & Mainardi, G. (2009). Qualitative research articles: Guidelines, suggestions and needs. Journal of Workplace Learning, 21(5), 431-439. doi: 10.1108/13665620910966820

Borrego, M.; Douglas, E. P.; Amelink, C. T., (2009), Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research methods in education, Journal of Engineering Education, Jan 2009, 98, 1; Proquest, pg. 53