During this
week´s theme I have been forced to really look at the limitations and
advantages of the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods. I liked
this theme mainly because I think the discussion about when to use qualitative
vs. quantitative methods, is going to be useful in future situations for me,
for example when writing my master thesis next semester.
This week´s
seminar had a different structure, which I liked. The group was divided into
five smaller groups and the discussion about qualitative and quantitative
methods was based on a game. During the seminar Olle Bältner gave us a lot of
good tips and the class discussion was also very good. Some of the things I
leaned were to always use an uneven amount of options when conducting a survey,
letting the participants to choose a neutral answer and to always test the
survey before handing it out to participants.
Altogether,
I think I did got a more positive attitude towards quantitative methods after
experienced this week´s theme. I see now that there are a lot of benefits with
conducting a quantitative research method than I did before. Why I earlier had
a more positive attitude towards qualitative methods can be that I have used interviews,
tests and focus groups a lot before in different school related projects and
always felt that it is not as serious and reliable to make a quick survey for
example. But after getting Olle´s tips I see that when putting a lot of effort
into doing a great survey, you will get a lot of good results.
Hi Charlotte,
SvaraRaderaI also learned this week that a questionnaire is supposed to have an uneven number of options. I always thought that an uneven number is not preferable due to the fact that a lot of people will choose the middle one and therefore not “have an opinion”. But in a way it makes sense that that will upset a lot of people that don’t really have a opinion in the matter. But on the other hand it might be difficult to draw conclusions if the majority of the respondents choose the middle one.
Keep up the good work!
Sofia
Hey Charlotte!
SvaraRaderaI also thought this theme was an advantage for my upcoming master thesis. Your seminar group must have been much larger than ours, because we were only divided into three groups that competed against each other. I liked Olles seminar because you got a variety from the regular seminars we usually have. I also learned to use an uneven number of choices when constructing a survey so the particiapants can be neutral to the question if they do not have a concrete opinion. And if so, the study could come out wrong if you "force" the participants to have an opinion about something. I'm glad the seminar gave you a more positive attitude to quantitative methods. In one way, as you said, qualitative studies feel more secure, but on the other hand, it depends on what you shall examine and regarding to that, a quantitative study can give you just as secure and reliable data as a qualitative study can :)
Great reflection!
/Hannah