THE UNIVERSITY OF GOROKA
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,
DIVISION OF CURRICULUM STUDIES, SPECIAL & INCLUSIVE Ed
P .O. BOX 1078, GOROKA, 441, EASTERN HIGHLANDS PROVINCE
TEL: (675) 5311800, 5311700, FAX: (675) 5321914
EMAIL: romboj@unigoroka.ac.pg or johnrombo2004@yahoo.com
BACHELOR OF EDUCATION PRESERVICE
YEAR 3
PROGRAM: SPECIAL & INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
ECS 380: INRODUCTION TO EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
ASSESSMENT TASK NO (2): ESSAY
TITTLE:
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHOLOGIES
STUDENT:
ROBINSON EWEIDO
ID NO:
202410549
LECTURER:
MR JOHN ROMBO
TUTOR:
MR. BEN KILAGE
SEMESTER:
ONE (1) – 2024
TOTAL: ____/30 Point
Page 1
EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
COMPERATIVE ANALYSIS OF QUALITATIVE, QUANTITATIVE AND MIXED METHOD
APPROACHES
Introduction
Educational research is one of the fundamental fields that aim to carry out investigation to increase teaching
practices; student’s learning outcomes and overall educational experiences in the world. In PNG,
researchers in the education perspective apply different methods to investigate educational phenomena or
issues to solve problems or answer the questions by using qualitative, quantitative and mixed method of
research approaches. These methods of search approaches are played important roles and worked as tools to
investigate educational phenomena, which lead to achieve desirable outcomes or results. However, this
essay aims to discuss and provide comparative analysis of different research approaches used in educational
research in Papua New Guinea context. Each of the research method approaches below explained and
differentiate the major principles or philosophy, research methodologies, data collection methods, data
analysis and ethical consideration.
What is Educational Research and why it is important?
The definition for educational research can be broadly defined by different scholars throughout the world
according to their own perception and theory. However, in my opinion, Educational research is defined as a
way of finding out the problems or issues aroused in the education system in order to solve problems or
increase understanding to meet the needs of society in the education perspective to improve education
system in Papua New Guinea. Many issues are occurred in the education system and it becomes norms in
the country. For this problem, researchers carried out critical research for different educational purposes
such as assessment, teaching and learning practices, policies implementing and student’s behavior to
improve quality education in the country. Another importance of carrying out research is to provide
solution for the problems in educational perspective (ECS 380, Course Study Guide, P. 5). Indeed,
Thornhill, (1997:1) & Jankowics, (1995) also further reason out that people undertake research in order to
find out things in a systematic way and to increase their knowledge. In fact, researchers identify the
problems as first stage before carried out educational research by using different approaches such as
quantitative, qualitative and mixed method to collect data and come up with clear conclusion to address the
issues or problems.
Quantitative Research Method Approach
Firstly, quantitative research approach is one of the research methods used to investigate an issue or
problems in different areas in the society. According to Creswell, (2003: P, 212) he broadly defined
quantitative research method as the “testing objective theory by examining the relationship among
variables. These variables or can be measured by using research instruments, so that data can be numbered
and analyzed using statistical procedures”. In other word, this method of research simply deals with the
larger number of participants who involved in research to collect data and analyze them in a numerical and
statistical manner. For example, conducting survey research on the practice of bribery in education system
Page 2
in the country by randomly select the participant from each province to provide accurate data and make
conclusion according the data provided by the participants.
Conversely, the purpose of this research is to “examine the relationship between variables, such as the
dependent variable and independent variables” (Creswell, 2009). However, Creswell also added that its
major philosophy (tenet) is based on ‘positivism” which means the doctrine or the belief system is partly
focused on the number of relationships, prediction, testing hypothesis and generalized finding. For this
reason, concepts are presented in the forms of different variables that leads to reality in objective and can
be measured by numbers. In addition, (Merriam, 2002) clearly stated that the research design or
methodologies are organized in structured and standardized methods involving experiment, survey and
statistical analysis. For example, investigation of students who speak English every day in the school
campus without speaking their own vernacular language, the researcher apply survey method to collect
data where participants report the number of days they speak English every day and complete it by
standardizing report and make a prediction or conclusion about the future achievement. For this reason, the
main part of the research is to focus on numerical data, variables and statistical procedure by drawing
conclusion or making logical judgment on the evidence which they have observed. Furthermore, data is
collected by using deductive structured methods such as survey, experiment and measurements and it allow
researchers to solve problems in logical and reasonable order. Therefore, the researchers’ are urged to
analyze the data by using statistics, test hypothesis and numerical representations to draw proper
conclusions to address the problems or issues. And finally, consideration of ethical issue is to ensure that
the survey questions must be stated clearly unbiased and do not lead the participant to provide real answer.
Instead, protect the privacy of respondent by securing data to an unauthorized person to access.
Unfortunately, “many researchers concerned that scientific quantitative research fail to take into account
and people unable to interpret or construct their own meaning” (Burn 1997:10 & ECS 380, P.23). For this
reason, they developed another research method which is qualitative research method approach.
Qualitative Research Method Approach
Firstly, the qualitative research method approach is another component of major research method used to
investigate the educational problems or issues developed after when people difficult to interpret their own
experiences. According to Oxford English Dictionary, qualitative research approach is broadly defined as
the method of research techniques in which data is collected from comparing small group of people who
provide answers by words and not analyzed with statistical techniques. In other word, it’s simply refers to
research method deals with “people’s own behavioral experiences through by written or spoken words”
(ECS 380, Course Study Guide, P. 23) from the participant to collect data. However, its purpose is to
“explore the meaning of the people’s experiences, their cultural behaviors, and how they view and react to
a particular issue or case” (Creswell, 2009). For instance, a study conducted by the researcher on the
impact of using mobile phone upon every student in a particular school by using interview method to
collect data and make conclusion accordingly.
Conversely, it is also focused on the “phenomenology”, which means doctrine or the beliefs system is
based on “the study of human experiences in which consideration of objective reality are not taken into
Page 3
detail explanation” (Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. 1994) and for this reason, researchers find out to
understand the human life experiences. In addition, its major principles and assumption generally focus on
understanding phenomena in a reasonable manner, finding out a clear meaning and bring that experience
into existence ideas or theories. In fact, the reality is a subjective and associate with real life context or
individual’s experiences. Furthermore, Creswell, (2008) further emphasized the research paradigm is
mainly based on constructivism, phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, case study, action
research and content analysis. These entire research paradigms are played vital tools and provide full
details and allow researchers to interpret social or cultural phenomena but it depend on how they develop
their questions or objectives to guide their study analysis. Moreover, the research design or methodologies
are based on “flexible and increase the data collection methods such as interviews, focus groups,
observation and document analysis” (Elkatawneh, 2016). These methods of research design are important
and used to collect full detail data that can provide deeply into human experience perspectives of
participants. For example, a researcher carries out research on the experience of children in primary school
who read books every day through in depth interview with the students in each grade level from grade 3 to
8, perhaps to understand their emotional feedback and make conclusion for the overall quality of lifelong
learning in the school. Researchers also collect data through verbal communication or interview with
participants, observing their experiences and analyze the text or document to make quality conclusion.
Therefore, they analyzed the data based on inductive way such as topic analysis, content analysis and
interpret the data into a logical arrangement to easily identify patterns and themes for the problems. And
finally, the ethical consideration is focused on issues like hiding, informed permission or privacy to make
sure that participants’ words are clearly stated and accurately presented. Alternatively, the two approaches
of research methods above are combined to make one research method according to the nature and the
theme of the research topic which is mixed method Research approach.
Mixed Method Research Approach
Mixed methods research is derived from the qualitative and quantitative research methods approaches
involving both quantity (large number) and quality (spoken or written) to carry out research. According to
Creswell, (2003, P. 212) he defined this method of research approach as a systematic way of investigation
that combines or associates both qualitative and quantitative forms of research method. He also further
explained that this method of research approach involves philosophical assumptions, the use of qualitative
and quantitative approaches, and the mixing of both approaches in a study. For example, to conduct
research on antisocial behavior in one of the primary schools in Eastern Highlands Province, researcher
could use both survey and interview method to carry out research to investigate the problems and foster the
quality education for a child.
The doctrine or belief system of this research method is mainly involved in “combining qualitative and
quantitative methods of approaches to provide comprehensive understanding of the research problems”
(Campbell & Fiske, 1959). This means each approach are integrated and connect each other where reality
is a subjective or an objective and it associate with large number of individual’s real life experiences.
Conversely, Creswell, (2003:58) explains that research design or methodologies are based on integration
with both qualitative and quantitative methods such as survey, experiment, interview and observation
Page 4
mostly in sequence order by operating at the same time or concurrent design. For instance, if a researcher
carries out a study to investigate an effectiveness of implementing Standard Based Curriculum (SBC),
he/she combines survey data and depth interview with the participant to collect quantitative data on the
students’ performance of learning outcomes on Outcomes Base Curriculum (OBC) before and after
implementing the new system of education. Additionally, the researchers could also interview with the
teachers and students to collect qualitative data on their perception of the new system of education.
Therefore, the data collection is combined with both qualitative and quantitative techniques to integrate the
data in a systematic way to solve problems. Finally, data is analyzed to separate from each approaches or
else combine together to provide comprehensive interpretation of the research problems and also consider
the ethical issues to address issues in relevant to both qualitative and quantitative part of the research.
Summary
To conclude, quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research approaches are purposely design to
conduct investigation within and out of the educational phenomena to solve problems, and it have its own
strengths, weakness and characteristics to perform specific functions. Quantitative research is designed to
collect data involved large group of people to provide data in statistical techniques, while qualitative
research method is designed to carry out to provide accurate details data through by interview or observe
human experiences. And mixed method is designed to combine qualitative and quantitative research
method to integrate the data to make a final conclusion. Therefore, the choices between qualitative,
quantitative and mixed method research approaches are depend on the research questions, objectives and
context of the study in which the researchers has carried out. Research selection is the most suitable
approaches based on the nature and the theme of research problems which is identified to achieve desirable
outcomes or solve problems. In my opinion, mixed method research approach is fully recommended for
carrying out research because it helps to provide full details of quantitative and qualitative forms of
accurate data based on statistical techniques and human behavioral experiences.
Page 5
Reference
Campbell & Fiske, (1959): Campbell, D., and D.W. Fiske. 1959. Convergent and discriminant validation
by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin 54:297-312.
Creswell, J. W. (2008); Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Method Approaches (3rd
Edition). Thousand Oak, CA: Sage Publication, Inc.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches (4th
Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach (2nd
edition.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. P.212
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994): Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications
ECS 380, Course Study Guide, Introduction to Educational Research: School of Education, University of
Goroka, P.5 & 23
Elkatawne. H, (2016). Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Method, Walden University &
University of Rockies, P.2
Merriam, S.B. 2002. Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion and analysis. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
Oxford English Dictionary app from the smart phone
Thornhill, A (1997:1) & Lewis P (1995): The purpose of Educational Research for Business Student,
Published in London.
Page 6