Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data Analysis: DRP Surveys
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data Analysis: DRP Surveys
Quantitative
Data Analysis
DRP Surveys
QUALitative Example 1
I have collected my data through one-onone interviews using these questions:
1. What is the connection between your
homework grades and the hours of sleep you
get each night?
2. If the number of hours of homework were
limited each night for middle school students,
what effect would that have on your grades?
3. If the number of hours of homework were
limited each night for middle school students,
what effect would that have on the amount of
sleep you get each night?
QUALitative Example 1,
continued
Because I am a 6th grader, I would
ask 15 people those same questions
and I would read their responses. It is
very important that the questions
require more than a yes or no
response.
Using the responses I receive to the
questions, I will pull out the recurring
themes and ideas and use those to
draw my conclusions.
QUALitative Example 2
I have collected my data through these
questions with these limited responses:
1. Do you believe there is a correlation between
hours of sleep and homework grades for middle
school students?
Strong correlation Weak correlation
No correlation
QUALitative Example 2,
continued
I would assign a value to each response like
this:
1. Do you believe there is a correlation between
hours of sleep and homework grades for middle
school students?
Strong correlation (3) Weak correlation (2) No correlation
(1)
QUALitative Example 2,
continued
Once Ive given the survey to at least 15 people, I
calculate the mean, median, mode, and range for
each question and then interpret what that means
for my research.
Ex: For question 1 of this survey, there was a mean
response of 2.5, which means that on average, the
people I surveyed believe that there is a definite
correlation between hours of sleep and homework
grades. The range in the responses will most likely
be 2 (3-1), so the range is not necessarily a helpful
statistic in this research.
QUANtitative Example
I have collected my data using the
following research questions with
open-ended numerical responses:
1. How many hours of sleep do you get
each night?
2. How many hours of homework do you
have most nights?
3. What grade do you usually make on
your homework assingments?
QUANtitative Example,
continued
With these questions, participants are allowed to
write down whatever numerical response they
want.
Therefore, my data is going to be more varied than
in the last example.
I can use the data for each question to calculate
the mean, median, mode and range and can
interpret the relationship between the two in a
perhaps more accurate way.
It may also be necessary for me to create a graph
of my data showing the results of my survey.
QUANtitative Example,
continued
Homework Grades Compared to Hours of Sleep Each Night
120
100
80
Homework Grades
60
40
20
0
10
12