After lecture and Seminar, the theme become clearer, we read two papers which are both about quantitative research, one is given and another is our research. However, the question is about the benefits and limitations of quantitative and qualitative research. All the seminar group talk is about that, I’m just wondering how can we know that when the whole lecture is talking about what is quantitative research, how to design and write a quantitative paper, and so on. It’s actually a hard task if we only read the quantitative research paper, but no qualitative one. I don’t know about others, for me, I maybe did the qualitative research during my bachelor study, but at that time I don’t know it is called qualitative research. Because of the given task, I have to browse the Internet, and Wikipedia what is qualitative research, and try to conclude it’s characteristics, actually, I also google what quantitative research before writing the pre-reading reflection. And through the characteristics of qualitative research “Qualitative data includes information about user behaviours, needs, desires, routines, use cases, and a variety of other information that is essential in designing a product that will actually fit into a user’s life.” I know I did once before, and it’s not so scientific, so we conclude the quantitive research is more scientific than qualitative research during group talk, and actually qualitative research is more close to our life, quantitive research are used when we want to explore some unknown part or prove some hypotheses, but qualitative research are more often used in developing.
There is one more important thing I learnt in lecture is about the questionnaire, the questionnaire should be tested before post, to test if the question understandable, if the answer is short enough so that people willing to answer and so on. It is important in a quantitative research which I don’t know before, I think it’s very good to know this since it can prevent some error, or save us from some trouble, also maybe saved some time.
A good reflection. It seems you benefitted from this theme after all and will benefit from comparing the different research methods in the later themes. It is true that we sort of know these research methods already, but having them all lined up and compared in this course perhaps makes it more clear.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteIt is nice that you made additional effort on reading what quantitative and qualitative researches are. You wrote a very important sentence that research methods must be piloted. It was also a new thing for me what I learnt during this week. I will not agree with you that quantitative research is more scientific than qualitative. In my opinion, both of these metohds are equally scientific until data are logical grounded and significant conclusions are drawn. I would say that the main differences between qualitative and quantitative methods are how data are collected and interpreted. Quantitative research is based on analysis of statistically valid data while qualitative research is going deeply to the context and interpretation, description of phenomena, involving more personal interpretation and opinions on particular subject.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think that it was really good that you researched the term qualitative research in order to be more prepared for discussing the differences between qualitative and quantitative research methods.
I also think that it was interesting to hear about the importance of testing for example a questionnaire before handing it out to the participants. In a paper that I read for Theme 6 they discuss how they did not test their questions before they held interviews, and the participants thought that the questions were difficult to understand. So I agree with you that it is important to test the methods of collecting data before using them.
I like that you have written both what you have learnt and what methods you have used to get a deeper understanding for Theme 4.
Interesting reflection!
Hey!
ReplyDeleteNice summation of the theme 4. I am just not sure if the conclusion that quantitative method is more scientific than qualitative is right. They both are used in sciences, but it depends of exact science field you are researching and what topic or phenomena you are observing.
Your summary of this week is really interesting. As I have the same experience as yours when I dealt with the task in first time. But it does show a good influence to our understanding of quantitative research. And I also agree with you the importance of designing good questionnaire in scientific research because questions directly influence the data being analyzed.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
Enjoyable reading and you sum up the concept of the both methods in a short and understandable manner. However, I don’t think you could say that the quantitative method is more scientific than the qualitative, although I think many of us do because we are soon-to-be engineers and therefore understands numbers better than words.
ReplyDeleteTheme4: Nice reflection, you wrote what your thoughts and confusion both in your reflection, it is imagebale that is how difficult to understand the difference between quantitative and qualitative research if we don't have piror knowledge of them. However, I think your way of discovery is good, and your conclusion is actually specific. Thank you for sharing the thoughts. Good job!
ReplyDelete