Quantitative research is one way to conduct a scholarly investigation with the help of certain qualitative characteristics enabling the researchers to make certain empirical conclusions and observe particular tendencies in the response of participants to the experiment they have designed for them. The first issue to be discussed in connection with the quantitative research techniques and designs is the definition given by Blumer (1984) stating that research techniques are “the specific manipulative and fact-finding operations which are used to yield data about the social world”.
It is also important to study the notion of quantitative research methods that can be applied in the course of work discussed. The initial stage to be taken is to state the research question that will guide the researcher on the whole way of studying the matter of his/her interest. All experiments, questionnaires, or interviews will be directed at obtaining relevant information to receive answers to the question. As in the case of Tansley et al. (2007), the research questions were formulated in the form of a career decision-making form, the career exploratory intentions scale, the career exploration activities scale, etc. They all were aimed at finding out to what messages the participants would be more responsive to gain-framed, loss-framed, or control ones (Tansley et al., 2007). This effort was aimed at proving or rejecting the hypothesis that “written persuasive messages” would be the most efficient way to influence the conscience of the respondents.
Proceeding to the next stages, it is necessary to estimate the population and sample for the research. According to the opinion of Black (1999), the population is “any group that shares a set of common traits” – in the research of Tansley et al. (2007) it is a pilot sample of 12 persons and the main sample of 127 participants who were students of psychology courses in a Southern community college. Instrumentation of the research is another matter of concern, being a major tool for making and evaluating judgment further on in the course of the research. In the discussed case the main instruments were the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (applied to measure career decision-making self-efficacy), the Career Decision-Making Outcome Expectations Scale (to measure career decision-making outcome expectations), the Career Exploratory Intentions Scale (to measure career decision-making intentions), the Career Exploration Activities Scale and the demographic questionnaire (Tansley et al, 2007). Thus, it is possible to state that the approach to designing instruments for the present research was comprehensive and over-grasping, ensuring the instrumentation reliability and validity.
Coming to the qualitative design section, it is necessary to admit that the research discussed was experimental as all participants took part in filling in the questionnaires, and only those who accomplished the work fully were considered as the providers of credible data. It was not single-subject research as the sample of 127 participants was rather heterogeneous: the sample included representatives of different ethnic and racial groups, people from a different social background with the commonplace of studies and approximately common age (Tansley et al., 2007).
The last but not the least element of any quantitative research is the way of quantitative data analysis. Creswell (2003) offers the following procedure of analysis: reporting data, discussing the potential bias, discuss the way to represent variables with all potential deviations, estimate the procedures to evaluate statistical data, and finding the way to test the hypothesis. It is also essential to define the measure of generalizability of data and its significance.
As it usually happens in the case with qualitative research techniques and designs, the data is usually represented in the form of charts and tables (e.g. pie charts or frequency graphs), as it is done in the case of Tansley et al. One should not diminish the importance of these methods of representation because of the importance of qualitative results.
Qualitative Research Techniques and Designs
Among the research methods commonly applied in the sphere of qualitative research one should consider the findings of Lodico et al. (2006) who state that “qualitative research approaches collect data through observations, interviews, and document analysis and summarize the findings primarily through narrative or verbal means”. The researchers admit that the best tools for conducting qualitative research are case studies, ethnographic studies, grounded theory, and phenomenological studies (Lodico et al., 2006).
Qualitative research techniques are different from quantitative research ones because of the data on which they rely and which they operate in the course of research. On the example of the phenomenological study of Conceicao (2006), it is possible to define the main stages and elements of the qualitative research procedure that have to be taken into consideration. First of all, such research is usually grounded on theory – in this case, one sees the clear connection of the researcher’s interest with the growing digitalization of education and shifting roles of educators in the whole educational environment (Conceicao, 2006).
In the present research conducted by the researcher, interviews and observations were applied as the major tool for collecting relevant information on the efficiency of online studying – the sample consisted of 10 faculty members who shared their experiences on online studies and expressed their opinion on its constructiveness.
Speaking about the strategies for data analysis, it is first of all necessary to note that the main effort of the study was aimed at testing the preliminary hypothesis about the growing efficiency of online learning that excludes any live communication of the educator with the student (Conceicao, 2006). Thus, all interviews, discussions, and considerations were targeted at finding out the core reasons for this tendency, the impressions of educators about both forms of teaching, and their proposals as for the changes necessary to be introduced. The credibility of results may be supported by the level of qualification of educators chosen for the study, 3 of who were full professors and 7 – associate professors with a different range of work experience (Conceicao, 2006). Transferability of results can also be tested and supported by the fact that the scientific grounding of the research was constructed soundly and the literature review proved the broadness and general applicability of results.
Data description was precise and detailed, thus allowing speaking about the proved hypothesis about online learning as the way to enrich the scope of educational opportunities and to stipulate the main directives for further actions. The chosen research design – the phenomenological study – proved to be highly efficient in the context of the present research problems, which may be also supported by the research conducted by Groenewald (2004). In his study, Groenewald (2004) explored the origin of phenomenology as a type of research approach, outlined the main stages of conducting a phenomenological study emphasizing the data-gathering methods, the necessity to keep to ethical standards, and ensuring the results’ validity.
However, in the context of discussing the data credibility and transferability, it is important to enumerate the most common disadvantages of online teaching – the research design requires including the information about limitations of the study that have to be taken into consideration alongside the results of the study. The main disadvantages of online learning are first of all the high price of education and the decreasing number of teachers’ vacancies in a country, namely outsourcing of jobs in the sphere, and the inability to organize group work in the context of online learning (Encyclopedia: Online Tutoring: Real-time tutoring over the internet, 2005).
Reporting and Contextualizing Research for Social Change
The first method of synthesizing data used by Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) is the amount of information dedicated to the GLBT issue in educational resources. After finding out the approximate equality of data the authors investigate the number of illustrations and thematic categories to which separate attention is paid. The researchers are mainly interested in the way GLBT people are portrayed, what GLBT topics are excluded and what treatment they receive in theoretical sources. Basing their judgment on these findings, Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) make a conclusion that GLBT people are still discriminated against and segregated by others, they are portrayed as victims, thus causing the emergence of negative stereotypes; however, much is being done on eliminating exclusion, the GLBT topics are discussed on a more open basis and racial, ethnical or other characteristics that used to aggravate treatment of GLBT people and their discrimination are being gradually erased.
In general, it is highly important to consider the initial purpose the authors pursued by conducting the present research – their purpose may indicate the main implications of the research better than the results they achieved. Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) stated at the very beginning that their prime aim was to investigate the way the issues of GLBT people are addressed in educational literature, the way they are designed and affect people in the course of forming stereotypes and opinions of the common public about the GLBT representatives.
The journal in which the article was published is titled Journal of Teacher Education, thus it is mainly aimed at forming adequate skills in educators so that they should be able to address the problem of GLBT people treatment and break the stereotypes that have been historically formed in the minds of traditional people. However, it is commonly known that the issues of treating the non-traditional orientation are a complex problem and should be addressed in a complex way. Sexual minorities are first of all a cultural phenomenon, which can be supported by the following information:
“Sexual minority cultures frequently and consistently influence the broader culture at large, including straight culture. Yale sociology professor Joshua Gamson argues that the tabloid talk show genre, popularized by Oprah Winfrey in the 1980s provided much needed, high impact media visibility for sexual minorities and did more to make gay culture mainstream than any other development of the 20th century” (Encyclopedia: LGBT Communities: LGBT Culture, 2005).
The heterogeneity of the concept supposes the particular interest in the subject by journals specializing in Psychology, Sociology, or even Medicine, as the GLBT problems are closely connected with the suicide rates and mental health problems, especially with GLBT adolescents. The article of Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) pays much attention to multiple peculiarities of theoretical addressing the problem of GLBT educational literature, this is why it is possible to say that it is likely to facilitate a change in the social perception of GLBT people – in case of correct construction of the educational process making people acquainted with the basic information about non-traditional sexual orientation it will be possible to avoid the majority of stereotypes and mistreatment of such people. Besides, the possibility of an institutional change is also evident – it is surely unavoidable to eliminate the formation of stereotypes in the representatives of the educational sphere; hence, people who have to teach their students to avoid stereotypes cannot help their formation in their system of attitudes. Consequently, the problem Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) address may be solved in several ways, in which the article may be highly helpful.
Research may be conducted in several ways depending on the subject matter being addressed. The researcher has to first estimate the awaited results, the theoretical field in which he or she is going to conduct research and to think about the best way to organize a scientific activity that would fit the estimated goals best of all. Some kinds of research cannot eliminate quantitative data evaluation and include considerations of statistics, numeric data processing, its arrangement in charts and graphs, and making empirical inferences out of these figures. Qualitative data research usually contains more theoretical considerations and may not include any numeric data but will contain only theoretical research.
The process of synthesizing data and making conclusions as well as general recommendations for further research is highly important as well because it is the logical ending of the research showing whether the goals were achieved by the researcher or not. For this reason, it is essential that the researcher chose the best suitable way of synthesizing data and making inferences from findings, which will show the scientific importance of the research and the way it may be applied in life.
References
- Blumer, M. (1999). Sociological research methods. Transaction Publishers.
- Conceição, S. C. O. (2006). Faculty lived experiences in the online environment. Adult Education Quarterly, 57, 26–45.
- Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches. SAGE.
- Encyclopedia: LGBT Communities: LGBT Culture (2005). Nation Master.Com.
- Encyclopedia: Online tutoring: Real-time tutoring over internet. (2005). Nation Master.Com.
- Groenewald, T. (2004). A phenomenological research design illustrated. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 3 (1).
- Lodico, M., Spaulding, D., & Voegtle, K. (2010). Methods in educational research: From theory to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Macgillivray, I. K., & Jennings, T. (2008). A content analysis exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics in foundations of education textbooks. Journal of Teacher Education, 59, 170–188.
- Tansley, D. P., Jome, L. M., Hasse, R. F., & Martens, M. P. (2007). The effects of message framing on college students’ career decision making. Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 301–316.
- Thomas R. B. (1999). Doing quantitative research in the social sciences: an integrated approach to research design, measurement and statistics. SAGE.