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Lesson 2 Importance of Quantitative Research Across Fields
Lesson 2 Importance of Quantitative Research Across Fields
PRE-TEST QUESTIONS:
Answer the questions below. Follow instructions properly.
II. ESSAY. Discuss briefly, what is ask below. Write your answer on a separate
piece of paper.
1. How is quantitative research related or important to different fields of discipline?
2. Choose two disciplines enumerated above (column B) and explain how quantitative
research was used on it.
UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 1 IMPORTANCE OF
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ACROSS FIELDS
People do research to find solutions, even tentative ones, to problems, in order to
improve or enhance ways of doing things, to disprove or provide a new hypothesis, or
simply to find answers to questions or solutions to problems in daily life. Research findings
can affect people’s lives, ways of doing things, laws, rules and regulations, as well as
policies, among others. Widely, quantitative research is often used because of its emphasis
on proof rather than discovery.
In recent times, research studies are gaining an unprecedented focus and attention.
Then, only the faculty in higher education has so much interest and conduct researchers,
but now even the teachers in the basic education are engrossed in researches and devote
time and effort in conducting researches to improve educational practices that may lead to
more quality learning of the students. Many teachers do action researches because there is
a serious need to identify the problems of the deteriorating quality of education. By doing
so, they can address systematically and make educational decisions regarding the
problems met. Innovative teaching strategies are product of research.
In the natural and social sciences, quantitative research is the systematic, empirical
investigation of observable phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational
techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical
models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of measurement
is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between
empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships.
Health Sciences (Medical Technology, Dentistry, Nursing, Medicine, etc.) use
quantitative research designs like descriptive, pre-experimental, quasi-experimental,
trueexperiment, case study, among others.
UNIT I: NATURE OF INQUIRY AND RESEARCH Page 2 are equivalent. Then, the groups are
measured on one or more dependent variables; this is called the pre-test. After which, the
intervention is introduced. Lastly, the dependent variables are measured again. This is the post
test.
True in experiments with people in laboratory are also common.
Laboratory experiments often produce results that beg to be tested in the natural
world by Anthropologists. Aaron and Mills (1959, as cited by Bernard, 2004)
demonstrated in a lab experiment that people who go through severe initiation to
a group tend to be more positive toward the group than are people who go
through a mild initiation. They reasoned that people who go through
tough initiation rites put a lot of personal investments into
getting into the group. Later, if people see evidence that the group is not what
they thought it would be, they are reluctant to admit the fact because of the
investments.
In Field, Janet Schofield and her colleagues did a 3 year ethnographic
study in middle school. During the first year, they noticed that African-American
and while children seemed to react differently to “mildly aggressive acts’ – things
like bumping in the hallway, poking one another in the classroom, asking for
food, or using another student’s pencil without permission. There appeared to be
no event of racial conflict in the school, but during interviews while students
were more likely to report being intimidated by their African-American peers
than vice versa (Sagar & Schofield, 1980, as cited by Bernard, 2004)