Conducting Educational Research

CHAPTER 2
− Examining organizational structures; e.g., how do site councils function
effectively; how does participating in professional learning communities affect
staff relations
− Examining new constructs; e.g., block scheduling; blended classrooms; inclusion.
If, on the other hand, you are looking at a problem that can be solved by collecting
numerical data, your question is better suited to a quantitative methodology. You
have a specific hypothesis in mind to prove or disprove. You have variables that
you can measure; for example, student achievement, gender differences, relationships
among variables. You may want to determine the effect of something on
something else—the use of a new curriculum on standardized test scores, a new
teaching methodology on student achievement, different study skill techniques on
homework completion rates.
You might have a study that requires a little of both methodologies. Perhaps
a school district has placed Smart Boards in all classrooms. You might want to
determine whether the students’ scores on year end exams increase (quantitative)
and whether students felt the Smart Boards enhanced their learning (qualitative).
Or you might want to not only measure how frequently teachers used the Smart
Board in their teaching (quantitative), but also ascertain how they felt about using
this new tool (qualitative). In these cases, you would be using multiple types of
methodologies. Be cautious about deciding to approach your research problem as
a mixed methods study. You need to decide if your problem is best addressed by
doing a quantitative study first followed by a qualitative study (or vice versa), or
does your problem really need to use both research strategies simultaneously. The
more complex your research problem becomes, the more work it will take to gather
and analyze data around your topic. Mixed methods studies are often done better as
two studies, and you may want to choose only one of those to pursue for your own
research, leaving the other for another time or another researcher.
Remember, the type of methodology you ultimately choose to use is determined
by your question. Because you are in the “driver’s seat” right now with
your question, there are a few things to consider: time, interest, and math selfconfidence.
Quantitative methodologies require mathematics skills or at least
quantitative reasoning skills. Some new researchers tend to shy away from questions
requiring numerical data, thinking qualitative studies will be easier. Let us assure
you that in later chapters we will lead you through a variety of standard
statistical tests in a simple fashion. We won’t let you get lost. Do not let any
qualms about working with numbers sway your decision about what type of
question to pursue.
Qualitative studies require a great deal of skill and time. Interviewing is an art
that gets better with practice. Writing “essay-type” questions that prompt subjects
to focus on a topic and provide solid information without biasing them is not simple.
Reading responses to open-ended questions and making sense of multiple data sets
are time consuming processes. Often times, studies using qualitative methodologies
are more labor intensive than those requiring quantitative methodologies. If time
is a serious limiting factor, keep that in mind.
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