Create a Discussion Section This paper presents several lessons learned about qualitative research approach from the mock study in week three’s assignment. Qualitative methods are helpful when there is a need to explore a phenomenon via multiple aspects of discovery within its context to understand things better by answering “how” and “why” type of questions (Baxter & Jack, 2008). This means that qualitative research seeks answers to questions. A positive aspect of qualitative research approach is that the behavior of the participants cannot be manipulated (Chenail, 2011). Qualitative approach uses predefined systematic procedures to find answers to the questions and collect evidence. This means that trustworthiness needs to be ensured, …show more content…
Even though face-to-face interviews are time-consuming and an expensive process, it is the appropriate method for qualitative research, because it works well for a preplanned research study by using a structured interview format. Interviews broaden the information gathered to obtain first-hand information while building a good rapport with the individuals hoping to get honest information (Krathwohl, 2009). According to Peter (2015), ethical considerations can be especially challenging and the following will have to be considered: participants are exposed in a method of data collection including in-depth interviews probing into personal matters, concerns can raise due to privacy and consent from realistic observations, extra efforts may be required to maintain confidentiality due to identifiability, so in the long run, members of research ethics committee who have the knowledge about qualitative approaches must carefully assess the impact of any harms and benefits as part of the protocol. Without this, acquiring ethics approval can become difficult and in addition, best practices required to protect human participants can be overlooked (Peter, …show more content…
General rules have also been published for analytically assessing qualitative research data (e.g., Forchuk & Roberts, 1993; Mays & Pope, 2000). For the qualitative data analysis in the mock assignment paper, we began with and learned the ethical considerations and described how CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) such as NVivo aids in the analysis and representation of data (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2011) and discussed some of the disadvantages and advantages of using software for data analysis (Mclafferty & Farley, 2006). Learned about how the software facilitates segmenting, categorizing, annotating, retrieving, and searching within and across documents and categories in a fast way without fragmenting the original documents. By doing the right selection, researchers can easily find what they want and the computers can store lots of documents to replace the traditional requirement of folders and big cabinets. The most important lesson is that, the software by itself is neither good nor bad for qualitative research, but it is the way that researchers use them that influences qualitative methodology (Carvajal,
Qualitative research is an approach that attempts to situate an activity that locates the observer in the world by providing the study to occur in their natural setting and by attempting to make sense of, or interpret information (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). A characteristic of qualitative research is to use a variety of empirical materials such as personal experience, interviews, and questionnaires. It is imperative to understand the task at hand and how to fully carry out the study when using a qualitative research approach in order to find out the information needed. One view of qualitative research is it involves examining individual’s experiences and documenting those experiences in detail (Jones, 2011). By documenting these observations the researcher is ensuring validity in his or her data and giving the correct creditability to those who participated in the study.
This will be a discussion of qualitative research. It will define qualitative research, as well as look at the similarities and differences in the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. Furthermore, this discussion will look into qualitative case study research and phenomenological research, with further contemplation of purposes, methods, and limitations for these two methods.
The type of data collection for a qualitative research study depends on the research design. The qualitative design itself originates out of the disciplines and flow throughout the process of research (Creswell, 2014). Creswell (2014) recommends narrative, phenomenology, ethnography, case study, and grounded theory as common qualitative research methods. These were recommended because of they are popular across the social and health and science research studies. Hays and Woods (2011) asserted that selecting a research tradition congruent with one's research orientation and study purpose, and at the same time, infusing it in all phases of qualitative inquiry, is one of the key criterions for trustworthiness of the research results. Hays and Woods (2011) recommends six qualitative research traditions, including ground theory, phenomenology, consensual qualitative research, ethnography, narratology, and participative action research. Indeed, while there are additional qualitative research methods available, scholars have identified these six qualitative traditions consistently or identified them as emerging and common methods of qualitative research (Hays & Woods, 2011).
To approach dependability, the author in the proposed study intends to utilize question guideline to guide her in obtaining the inquiries during the interview and to probe the topics when needed (Chai, Putit and Siop, 2016). Moreover, to ensure constancy of the data, colleagues who are familiar with qualitative research will be asked to check the findings and review the participant’s transcriptions (Heydari, Rahnavard and Ghaffari, 2017). At last, to enhance the validity and trustworthiness of the study, the author intends also to have peer debriefing by having the agreement of different individuals other than the researcher on emerging themes and insights (Amankwaa,
Today the use of technology has become embedded into our daily lives. Most of western civilization has access to a piece of technology at any given point of time. In recent years, technology has started to play a significant role in the area of research. Quantitative research was quickly adapted and aided by technology due to the use of number variables, but the same was not true for qualitative research. In recent years, qualitative research was revolutionized by Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) software. Although, QDA software has a great deal of positive aspect, there are drawbacks in the utilization.
The term methodology refers to the way in which we approach problems and try to find answers and in social science, it applies to how research is conducted, our assumptions, interest and purposes shape which methodology we choose (Steven, 2016:3).Qualitative research is understanding people from their own perspectives, their viewpoint and experiencing reality as they experience it. Qualitative research has many approaches or methods of collecting data and one of them is an interview which I have chosen to explain further based on it as a method of collecting data. The interview is the most common method of data gathering used in qualitative research and it is used in deferent ways by every main theoretical and methodological approach.
Miller, T., Mauthner, M., Birch, M. & Jessop, J. (2012). Ethics in qualitative research. SAGE.
focused on the key qualitative research methods. For each article review, a brief description, guided by Myers (2013), and a critique, guided Pratt (2009), is provided. A summary of the five articles identifying the research method, data collection technique, data analysis approach and critique is provided in Table 1. The narrative review of each article coupled with figures and tables to organize and visualize thoughts (Pratt, 2009) follows the summary table.
In this paper, I will define quantitative and qualitative research methods and provide examples in the context of social issues which will hopefully provide insight into how this methods are properly applied.
The unquestionable success of video games leads to some great ideas concerning utilizing this technology in productive educational and training environments. This technology has shown evidence for the possible implementation as an educational and learning tool. With the successful use of internet-learning environments currently employed the next logical evolution of this technology merits further research. The significant barrier to the adoption of this technology into educational environments is the connection between two-dimensional scenarios and three-dimensional simulations. Immersive Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOGs have shown that
During interviews, the researcher must have great observation skills especially in regard to the interviewees' body language, because these observations come in handy when transcribing audio and visual data. Unlike in quantitative research, where the observation skills may have less impact when analysing data collected. In qualitative research, one requires patience with the interviewee when conducting interviews most especially when it comes to answering sensitive questions and durations of the interviews.
Liamputtong, P. & Ezzy, D., 2005, Qualitative research methods, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, pp. 12-31.
There are ethical challenges to be considered in both qualitative and quantitative research. Ethics are “the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of the members of a profession” (Lecture 2, Atkinson, 2018). The research must follow the guiding principles of ethics in both qualitative and quantitative research: “ethical goals, protection of rights of human subjects and unbiased research.” (Lecture 2, Atkinson, 2018). Risk to the participant is assessed based on consent, harm, privacy and deception. Quantitative research involves data that are analyzed in the form of numbers. Qualitative research involves data that is recorded and analyzed in the form of descriptions, but not numbers. It is the role of the
Qualitative and Quantitative study designs both can be beneficial in research design. They both provide valuable options for researchers in the field. These techniques can either be used separately in a research study or they can be combined to achieve maximum information. This paper will define the terms qualitative and quantitative; describe the similarities and differences between each; discuss how qualitative and/or quantitative research designs or techniques could be used in the evaluation of my proposed research; and discuss why linking analysis to study design is important.
Qualitative research was designed as a way to be directly connected with the subjects researched. Participant researchers may choose to merely observe and collect data or to be an active participant. Covert participation has the advantage of reducing the “reactive effects” of the social setting or group (Bachman & Schutt, 2012). Most researchers who use the participation method of research will often strike a balance between participation and observation. Through participation, an observer may gain the trust of the research subjects which can provide more fruitful results. Some research may however be unethical or a violation of law. A good researcher should use prudence beforehand when crafting their research design.