KINDS OF QUANTITATIVE

RESEARCH
Figure 1. Decision tree matching research design to category of research
questions.

Is there a
treatment?

Is the primary Is the treatment

purpose tightly controlled by
examination of the researcher?
relationships?

Quasi – Will a randomly

Will the sampling be experimental design assigned or selected
Descriptive Design control group be
studied as a single (situation-relating)
(Factor-isolating) group? used?

Correlational design Experimental design

(Factor-relating) (situation-
producing)
Main Types of Quantitative Designs

 Descriptive research
 Correlational research
 Quasi-experimental
 experimental
Descriptive research

A study designed to depict the

participants in an accurate way. More
simply put, descriptive research is all
about describing people who take part
in the study
Ways a researcher can go about doing a
descriptive research project, and they are:

 Observational, defined as a method of viewing

and recording the participants
 Case study, defined as an in-depth study of an
individual or group of individual
 Survey, defined as a brief interview or discussion
with an individual about specific topic
Examples:

 Head of a school wants to know about parents’

attitudes toward the science curriculum
 Number of children of various age in the district
(for future planning)
 How much time are schools spending on different
curriculum areas (reading, writing, science, social
studies, art, etc.)
Correlational study

A quantitative method of researcher in which

you have 2 or more quantitative variables from the
same group of subjects, & you are trying to
determine if there is relationship (or covariation)
between the 2 variables (a similarity between them,
not a difference between their means).
Correlational study

Theoretically, any 2 quantitative variables can

be correlated (for example, midterm scores &
number of body piercing) as long as you have scores
on these variables & analyze data when there is
little reason to think these two variables would be
related to each other.
Examples of correlational study

Marriage and cancer recovery

Internet usage and depression
Occupation and longevity
 Quasi-experimental
Design involves selecting groups, upon which a variable is
tested, without any random pre-selection processes.
For example, to perform an educational experiment, a class
might be arbitrarily divided by alphabetical selection or by
seating arrangement. The division is often convenient and,
especially in an educational situation, causes as little disruption
as possible.
After this selection, the experiment proceeds in a variety in
a very similar way to any other experiment, with a variable
being compared between different groups, or over a period of
time.
Example of Quasi-experimental study

The effects of GIS on students’

attitudes, self efficacy, and
achievement in STE classrooms
 Experimental research
Commonly used in sciences such as sociology and
psychology, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine etc. it is
a collection of research designs which use manipulation and
controlled testing to understand causal processes. Generally,
one or more variables are manipulated to determine their
effect on a dependent variable.
The experimental method is a systematic and scientific
approach to research in which the researcher manipulates one
or more variables, and controls and measures any change in
other variables.
 Experimental research

The word experimental research has a range of definitions.

In the strict sense, experimental research is what we call a
true experiment. This is an experiment where the researcher
manipulates one variable, and control/randomizes the rest of
the variables. It has a control group, the subjects have been
randomly assigned between the groups, and the researcher
only tests one effect at a time. It is also important to know
what variable(s) you want to test and measure.