Paper Expectation

Study Title

This study is entitled Challenges and Prospects for Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Nigeria.

Problem statement

There are many challenges that students with intellectual deficits face while consuming their social and educational lives. Research has previously exposed some of these challenges though not at a deep perspective. Different methodologies have been applied to study these challenges and identify feasible remedies. However, not many researchers who apply the qualitative designs conduct comparable quantitative approaches to find out whether similar results can be identified.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the qualitative and quantitative research designs commonly applied in research and which can apply in the studying of the challenges and prospects for students with intellectual disabilities in Nigeria. The second objective is to select either the qualitative or quantitative approach and discuss the best practices for the selected design.

Research questions

The following research questions guide this research paper.

1.      What is the meaning and applications of the qualitative and quantitative research designs?

2.       What are the similarities and differences between the quantitative and qualitative research designs?

3.      What are the expectations of each of the above research approaches for a typical study?

4.        Which of the designs (qualitative or quantitative) best suits this study and what are the best practice suggestion of the method selected?

The Qualitative Research Method

Qualitative research method refers to a research method used to study non-quantifiable characteristics such as human attributes like behavior and habits (Brew & Lucas, 2009). In this design, the data or information to be gathered is not numerical; the Respondent discusses or answers most of the questions based on his or her point of view rather than give provable facts. As such, a qualitative research design can be said to harbor the following characteristics. Fist, an interview guide is a primary tool for data collection of a qualitative study, though other methods can be incorporated such as observation and the questionnaire method. If a questionnaire is used, it has to contain only or mostly the open-ended questions (Kothari, 2005). That leads to the second feature of the qualitative research strategy that it is focused on non-factual information. Due to the inclusion of open-ended items, the respondent has the liberty to give true or non-true information.

 Thirdly, this type of research is short of range and utilizes a smaller population compared to the quantitative research types. That is due to the limitation of interviewing exercise that consumes a lot of the researcher’s time. As posted by Kothari (2005), the qualitative study requires researchers to spend a larger a lot of time to gain a full understanding of the phenomena under investigation. Lastly but not least, most items in this type of research addresses the why of a phenomenon under consideration and as such mostly lead to a quantitative study post results.

A qualitative research is sometimes considered stronger than the quantitative. That is due to the following reasons. Firstly, it allows for the various levels of variables to effectively and sufficiently affect the outcome (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2010). Also, the study tool (interviews) allows the researcher to investigate the subject in further depth with regards to a particular issue as he/she has greater control during the conversation. It is also simpler as it allows subjects to be studied or observed in their natural environments. It is also flexible, and the researcher can at any time alter some questions and direction of inquiry to be deeper insight into a phenomenon. However, it is weaker than the quantitative as it allows flexibility of respondents input, some of which can be false and skewed (Kothari, 2005).

Quantitative Research methods

Quantitative research methodology refers to the process whereby the data is gathered systematically, entered, analyzed and reported in numerically formatted statistical values in the bid to explain what was observed in response to the hypothesis (Brew & Lucas, 2009). Here, the researcher is mostly clearly conscious of the specific information being sought before the initiation of the study. As such, data collection will be expected to adhere to a specific and practically rigid framework. Characteristically, the quantitative research methodology utilizes large groups of respondents. That is due to the use of surveys or questionnaire as the primary tool of questionnaires with minimal of interviews (Balnaves & Caputi, 2001).

The use of questionnaires makes the data collection face quicker and extensive as it only requires the researcher to disseminate the questionnaire either through hand delivery or email or parcel posting. It is thus less time consuming. This type of research is accurate as it allows for variables with statistical outliers to be frequently discarded. That is because numerical data reporting may be more factual as the respondent might be forced to check his records rather than answer a particular inquiry by mere thoughts (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2010). The analysis phase is also quicker. Contrary to the qualitative approach where data is to be first coded and then entered into statistical analysis tools, the quantitative data is mostly entered directly and analyzed. There is a disadvantage to the quantitative research as compared to the qualitative. The questionnaires for this type of research often contain closed-ended questions with only a few answer options. That discourages most of the respondents who may leave some questions unanswered (Brew & Lucas, 2009).

Summary of Similarities and differences

Similarities

There are several aspects in which qualitative and quantitative research designs are similar. First of all, both are methods of research which are limited by variables. Firstly, qualitative and quantitative research methods may be used to study the same phenomenon. Though the qualitative method might be used in this case to scrutinize on the challenges of these students whereas the quantitative would be used to measure the frequency or total of students facing a particular challenge, both would supplement each other for extensive investigation of the same hypothesis (Balnaves & Caputi, 2001).

Besides, the qualitative research is affected by the researcher conducting the research. For instance, the different researcher may choose to gather different categories or pieces of information and different ways to interpret it. Apparently, the choice of each will have a significant impact on the outcome of research (Kothari, 2005).

There are also considerations to make when applying any of the two methods. Firstly, a pilot study should be conducted to validate the tools of data collection.  (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2010). Secondly, the sample size is an important feature to be considered in both. Deciding an appropriate sample size is critical in both regards is critical for the following reasons. First, a good sample size should be large enough to be a feasible representative of the population. That limits the influence of outliers or extreme observations in the analysis. Sample size determination is also important for economic and ethical purposes (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2010).

Differences

Firstly, the qualitative research mainly focuses on gathering verbal data rather than measurements. The gathered information is thereafter analyzed in an interpretative manner, subjective, impressionistic or even diagnostic. The second difference is on aim, the basic objective of a Qualitative Research is to provide a comprehensive, detailed description of the research topic. On the other hand, a quantitative Research focuses deeply into the counting of features and finally constructing statistical models and figures to summarize what was observed (Brew & Lucas, 2009). Thirdly, compared to qualitative research, the quantitative research designs provide the researcher clearer pictures of what to expect as results before engaging in the research phases (Brew & Lucas, 2009). Fourthly, as seen earlier, the data collection tool for the qualitative research designs is the interviews while the questionnaires are basic to a quantitative inquiry.

The type of data to be collected also differs. Most questions in a Qualitative Research require responses in the form of words (interviews), images (such as videos) or objects (such as artifacts). On the other hand, data in a Quantitative Research will mostly appear in numerical figures in the form of raw data tables and statistical analysis tables (Balnaves & Caputi, 2001).

Qualitative or Quantitative

Having seen the strengths, weaknesses and applications of the quantitative and qualitative methods of research, I choose to use the qualitative methods for this study. I chose this method because the topic of study ‘challenges and prospects of students with intellectual disabilities in Nigeria’ does not necessarily require much of numerical evidence. Best practices suggestions in the qualitative study methodology include the following. First is a case study. The purpose of this qualitative study approach will be to describe in depth the experience of students with intellectual disabilities through direct observation and interaction with each student respondent (Creswell, 2009).

The second qualitative approach I will use is the ground theory. This approach is used in uncovering the problems that exist in social scenes and how individuals may handle them. Though its main purpose is to develop a theory, the findings can be used to explain what challenges the students to face, and necessary interventions concluded (Creswell, 2009). 

References

Balnaves, M., & Caputi, P. (2001). Introduction to qualitative research methods: an investigative approach. London: SAGE

Brew, A., & Lucas, L. (2009). Academic research and researchers. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press

Christensen, B., Johnson, B., & Turner, A. (2010). Research methods, design, and analysis. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Creswell, W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.

Kothari, R. (2005). Research methodology: methods & techniques. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in graduate paper writing service if you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom research paper writing service.