I had already used both quantitative and qualitative methods before beginning this course, most recently when I did my bachelor thesis and I thought I had a pretty good grip on it. I was not wrong, but this week has taught me that there is so much more to think about and learn.
I managed to catch both seminars, and it was very rewarding. Olle Bälter’s seminar in particular helped me really think of which situations different methods should be used, and what advantages quantitative methods has over qualitative and vice versa. A lot of these thing weren’t really news, but other things had escaped me, for example: it is hard to say whether online surveys or paper based has the most climate influence, that quantitative methods may be easier to pilot test etc..
I also found the mapping we did in Stefan Hrastinski’s seminar very difficult. I had never really looked at a paper in that way, extracting variables and visibly mapping out connections, but it could be a good way to really understand a certain study.
Maybe the biggest thing I take away from this week is that quantitative and qualitative methods are best used as complements to each other, and while I’ve already used and talked both types of methods, there is so much science behind the selection of methods and so much I’ve yet to learn.
Hej. It's good to hear that even someone with some research experience found the method-mapping exercise difficult.
SvaraRaderaWhen I did my bachelors thesis, we didn't actually do so much research but we developed a proof-of-concept involving micro controllers, electronics and low-level programming. It was a more hands-on project than many other bachelor´s and master´s theses.
It's great that you also draw the conclusion that quantitative and qualitative research complement each other. Maybe the question we still have in front of us, how exactly, and in which order? As qualitative research explores something,
quantitative research can confirm it. But I would imagine that in some cases it would be suitable to again do another qualitative research. Perhaps it's a matter of scope for each research paper, one can only do so much in a limited amount of time.
Hi Jakob! I totally agree with your conclusion that quantitative and qualitative methods are best used as complements to each other. I think that qualitative research can both provide information for quantitative research and explain its findings. And of course it is necessary to use quantitative methods to prove findings from interviews or focus groups.
SvaraRadera