Essay On Qualitative And Mixed Research Methods

When conducting research one of the most important parts of the process is the documentation that is kept when doing such research. Along with all the testing, sampling, and data collections, researchers should be responsible to create a research report for every study completed. This documentation is kept in the records and archives of the research facility or sponsor, for journaling and publishing. These reports can later be used by consumers, students, teachers, and any other interested party that is in need of the findings. The following paper will discuss and describe the stages of research for the qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research methods.

Conceptual Consideration: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods

Dominant

Sampling is rather straight forward when it comes to each method. With Quantitative research, it is entirely about numbers, so a researcher is going to want to get as many participants as possible so that they have a good sampling pool of candidate to choose from. He or she may do this by sending out surveys to every NRA member to do a gun safety research study, or surveying and testing an entire grade level for research purposes. It really all depends on what they are looking to research. With mixed methods it can be a mixture of both, quantitative and qualitative. A research has the freedom to decide which way is best for their study. When doing qualitative research the researcher’s pool of participants is very small. It may only be 5 or sometimes even 1 or 2 participants. That also will depend on which kind of qualitative study the researcher is doing, phenomenological or

For Qualitative research a researcher can use questions such as “what can be”, “what are the”, or comparative questions which seek to compare two or more groups on some outcome variable using such words as “differ” or “compares”. In Mixed methods the researcher will pose questions that combine or mix both qualitative and quantitative research questions in order to necessitate both types of data that is analyzed concurrently, sequentially, or iteratively (Onwuegbuzie, & Frels, 2015). Lastly with Qualitative research the researcher asks open ended questions. The questions will address ideas of what and how and comprise the main idea of what topic the researcher is looking for. For example “What do researcher look for when they are conducting research?’. “How does it make you feel to know the information you know”. Open ended questions that able the researcher to gain observations for