Quantitative Research Essay

Introduction Quantitative research has been a numerical representation as well as manipulation of the observations for the objective about describing and explaining phenomena, which these observations reflect (Babbie, 2007). This has been used in lot of natural as well as social sciences, which includes biology, physics, sociology, psychology as well as geology. Research project where quantitative research would be most appropriate Research is an orderly investigation of the subject matter for aim of adding to the knowledge. With-in realm of the educational planning, several things have been always changing like structures of education systems, curriculums as well as text-books, mode of teaching, techniques of teacher’s training, amount as well as kind of provision to the schools like science laboratory, furniture, text-books, class-room supply, and so on. Widely used way to classify educational research study is for defining different kinds of research according to the types of information which they give. There have been several kinds of education research studies as well as there have been number of ways, in which they can be classified. The studies can be classified according to the topic where-by specific phenomena which have being investigated are used for grouping the studies. In the research on problems have been concerned with the educational planning, major educational research question may be subsumed under the three quantitative research techniques like correlational, descriptive as well as causal. So in the education planning quantitative research would be most appropriate Quantitative research usually uses techniques that are adopted from physical sciences, which have been designed towards ensuring the reliability, generalizability as well as objectivity. Such techniques include the techniques in which the research participants have been selected one by one from study population in the un-biased manner, standardized questionnaire or the intervention that they receive as well as statistical techniques used for testing the pre-determined hypotheses in regard to relationships in between particular variables. Researchers have been considered external towards actual research as well as results have been expected so as to be replicable no matter which has conducted a research. Strengths of a quantitative paradigm have been that their techniques produce reliable as well as quantifiable data, which have been often generalizable towards little large population. Quantitative measures have been usually much proper to conduct the requirements assessments and for evaluations comparing the results with a baseline data. Five quantitative methods There have been different kinds of quantitative research. For example they may have been classified as the survey research, descriptive, correlational research, causal comparative research as well as experimental research. All the methods are having their own typical features. Survey Survey has been defined as the technique about collecting the standardized information through interviewing the representative sample about certain population. In many cases the surveys includes direct contact with a population in the investigations (Chanimal, 1996). Descriptive Descriptive research includes collecting the data so as to test the hypotheses and answer the questions relating to the present status of subjects of a study. Correlational Correlational research determines if and to what degree the relationship prevails in between 2 as well as more quantifiable variables. Cause comparative Causal comparative research often establishes cause-effect relationship as well as it also compares relationship however cause might not manipulated, like gender. Experimental Experimental research usually establishes cause-effect relationship as well as does a comparison however cause has been manipulated. Cause, is the independent variable which makes a difference. Effect, is the dependent variable which is based on independent variable. Most appropriate method Survey research has been general in studies of the health as well as health services. Term survey has been used in lot of methods however often it refers to a selection of the much larger sample of the people by the pre determined population, which is followed through collection of the much smaller amount of the data by these individuals. Thus researcher uses information by the sample about individuals towards making few inferences about a wider population. General problem with the quantitative methodologies Situation in which the quantitative research might fail is if we are willing to explore the problem in a depth. Any quantitative research has been good in giving the information in breadth by the larger no. of units. However, if we are willing to explore the problem as well as concept in a depth, the quantitative methods have too shallow. For actually getting in the phenomenon, we are required to go for the ethnographic techniques, the interviews, in depth case studies as well as other qualitative methods. Recommendations for fixing a problem What if we have been doing when we are willing to look at both the breadth as well as the depth, or at both the causality and the meaning? In such situations, this has been best for using the so called the mixed technique design in that we uses both the quantitative for instance, the questionnaire as well as the qualitative for instance, no. of the case studies techniques. Mixed technique research has been a flexible approach in which research design has been determined through what we require finding out than through any pre-determined epistemological positions. In the mixed technique research, the quantitative or the qualitative components may pre-dominate or both may have the equal status. Possible to Mix the Quantitative Methodologies Integrating the quantitative research techniques lends the depth as well as clarity towards the social marketing programs. The combination of approaches has been compulsory due to the wide range about the data required to develop the effective communications. But potential for the problems prevails while attempting towards combining a divergent research paradigm; one can end up through not doing either kind of the research well. Such an integrative approach thus needs the research team with an expertise in both kinds of techniques. Using the so many approaches may also be very time consuming, lot much labor intensive as well as expensive. Other obstacle that would probably change as the social marketing gains in the usage has been that combining the multiple techniques has been still not accepted lot much as the viable research strategy, minimum in the main-stream of the public health circles. Conclusion To conclude, this paper describes the research project in which the quantitative research might be most appropriate. There have been different kinds of quantitative research. For example, they have been classified as the survey research, correlational research, experimental research and causal comparative research as well as descriptive.