RESEARCH AND PARADIGM, APPROACHES, METHODS (STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES)

Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue. Research is important for three reasons:
1. Research adds to our knowledge. Adding to knowledge means that educators undertake research to contribute to existing information about issues.
2. Research improves practice. Research offers practicing educators new ideas to consider as they go about their job. Research also helps practitioners evaluate approaches that they hope will work with individuals in educational settings.
3. Research informs policy debates. Research also provides information to policy makers when they research and debate educational topics.
  Research Approach Research approaches are plans and the procedures for research that span the steps from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. three research approaches are advanced: (a) qualitative, (b) quantitative, and (c) mixed methods. 
• Qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. The process of research involves emerging questions and procedures, data typically collected in the participant’s setting, data analysis inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the researcher making interpretations of the meaning of the data. The final written report has a flexible structure. Those who engage in this form of inquiry support a way of looking at research that honors an inductive style, a focus on individual meaning, and the importance of rendering the complexity of a situation. 
• Quantitative research is an approach for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured, typically on instruments, so that numbered data can be analyzed using statistical procedures. The final written report has a set structure consisting of introduction, literature and theory, methods, results, and discussion. Like qualitative researchers, those who engage in this form of inquiry have assumptions about testing theories deductively, building in protections against bias, controlling for alternative explanations, and being able to generalize and replicate the findings. 
• Mixed methods research is an approach to inquiry involving collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, integrating the two forms of data, and using distinct designs that may involve philosophical assumptions and theoretical frameworks. The core assumption of this form of inquiry is that the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches provides a more complete understanding of a research problem than either approach alone.

Tend to or Typically..	Qualitative Approach	Quantitative Approach	Mixed Methods Approach
·   Use these philosophical assumption ·   Employ these strategies of enquiry	·    Constructivist/transformative knowledge claims ·    Phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, case study, and narrative	·      Post positivist knowledge claims ·      Surveys and experiments	·    Pragmatic knowledge claims ·    Sequential, concurrent, and transformative
·   Employ these methods	·    Open-ended questions, emerging approaches, test or image data	·       Closed-ended questions, predetermined approaches, numeric data	·      Both open- and closed-ended questions, both emerging and predetermined approaches, and both quantitative and qualitative data and analysis
·   Use these practices of research as the researcher	·     Positions him- or herself ·     Collects participant meanings ·     Focuses on a single concept or phenomenon ·     Brings personal values into the study ·     Studies the context or setting of participants ·     Validates the accuracy of findings ·     Makes interpretations of the data ·     Creates an agenda for change or reform ·     Collaborates with participants	·     Tests or verifies theories explanations ·     Identifies variables to study ·     Relates variables in questions or hypotheses ·     Uses standards of validity and reliability ·     Observes and measures information numerically ·     Uses unbiased approaches ·     Employs statistical procedures	·      Collects both quantitative and qualitative data ·      Develops a rationale for mixing ·      Integrates the data at different stages of inquiry ·      Presents visual pictures of the procedures in the study ·      Employs the practices of both qualitative and quantitative research

Research Method

Quantitative Methods	Mixed Methods	Qualitative Methods
Pre-determined	Both predetermined and emerging methods	Emerging methods
Instrument based questions	Both open- and closed-ended questions	Open-ended questions
Performance data, attitude data, observational data, and census data	Multiple forms of data drawing on all possibilities	Interview data, observation data, document data, and audiovisual data
Statistical analysis	Statistical and text analysis	Text and image analysis
Statistical interpretation	Across databases interpretation	Themes, patterns interpretation

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