Qualitative research designs

Chapter 7 Qualitative Research Designs in Chemistry Education Research Stacey Lowery Bretz... 

Which methodologies are more powerful Should I develop a quantitative research design or a qualitative design These are questions that typify an age-old debate in education research. Both quantitative and qualitative research designs have strengths. Both have limitations. Consider these representative questions that could serve as the thesis of a research study or a research proposal ... 

In keeping with Heisenberg s findings, qualitative research designs operate from the premise that it is impossible to separate the inquirer from the subject of the inquiry because the two interact to influence one another knower and known are inseparable (7). This interaction is, in fact, valued in qualitative research due to the multiple realities and meanings likely to be encountered by the human, who is uniquely capable of functioning as a research instrument in interviews and observations. 

The most common methods of data collection in qualitative research designs are interviews, observations, and document analysis. 

The third most common method for collecting data in qualitative research designs is known as document analysis. While the thoughts, words, and actions of research subjects are essential, generating thick description requires a complete description of the context in which these dioughts and words are formed and actions take place. Course syllabi, copies of lab experiments, copies of student evaluation forms, and copies of research proposals are typical examples of documents gathered to analyze in a qualitative research design. 

Just as chemists make regular entries in their lab notebooks about procedures, data, and emerging hypotheses, so too do qualitative researchers. Qualitative research designs rely heavily on accurate and methodical recordkeeping. Fieldnotes are created for each data collection opportunity and typically include the following (21) ... 

Qualitative research designs rarely stipulate a researchable hypothesis because of the value placed upon understanding the experiences of the research subjects and the meanings they attributed to their experiences. Qualitative research has a reputation as soft-science or that it lacks grounding in a theoretical framework. This common misconception leads to the perception that qualitative research designs are theory-free. ... 

Although the specific methods of analysis vary somewhat amongst die different qualitative traditions, most qualitative research designs include the concepts of coding data and inductive data analysis to develop categories. For example, after interviews are transcribed verbatim, text is segmented into phrases or sentences and given a code that labels the main idea of this chunk of text. 

Bretz, S. L. Qualitative Research Designs in Chemistiy Education Research. In Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research, Bunce, D. M., Cole, R., Eds. American Chemical Society Washington, DC, 2007. 

Janesick, V.J. (1994). The dance of qualitative research design, hi N.K. Denzin Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research Design (pp.209-219). Thousand Oaks, CA Sage. 

For economic outcomes, we can use pharmacoecon-omy as the main tool. " There is a great variety of clinical indicators that we can relate to drugs efficacy and safety. These clinical indicators, obtained with designs from clinical epidemiology (observational and experimental),are excellent to measure clinical outcomes. To obtain indicators for humanistic outcomes, such as satisfaction and quality of life, we have different tools, such as surveys, and different qualitative research methods (interviews, focus groups, etc.). " ... 

Empirical evaluation methods involve actual or designated users. The methods can be relatively informal, such as observing people while they explore a prototype, or they can be quite formal and systematic, such as a tightly controlled laboratory study of performance times and errors or a comprehensive survey of many users [941, 943]. Independent of this differentiation, in general, qualitative and quantitative methods of both data collection and data analysis can be distinguished. While quantitative research focuses on how to operationalize or quantify the attributes to be measured, qualitative research interprets verbal or non-numerical data [563]. 

It is important that antimicrobial products be evaluated for efficacy. There are a number of ways to perform these evaluations using quantitative research designs and statistical models. It is also vital that investigators be familiar with a selection of qualitative designs. This will prevent the researcher who has only one tool— a hammer—from viewing everything as a nail. 

Creswell, J. W. Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches, 2nd ed. SAGE Thousand Oaks, CA 2003. 

Dependability concerns the quality of the inquiry process while confirmability addresses the quality of the inquiry product, i.e., the data, interpretations and recommendations. A common mechanism to address both of these trustworthiness criteria is to employ a qualitative data audit in the research design. An audit trail can simultaneously address both the dependability and the confirmability of a research study. A dependability audit reviews the methodological decisions made in the inquiry, while the confirmability audit examines the findings of the inquiry to confirm that the researcher s interpretations are grounded in both the theoretical framework and in the data collected. 

Marshall, C. Rossman, G. B. Designing Qualitative Research. Newbury Park, CA Sage. 1989. 

Creswell, J.W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design Choosing from among Five Traditions. Sage Publications Thousand Oaks, 1998. 

Figure 2. The sequential exploratory design strategy (Creswell, d W. Research Design, Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches 2nd ed. p. 213, copyright 2003 by Sage Publications, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Sage Publications, Inc.).

The strength of this research design is that it allows researchers to elaborate, enhance, or clarify the understanding of the quantitative outcomes. For example, if the quantitative results are surprising, then the qualitative study can further examine these results from a different perspective. In the Staver and Lumpe study it allowed the researchers to clarify and explain the students reasoning, which was guided by a robust misconception (7). 

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