Statistics in Educational Research

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the qualitative versus quantitative issue in educational research. The paper describes the four main purposes to using statistics in educational research. The paper also looks at four types of descriptive statistics and at inferential statistics. The paper addresses the counterbalancing of data.

From the Paper:

"Where educational research is concerned, the qualitative versus quantitative issue likely plagues every study that has ever been done, regardless of whether it is qualitative or quantitative in nature, because there are concerns about how each study was carried out. This is largely due to the fact that there are always various arguments and differing opinions as to which one method is better for which type of study. Since most educational studies focus on the qualitative side of things, they do not address statistical figures as much as they would if they were quantitative. Some will see this as a problem with these types of studies, and will want hard and fast data that they can analyze."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Creswell, J. W. (2001) Educational research: Planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. OH: Merrill/Prentice-Hall.
• Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative approaches. Sage Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks: CA.
• Fink, A. (1998). Conducting research literature reviews. New York: Sage Publications

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