MACOED 7211-Research Methods in Education 1

Module 003 – Quantitative Research Designs

Module 003 – Quantitative Research Designs

Course Learning Outcomes:
1. Applying quantitative research designs effectively in research studies,
demonstrating a solid understanding of their principles and
methodologies.
2. Developing essential skills in conducting research using quantitative
research designs, enabling them to confidently plan, implement, and
analyze quantitative research studies.
3. Identifying and utilizing the key features of quantitative research design
in order to design and conduct rigorous quantitative research studies.

Introduction
The fundamentals of the many quantitative research designs employed by scientists will be
discussed in this chapter. The goal is to help you get started with using these designs in
your own research projects so that you can have a better research experience in the long
run.

Definition of a Quantitative Study Method

Many scientific fields rely on quantitative research designs as their go-to method of
experimentation. These designs are often considered the foundation of rigorous scientific
investigation because they rely on mathematical and statistical methods to provide
conclusive measurements of results.

Quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical,

or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by
manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative
research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or
to explain a particular phenomenon (Babbie 2010).

Quantitative research designs help establish the relationship between an independent

variable and a dependent or outcome variable in a population. These designs can be
categorized as either "descriptive" (where subjects are typically measured once) or
"experimental" (where subjects are measured before and after a treatment). Descriptive
studies focus on determining associations between variables, while experimental studies
aim to establish causality.

Qualitative and Quantitative Aspects of Study Layout

Here are some of the most prominent features of quantitative research methods:
 Researchers use standardized forms to gather this information.

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 Large samples ensure that the results are generally applicable to the entire
population.
 It has a high degree of consistency, thus it is simple to repeat experiments.
 Objective responses are sought after after carefully developed and defined research
questions.
 All components of the study are meticulously planned before any data is collected.
 Numbers and statistics make up data, which is typically presented in visual formats
like tables, charts, and graphs.
 The work can be put to use in broadening generalizations, forecasting outcomes,
and delving into causal connections.
 Questionnaires and statistical software are used in the study process.

Question Categories for Quantitative Studies

 Descriptive research questions: Simply describe the variable you are measuring
 Comparative research questions: Compare and contrast many groups or
dependent variables.
 Relationship research questions: Emphasizing correlations and trends rather
than causation, which can only be established by experiments and will be covered in
the following heading.

Basic Methodology for a Quantitative Research Design

The steps of the underlying procedure should be reflected as closely as feasible in the
quantitative research design.

Step 1: Share your thoughts on something that hasn't been explored or described before.
Find out what other people have thought about your issue and what hypotheses
they've come up with.
Step 2: Come up with a theory to explain those findings.
Step 3: Predict what you think will happen next based on your assumptions. Create a
strategy to verify your theory.
Step 4: Solicit and examine relevant information. That would be a fatal blow to the
theory's credibility.
Step 5: Don't just assume anything. Reach a conclusive verdict. Depending on who you're
talking to, you should present your findings in a certain way.

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Use the Quantitative Research Design

Scope of Quantitative Research Design

How to Prepare a Research Design for Quantitative Studies?

Understanding how to put up a simple research design is crucial if you plan to do any sort
of quantitative study. This part will teach you the ropes so you can follow the procedure
and understand the studies done by others. It will also help you organize your thoughts and
create a solid outline for your paper.
Introduction
 Find the research gap: Give a clear and brief explanation of the research
problem you aim to investigate.
 Analyze the existing research: It is important to read up on the issue,
consolidate the main points, and make notes on related research if you need
to. Write down where you think there are major knowledge gaps and how
your research could help to fill them or shed light on the topic.
 Describe the theoretical framework: Give a brief summary of the
hypothesis or theory you intend to test. Define any new or difficult words
and provide relevant context (historical, cultural, economic, etc.) in order to
set the stage for the research problem.
Methodology
 Study population and sampling: Locate the data's source and evaluate its
quality, completeness, and any omissions or discrepancies.
 Data collection: Give an account of the means by which the data was
gathered.
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 Data analysis: List all the steps that will be taken to process and analyze the
data.
Results
 Findings: Make sure that your findings are presented in a clear, concise, and
unbiased manner.
 Statistical analysis: Describe the analytical procedures you undertook to
arrive at your conclusions. Which data points stood out as most significant?
Arrange the results in a reasonable fashion.
 Discussion: Create a thought-out, cohesive, and in-depth argument.
 Results interpretation: Review the situation under investigation and judge
how well the study's findings address the initial research questions.
 Explanations of patterns, comparisons between categories, or
associations between factors: Describe the themes that emerged from your
research, as well as any conclusions that may have surprised you or seemed
unimportant at first.
 Discussion of implications: Defining the importance of your findings.
 Limitations: Describe any restrictions or inevitable biases in your study, and
explain how you were still able to draw valid conclusions from them.
Conclusion
 Summary of findings: Synthesize the answers to your research questions.
Do not report any statistical data here; just provide a narrative summary of
the key findings and describe what was learned that you did not know before
conducting the study
 Recommendations: If appropriate to the aim of the assignment, categorize
key findings with policy recommendations or actions to be taken in practice.
 Future research: Explain why your research needs to be continued because
of its flaws or because it raises questions that were not answered in the
current study.

Strengths of Quantitative Research Designs

 Allow for a broader study, involving a greater number of subjects and enhancing the
generalization of the results.
 Allow for greater objectivity and accuracy of results. Generally, quantitative
methods are designed to provide summaries of data that support generalizations
about the phenomenon under study.
 Apply well-established standards so that the research can be replicated and then
analyzed and compared with similar studies.
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 Summarize vast sources of information and make comparisons across categories

and over time.
 Avoid personal bias by keeping a distance from participating subjects and using
accepted computational techniques

Limitations of Quantitative Research Designs

 These techniques offer faster data that can be used to test ideas, but they may
overlook nuanced differences in context.
 These approaches are static and unchanging, which limits their ability to adapt to
new information.
 When researchers create standardized questions, the resulting data may reflect the
researcher's perspective rather than that of the persons being studied, a
phenomenon known as "structural bias"
 These techniques reveal very little about the respondents' behavior, attitudes, and
motivation.
 You may end up with a data collection that is far more specific and, at times,
superficial.
 Less elaborate analyses of human perception are provided, with a focus on
numerical descriptions rather than extensive narratives.
 Research settings are typically strange and artificial, allowing for some kind of
control over the experiment.
 People's true feelings on a topic may not be reflected in the predetermined answers,
even if those answers happen to be the ones that are the closest fit to the underlying
theory..

Types of Quantitative Research Designs

 Experimental Research Design
Researchers in the field of education utilize the experimental approach to define and
illuminate potential causes by manipulating variables and observing the impact on
other variables.
Features
 Learning theories (and the means by which they are reinforced) are what
design experiments are all about.
 Interventions and novel pedagogical strategies are at the heart of design
experiments.
 Researchers use design experiments to try out new theoretical frameworks,
but they must also test and modify their hypotheses as they go.
 Iterative designs are a hallmark of design experiments; as hypotheses evolve
throughout the course of a study, so too must the experiment's overall
framework.
 The hypotheses tested in design experiments should guide how students are
taught in the long run.
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Aims
You can use experimental research relatively easily when you are sure that:
 There is temporal priority in a causal link (cause before effect);
 A cause will always lead to the same effect; and
 The degree of the correlation is large.

How to Identify the Research Problem

Defining the research problem helps narrow down the research area, formulate a
research hypothesis tested against the null hypothesis, and operationalize the
measurements, with the results depending on the chosen measurements, while ad
hoc analysis can either indicate an inability to accept a wrong hypothesis or lead to
further testing and potential significant discoveries.

How to Conduct an Experimental Research Study

Steps:
 Think of a question, then do some background reading to find out what we
already know about it.
 Create hypotheses and reason out their implications.
 Pinpoint and characterize the experiment's independent and dependent
factors.
 The first step is to figure out what will be the independent variable and what
will be the dependent variable. Build an experiment with conditions and
relationships that capture what you know about the outcomes:
■Select a sample of subjects.
■ Group or pair subjects.
■ Identify and control non-experimental factors.
■ Select or construct and validate instruments to measure outcomes.
■ Conduct a pilot study.
■ Determine the place, time, and duration of the experiment.
 Follow through with the experiment.
 Collect unprocessed information and transform it into a useful format.
 Conduct a statistically valid test of significance.
Strengths of Experimental Research Design
By systematically manipulating independent variables and confidently determining
their causal effects on dependent variables, experimental research excels in
establishing cause-and-effect relationships; this is aided by the random assignment
that ensures an equal likelihood of participant assignment to different conditions
and enhances the validity of the study.

Limitations of Experimental Research Design

However, it is not always possible or ethical to conduct experiments, even though
they are generally preferred for establishing causal linkages that correlational
studies may not clarify. It would be unethical, for instance, to force youngsters to

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play violent video games in order to detect any possible effect on their
aggressiveness as part of a study on the link between the two.
Quasi-Experimental Research
Quasi-experimental designs are used in education research to observe and study the
effects of a therapy on a population, typically through the use of a representative
sample. Scientists use this technique to infer whether or not a treatment is effective.
It is a research design, like experimental design, which tests causal hypotheses.
 • By definition, there is no random assignment in this design.
 • This design selects a control group with characteristics that are as close to
those of the intervention group as possible at the outset.
 • Regression discontinuity design (RDD)3 and propensity score matching
(PSM) are two methods used in this design to generate a reliable control
group.

Similarities between true and quasi-experimental research designs include the

following:
 Treatment or condition is applied to study participants;
 A result of interest is measured; and
 Treatment outcome differences are tested for statistical significance.

Differences between true experiments and quasi-experiments are as follows:

 The treatment and control groups in a quasi-experiment are not selected at
random.
 In a quasi-experiment, the difference between the control and treatment
groups is not just the experimental therapy they get but also other, often
unknowable, factors.
 Several "rival hypotheses" may exist in addition to the experimental
manipulation as a possible explanation for the outcomes of a quasi-
experiment due to the absence of control.

When to Use Quasi-experimental Research Designs

 Assess an intervention's efficacy;
 Give more attention to problems of external and construct validity, and
 Meet the demands of school administrators and ethical experts.

Advantages of Quasi-experimental Research Design

An important advantage of quasi-experimental studies is that the researcher can
attempt to determine cause-and-effect relationships even when there are
limitations as to who and what you could study.

Quasi-experimental design can often be integrated with individual case studies. This
allows the figures and results generated to reinforce the findings in a case study and
permit some sort of statistical analysis to take place

Limitations of Quasi-experimental Research Design

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The results of statistical tests may be useless without sufficient randomization.

There are typically two restrictions placed on quasi-experiments. Internal validity is
related to the first point. The issue with internal validity occurs because there is no
random assignment. Second, the researcher is unable to conclusively establish a
cause-and-effect relationship due to internal validity issues.

Cross-sectional Research Design

Cross-sectional research design is a type of observational study that collects data at a single
point in time from different individuals or groups within a population. It aims to gather
information about variables of interest and examine their relationships or characteristics at
a specific moment.

Salient Features of a Cross-sectional Research Design

A key feature of a cross-sectional study is the ability to compare different population
groups at a single point in time, providing a snapshot of the situation, but it does not
establish cause-and-effect relationships as it does not consider temporal dynamics
or account for pre-existing conditions.

Cross-sectional research studies all have the following characteristics:

• They take place at a single point in time.
• Researchers cannot manipulate variables.
• They provide information only; they do not answer ‘why’.

When to Use Cross-sectional Research Design

Cross-sectional research is extensively utilized across various disciplines, including
business, psychology, social science, retail, medicine, education, religion, and
government, providing valuable data to inform a wide range of actions. In the
context of business marketing, cross-sectional research plays a crucial role in
understanding different demographics, enabling the analysis of target markets and
facilitating the introduction and sale of products and services.

How to Conduct an Experimental Research Study

 Choosing a Representative Sample: If the results of a cross-sectional study
are to be generalized to the entire population, the sample size must be
sufficiently large.
 Sample Size: You need a big enough sample to make reliable estimates of
how common the situations of interest are.
 Data Collection: Data on both exposures and outcomes are collected at the
same time in cross-sectional studies, hence it is important that the inclusion
and exclusion criteria for participants in the study be clearly defined before
data collection begins.
 Potential Bias in Cross-sectional Studies: Non-response is a major issue in
cross-sectional research since it can lead to bias in the outcome

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measurements. This occurs frequently when respondents and no

respondents have different characteristics.
 Analysis of Cross-sectional Studies: Exposure, outcome, and confounders
should all be measured at the same time in a cross-sectional study.

Advantages of Cross-sectional Research Design

 Relatively inexpensive and takes up little time to conduct
 Can estimate the prevalence of outcome of interest because the sample is
usually taken from the whole population
 Focus on studying and drawing inferences from existing differences between
people, subjects, or phenomena. They help the generation of hypotheses
 Groups identified for the study are purposely selected based on existing
differences in the sample rather than seeking random sampling
 Contains multiple variables at the time of the data snapshot
 Many findings and outcomes can be analyzed to create new theories/studies
or in-depth research

Limitations of Cross-sectional Research Design

 Finding people, subjects, or phenomena to study that are very similar except
in one specific variable can be difficult
 Results are static and time bound and, therefore, given no indication of a
sequence of events or reveal historical or temporal contexts
 Studies cannot be utilized to establish cause-effect relationships
 This design only provides a snapshot of the analysis so there is always the
possibility that a study could have differing results if another time frame had
been chosen
 There is no follow-up to the findings
 The timing of the snapshot is not guaranteed to be representative
 Findings can be flawed or skewed if there is a conflict of interest with the
funding source

Longitudinal Research Study Design

A longitudinal study (aka longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that
involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of
time, often many decades (i.e., uses longitudinal data).

Types of Longitudinal Research

 Panel Study: Sampling a representative cross-section of the population. In a
panel study, participants are drawn from a variety of sources, but all of them
are representative of the target population.
 Cohort Study: Cohorts are groups of people who perform cross-sectional
observations at regular intervals across time; these groups often consist of
people who have a common trait and who were born, moved to the same
location, or graduated from school at the same time.
 Retrospective Study: This entails digging out old documents, such as patient
records, to piece together a picture of what went down.
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When to Use Longitudinal Research Design

Both psychology and sociology make extensive use of longitudinal research to
examine temporal patterns in human development across multiple years or
generations.

Advantages of Longitudinal Research Design

 Researchers are able to evaluate the consistency and reliability of multiple
characteristics within a sample thanks to the design.
 The setup enables researchers to spot patterns in development by searching
for characteristics that patients have in common, like when most youngsters
go through changes.
 The longitudinal design eliminates the confounding effects of comparing
groups of people from different ages and generations by focusing on a single
cohort over time.
 Scientists can document the aging process in a single person.
 The design incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods, resulting
in a richer investigation.
 The investigator can monitor developments over time. Therefore, questions
pertaining to development and lifespan are best studied using longitudinal
approaches.
 In a population where people tend to have similar DNA, 'environmental
variables' are often blamed for explaining discrepancies that may otherwise
be explained by chance.
 They aid scientists in establishing a timeline for studying aging.

Limitations of Longitudinal Research Design

 The design of a longitudinal study requires a significant time commitment
from participants if the study is to be carried out successfully.
 The same can be said of the researcher. There will be a long wait for findings,
therefore it's important that the researcher keep their enthusiasm up.
 The research strategy is also exceedingly costly to execute because of the
time and effort required to locate and recruit participants.
 The design calls for continuous, long-term training of the research team.
 After ten or twenty years, when the research study is complete, the results
may appear unimportant.

Survey Research
The results of a survey study are a statistically reliable and exhaustive synopsis of
some aspect of a population's makeup, habits, or outlook.

How to Implement and Administer a Survey

Structured interviews, in which the researcher asks predetermined
questions, and self-administered questionnaires, in which respondents
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choose from a variety of response options, including open-ended questions

well-suited to the disclosure of personal or sensitive information and
multiple-choice questions well-suited to the collection of numerical data, are
both common methods for conducting surveys.
How to Design a Survey
When a survey is used as the primary data collection instrument in a study,
its design is crucial. Survey items should be selected with care to ensure they
are understandable, neutral, and relevant to the research questions.
Which Scaling Techniques to Use in Survey Research
 Likert Scale
 Bogardus Social Distance Scale
 Thurstone Scale
 Semantic Differential Scale
 Guttman Scaling
How to Collect Survey Data
 Mail
 Telephone
 Online
 At-home interviews (census surveys)

Advantages of Using Surveys

 Surveys allow collection of a large amount of data in a relatively short
period of time.
 They are less expensive.
 They can be easily and quickly created and administered with ease.
 Surveys can be used to collect information on personal facts, attitudes,
past behaviors and opinions.
Limitations of Using Surveys
 Poor survey construction and administration can jeopardize and
undermine otherwise well-designed studies.
 The answer choices contained in a survey may not be a true and accurate
reflection of participants’ feelings.
 Survey response rates can bias its results.
 Respondent’s reluctance to answer questions asked by unknown
interviewers.

Correlational Research Design

Correlational research attempts to discover or establish a relation with two or more
variables and to make predictions based on this relationship.

Aims:
• It determines the relationship between two or more variables.
• It makes predictions and does not explain the behavior.

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Explanatory Research
When doing research, explanatory researchers seek to gain insight into the nature
and underlying causes of the connections made between their study's independent
and dependent variables.
The exploratory research intends to produce the following insights:
 Close knowledge of and familiarity with basic details, settings, and concerns
 The well-founded scenario of the situation
 Generation of new ideas and assumptions
 Development of tentative theories or hypotheses
 Directions for future research and the techniques

Simulation Research
The term "simulation" is used in the scientific community to describe the procedure
of creating a representation of a real system and then testing alternative operational
techniques on this model.

Researchers undertake simulation for:

• Gaining insight into the operation of a system.
• Developing operating or resource policies to improve system performance.
• Testing new concepts and/or systems before implementation.
• Gaining information without disturbing the actual system.

Strengths
 Simulation research is able to capture complexity without being reduced to a
limited number of discrete variables.
 This research strategy provides a variety of ways of understanding future
behavior.
 Because all research strategies involve the ‘real world’ in some way,
simulation tends to be useful to a variety of other strategies.

Weaknesses
 The project of replicating a slice of the real world is necessarily limiting
(never ‘complete’).
 Simulation research can become very expensive very fast. Often, computer
experiments are used to study simulation models.

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References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals

1. Research Methods in Education, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2018.

Online Supplementary Reading Materials

1. Chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://us.sagepub.com/
sites/default/files/upmbinaries/
57848_Chapter_3_Morgan_Integrating_Qualitative_and_Quantitative_Methods_2.pdf

Online Instructional Videos

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tT_78H5c94

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