QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Cynthia D. Dilag Ed.D., Ph. D-Research & Evaluation (on Dissertation)

ACTIVITY 1

1. Interest in Quantitative Research

Rating
-1 for Love
-2 for Hate?

Ans.
-1 for Love

2. Rate your emotional and psychological pain experienced in Quantitative Research

Ans.

2. How was your experience with Quantitative Research?

While my experiences as an undergraduate have been diverse, research has unquestionably been the
most important and rewarding component of my undergraduate education. Committing myself to the world of
scientific research has instilled an investigative mindset and a passion for the scientific process and an
appreciation for the results of research. Research has proven to be a fantastic supplement to my undergraduate
coursework, allowing me to strengthen my conceptual understanding of the material taught in my science
classes and leading to an improvement in my academic performance as I became more involved in research
outside of the classroom. Participating in research and the consequent interactions with my peers and advisors
continues to provide me with a toolbox of hard and soft skills that has paid dividends in my coursework and
professional relationships.
As a Senior High School teacher, I have a teaching load Practical Research 2 (quantitative research),
teaching quantitative research is challenging and a great opportunity of learning. At first, I’m kind of nervous
because it was not really my forte but because teachers will always be teachers, I am willing to do research to
learn and share it to my students. I studied and asked the help of my co-teacher who also teaching the same
subject. Theories are quite easy to teach but it involves application so I do more research and collaboration with
my colleagues. As time goes by I learned a lot.
One of the most important thing I thought about when writing my paper was to pick a topic that I liked
and would enjoy writing about. The next thing I did was re-read the instruction given for the paper so I can
come up with a strategy on exactly how to approach my research.
I begin my search by searching information I have some knowledge of then as I come up on new
information, I expand my search. I write down key information I find. I make notes in a manner that can
prevent plagiarism and make note of my references. When I gather all the information that I want to use, I
chose start writing my thesis, highlighting what I want to talk about on my paper. Once I got the thesis done, I
start writing my rough draft, occasionally going back and conducting more research to support my arguments.
One I read my rough draft and make my adjustments, I write my paper.
3. Weaknesses, Strength and Value of Quantitative Research (use matrix).
STRENGTHS
IT IS OBJECTIVE. Since it
provides numerical data, it cannot
be misinterpreted.
The use of statistical techniques
facilitates sophisticated analyses
and allows you to comprehend a
huge amount of vital
characteristics of data.
THE NUMERICAL DATA CAN
BE ANALYZED IN A QUICK
AND EASY WAY.
QUANTITATIVE STUDIES
ARE REPLICABLE.
Standardized approaches allow the
study to be replicated in different
areas or over time with the
formulation of comparable
findings
WEAKNESSES VALUE/IMPORTANCE
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
REQUIRES A LARGE NUMBER
OF RESPONDENTS. It is More reliable and objective
assumed that the larger the sample
is , the more statistically accurate
the findings are.
Can use statistics to generalise a
IT IS COSTLY
finding
THE INFORMATION
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS TO Often reduces and restructures a
HELP INTERPRET THE
complex problem to a limited
RESULTS OR TO EXPLAIN
VARIATIONS ARE USUSALLY number of variables
IGNORED. It does not consider
the distinct capacity of the
respondents to share and elaborate
further information.
MANY INFORMATION ARE
DIFFICULT TO GATHER using
Looks at relationships between
structured research instruments,
spec. on sensitive issues like pre- variables and can establish cause
marital sex, domestic violence, and effect in highly controlled
among others. circumstances
If not done seriously and correctly,
DATA FROM
QUESTIONNAIRES MAY BE Tests theories or hypotheses
INCOMPLETE AND
INACCURATE. Researchers must
be on the look-out on respondents
who are just guessing in
answering the instrument.
Assumes sample is representative
of the population
Subjectivity of researcher in
methodology is recognised less.
4. Steps in Quantitative Research (discuss)
1. Theory

The fact that quantitative research starts off with

theory signifies the broadly deductive approach to the
relationship between theory and research in this tradition.
The sociological theory most closely associated with this
approach is Functionalism, which is a development of the
positivist origins of sociology.
2. Hypothesis
It is common outlines of the main steps of quantitative
research to suggest that a hypothesis is deduced from the
theory and is tested.
However, a great deal of quantitative research does not
entail the specification of a hypothesis, and instead theory
acts loosely as a set of concerns in relation to which social
researcher collects data. The specification of hypotheses to
be tested is particularly likely to be found in experimental
research but is often found as well in survey research,
which is usually based on cross-sectional design.
3. Research design
The next step entails the selection of a research design which has implications for a variety of
issues, such as the external validity of findings and researchers’ ability to impute causality to their
findings.
4. Operationalising concepts
Operationalising concepts is a process where the researcher devises measure of the concepts which
she wishes to investigate. This typically involves breaking down abstract sociological concepts into
more specific measures which can be easily understood by respondents. For example, ‘social class’
can be operationalied into ‘occupation’ and ‘strength of religious believe’ can be measured by using a
range of questions about ‘ideas about God’ and ‘attendance at religious services’.
5. Selection of a Research Site or Sites
With laboratory experiments, the site will already be established, in field experiments, this will
involve the selection of a field-site or sites, such as a school or factory, while with survey research,
site-selection may be more varied. Practical and ethical factors will be a limiting factor in choice of
research sites.
6. Selection of respondents
Step six involves ‘choosing a sample of participants’ to take part in the study – which can
involve any number of sampling techniques, depending on the hypothesis, and practical and ethical
factors. If the hypothesis requires comparison between two different groups (men and women for
example), then the sample should reflect this.
Step six may well precede step five – if you just wish to research ‘the extent of teacher labelling in
schools in London’, then you’re pretty much limited to finding schools in London as your research
site(s).
7. Data collection
Step seven, is what most people probably think of as ‘doing research’. In experimental research
this is likely to involve pre-testing respondents, manipulating the independent variable for the
experimental group and then post-testing respondents. In cross-sectional research using surveys, this
will involve interviewing the sample members by structured-interview or using a pre-coded
questionnaire. For observational research this will involve watching the setting and behaviour of
people and then assigning categories to each element of behaviour.
8. Processing data
This means transforming information which has been collected into ‘data’. With some information
this is a straightforward process – for example, variables such as ‘age’, or ‘income’ are already
numeric.
Other information might need to be ‘coded’ – or transformed into numbers so that it can be analysed.
Codes act as tags that are placed on data about people which allow the information to be processed by
a computer.
9. Data analysis
In step nine, analysing data, the researcher uses a number of statistical techniques to look for
significant correlations between variables, to see if one variable has a significant effect on another
variable.
The simplest type of technique is to organise the relationship between variables into graphs, pie
charts and bar charts, which give an immediate ‘intuitive’ visual impression of whether there is a
significant relationship, and such tools are also vital for presenting the results of one’s quantitative
data analysis to others.
In order for quantitative research to be taken seriously, analysis needs to use a number of accepted
statistical techniques, such as the Chi-squared test, to test whether there is a relationship between
variables.
10. Findings and conclusions
On the basis of the analysis of the data, the researcher must interpret the results of the analysis. It is
at this stage that the findings will emerge: if there is a hypothesis, is it supported? What are the
implications of the findings for the theoretical ideas that formed the background of the research?
11. Writing up Findings
Finally, in stage 11, the research must be written up. The research will be writing for either an
academic audience, or a client, but either way, a write-up must convince the audience that the
research process has been robust, that data is as valid, reliable and representative as it needs to be for
the research purposes, and that the findings are important in the context of already existing research.
Once the findings have been published, they become part of the stock of knowledge (or ‘theory’ in the
loose sense of the word) in their domain. Thus, there is a feedback loop from step eleven back up to
step one.
The presence of an element of both deductivism (step two) and inductivism is indicative of
the positivist foundations of quantitative research.

5. Types of variables
There are six common variable types:
DEPENDENT VARIABLES
. . . show the effect of manipulating or introducing the independent variables. For example, if the
independent variable is the use or non-use of a new language teaching procedure, then the
dependent variable might be students' scores on a test of the content taught using that procedure. In
other words, the variation in the dependent variable depends on the variation in the independent
variable.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
. . . are those that the researcher has control over. This "control" may involve manipulating existing
variables (e.g., modifying existing methods of instruction) or introducing new variables (e.g.,
adopting a totally new method for some sections of a class) in the research setting. Whatever the
case may be, the researcher expects that the independent variable(s) will have some effect on (or
relationship with) the dependent variables.
INTERVENING VARIABLES
. . . refer to abstract processes that are not directly observable but that link the independent and
dependent variables. In language learning and teaching, they are usually inside the subjects' heads,
including various language learning processes which the researcher cannot observe. For example, if
the use of a particular teaching technique is the independent variable and mastery of the objectives
is the dependent variable, then the language learning processes used by the subjects are the
intervening variables.
MODERATOR VARIABLES
. . . affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variables by modifying the
effect of the intervening variable(s). Unlike extraneous variables, moderator variables are measured
and taken into consideration. Typical moderator variables in TESL and language acquisition
research (when they are not the major focus of the study) include the sex, age, culture, or language
proficiency of the subjects.
CONTROL VARIABLES
Language learning and teaching are very complex processes. It is not possible to consider every
variable in a single study. Therefore, the variables that are not measured in a particular study must
be held constant, neutralized/balanced, or eliminated, so they will not have a biasing effect on the
other variables. Variables that have been controlled in this way are called control variables.
EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES
. . . are those factors in the research environment which may have an effect on the dependent
variable(s) but which are not controlled. Extraneous variables are dangerous. They may damage a
study's validity, making it impossible to know whether the effects were caused by the independent
and moderator variables or some extraneous factor. If they cannot be controlled, extraneous
variables must at least be taken into consideration when interpreting results.