Building Research Skills

Determining Whether to Use a Qualitative or Quantitative Approach

Objectives:

1. To determine if a researcher should use a qualitative or quantitative approach to study the research problem outlined in the scenario.
2. To be able to locate words within the scenario that indicate whether a qualitative or quantitative research approach should be used.
3. To be able to suggest quantitative or qualitative methods that could be used to study the research problem outlined in the scenario.

   Directions:
   Each of the scenarios below describes a problem that the researcher wishes to study. For each scenario, decide whether the researcher should use a qualitative or quantitative approach and why. Also, specify what data a researcher should collect.
   
   

   • Scenario 1
     
     
   • Scenario 2
     
     
   • Scenario 3
     
     
   • Scenario 4
     
     
   • Scenario 5
     
     
   
   
   
   

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