Akron II Welcome Everybody to This Presentation

Akron II Welcome everybody to this presentation on research methodologies. For any research project, there is a research question to be tested. One of the most important issues for researchers is how best to test the research question. It is of utmost importance that researchers understand the different types of research methodologies out there -- their pros and cons -- so that the researcher can choose the most appropriate research methodology. Part One of this presentation will provide some basic information on the four main research methodologies.

These are qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and action research. Part Two of this presentation will outline a research scenario that would be the sort of question best answered by each type of research methodology, so that you have a better sense of when you might use each one. Slide Two: Quantitative Research Quantitative research is focused on numerical data that can be subject to statistical analysis. The object is often to understand the relationship between a dependent variable and an independent variable.

One of the main advantages of the quantitative approach is that the nature of this data makes it easier to extrapolate findings to broader populations. Quantitative data may also be less subject to researcher interpretation, and the statistical calculations themselves are easy to perform, even in Excel. The downside to quantitative research is that it is limited in its ability to probe a question, including drawing conclusions about causation. Quantitative data must also be analyzed using the appropriate statistical techniques in order to be valid.

Slide Three: Qualitative Research In many ways, qualitative research is considered the opposite of quantitative. It can be gathered the same way -- surveys, interviews, studies and observation -- but it is non-numeric in nature. This allows qualitative research to probe a research question more deeply than does quantitative research. However, it has the downside that the responses sometimes require researcher interpretation and the findings are often difficult to extrapolate to the broader population. Slide Four: Mixed Methods Research Mixed methods research is a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques.

This combination can be done concurrently or sequentially. The idea behind mixed methods is that the limitations associated with quantitative and qualitative research can be eliminated if the researcher uses both techniques. Formulating the specific research methodology can be more difficult with mixed methods, however, because it has a higher degree of complexity. Slide Five: Action Research Action research is a different research form altogether from the first three. It places emphasis on experiential research.

The research will become part of the experiment and in doing so will record notes and observations about his or her findings during the course of the experiment. Action researcher therefore allows for a different perspective on a research question to be gained than the other forms allow for, as they are more detached. The downside is that action research can be highly subjective in nature, and is almost impossible to extrapolate beyond the specific experiment in question.

Slide Six: Example #1 We now enter the second part of the presentation, which should help you understand the types of research questions that can be answered by each research methodology. Quantitative research focuses on analyzing relationships between dependent and independent variables. Thus any research question that has two such quantifiable measures can be analyzed using this technique. For example, an economics paper might focus on the links between per capita government spending and unemployment.

Both are quantifiable figures and the question of the link between the two is often subject of debate. Slide Seven: Example #2 Qualitative data is often used to probe questions more deeply than quantitative data. Instead of drawing a correlation, qualitative data can be used to answer research questions that want to determine causation, or to explain things. An example of a research question that can be answered using qualitative data might be a human resources paper on the causes of burnout.

In such a research design, the researcher might ask workers in an industry what they believe the causes of their burnout to be. Slide Eight: Example #3 Mixed methods research is appropriate when there are more complex questions to be answered and neither a qualitative nor quantitative approach will suffice. If the human resources researcher wanted to know not only why people burned out but wanted to identify some of the outcomes of that burnout, mixed methods research may help to answer the question best.

This would probably be a sequential design, the first part being qualitative to describe the causes of burnout and the second part quantitative to match causes of burnout to impacts (such as dismissal,.