Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Skills to Answer

¶ … inductive and deductive reasoning skills to answer hypothetical propositions. Specifically within my proposal, I am searching to correlate the use of technology within schools and their affect on the performance and behavior on the student. My inductive or qualitative reasoning employment is based upon my experimental success with my own personal family and my son's dramatic increase in his understanding levels due to the use of computer technology. Qualitatively, I would like to expand this question in order to find a general pattern that may be applied to all schools and help more children in the way that technology has assisted my own.

The initial problem with any research question deals with the ability to understand exchangeable terms. Ideas such as eagerness, success, accreditation, performance, excellence and failure are all relative terms that invoke different meanings for different people depending on their circumstances within their environment. Bitner (2003) agreed: " It is the skill and attitude of the teacher that determines the effectiveness of technology integration into the curriculum. " This relative understanding of abstract ideas is the bane of any researcher and requires a certain baseline understanding of terms before any research can be conducted. This inductive or qualitative approach must be performed in order prior to any type of communication being exchanged. How can anyone know what we are talking about if the terms are never expressly defined?

The survey contained within my quantitative methods are suitable for this particular experiment however. Assuming certain ideas have a shared quality within academic constructs such as success and failure must be presupposed in this instance due to the limitations of this particular class and intention of the core subject. Surveys are often hard to fully grasp showing an inherent limitation of quantitative research methods. Once again the relativeness of each student's experience will not produce a clear picture of a general consensus. Only when certain trends are completely grasped allows understanding and learning to occur. More than knowledge is needed. Garlikov (2000)supported this: " It is as important to be able to exercise sound judgement in life, based on information available as it to have information available. Purely factual information is almost never sufficient."

The lack of structure within the survey also poses certain problems for my particular research design. Inherently, a child's life is very unpredictable and any attempts at scientifically monitoring any individual's life certain problems may arise. It is therefore very important that I stick to my plan regardless of the problems that may be placed in front of me. Changing qualitative methods in midstream may confuse and distort my original intention. Structuring the survey in a manner that allows for the clearest and most concise understanding of the intent becomes a priority for this project if I desired for it to be successful.

Using the interview as a method to attain qualitative data will help alleviate some of the problems the survey will produce, however it will also emanate new problems that require interpretation and subtle understanding. Attitudes and emotions always play a large role in any human exchange and risk the possibility of hiding the true data. The skills of the researcher in this particular example becomes more important due to the weight of qualitative methods in this project. Quality is much more of a relative term in general and any research done in its name will produce relative results.

Quantitatively analyzing data becomes important in the scientific realm of understanding. The inherent need for human understanding attributed to a mathematical formula becomes evident in all types of qualitative research. Transferring the qualitative interpretations into quantitative data requires statistical and mathematical know-how coupled with an understanding of the intent of the question and project. Any deviation from the original purpose can be a problem and may cause the researcher to lose focus of what the original purpose and plan of the research question was searching to find.