Quantitative and Qualitative

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INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS There are generally two kinds of research: qualitative and quantitative. For any research project the researcher needs to be clear about which type of research will provide the information required. The role of qualitative research is to tell you why; quantitative research tells you how many. The methods are quite different. Definition of Quantitative research? "There's no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0"- Fred Kerlinger Different researchers and educators have given different definitions to “quantitative research.” Below are a few of them: Quantitative research refers to the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. It is used in a wide variety of natural and social sciences, including physics, biology, psychology, sociology and geology (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2005). According to Cohen (1980), quantitative research is defined as social research that employs empirical methods and empirical statements. He states that an empirical statement is defined as a descriptive statement about what “is” the case in the “real world” rather than what “ought” to be the case. Creswell (1994) on the other hand, has given a very concise definition of quantitative research as a type of research that explains phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics). In studying this definition step by step, the first element to consider is explaining the phenomena. This is a key element of all research, be it quantitative or qualitative. When we set out to do some research, we are always looking to explain something. In education this could be questions, for example, `Does motivation affect work productivity in the
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