Before I started the master program in EPOL, I had no idea about any research methodology. I did not know what the quantitative and qualitative methods are. The first time I heard this two concepts was in my first class. One assignment is writing research proposal and explain the methodology will be used. The first two questions in my mind are what they are and what difference between them. And I believe these two questions are essential for all graduate students.

What are qualitative research and quantitative research?

According to Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p.2), “qualitative research is multimethod in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them”. This kind of research is used to get deep understanding of reasons, opinions, and motivation. Researchers use unstructured or semi-structured techniques to collect data, like individual interview, focus group, observation and so on. Qualitative method could help to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. The limitation for qualitative research method is not good for big sample.

According to Babbie (2010), quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon”. Dr. Cimpian’s research is the best example of quantitative. For quantitative research, it gathers data in numerical form. It aims to establish general laws of behaviors and phenomenon. So it is good way to do research with big samples. The weakness is it could not interpret the phenomena.

USC Libraries. Retrieved from https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/quantitative

What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? https://www.simplypsychology.org/qualitative-quantitative.html