Qualitative Research
Research of any kind can be time consuming and tedious, but
even more so when you have a larger area that you are studying and bigger focus
groups. While great information can be found doing quantitative research, it is
not the best way when you want your information to be more in-depth and have a
deeper insight into the area which you are studying. In other words,
quantitative methods are more objective and less in-depth, while qualitative
methods are more about the point of view from those who are, or who have,
experiences in that particular subject.
For example, let’s say that we are doing a qualitative
research and the topic question might be something like, “How much do college
students study?” This is a much broader, more general area of concentration and
the focus would be more on the statistical numbers, data collected in
polls, questionnaires, and surveys.
However, if we were to approach this same subject with a
qualitative research method, we would conduct unstructured, individual, personal
interviews. The interviewer would only discuss a few topics so that more
details would be present and expanded upon.
There would be several small focus groups of about 6 to 10
people who all have something in common with what you which to investigate. The
whole point of the focus group would be to get a feel of the situation and how
the participates feel, what they think, and what their opinions are.
Observations of the subjects in their natural settings would
take place. The point of doing observations in qualitative research is to gain
an understanding of what is really happening and to get a bigger picture of the
situation. This allows the researcher to gain a more reliable understanding of
the situation and information being gathered.
The last part of qualitative research includes action
research. Action research is exactly what the name implies – action. It
involves the researcher becoming actively involved with the framework of ideas,
the methodology being applied, and the area of concern.
So how does all of this information apply to my own personal
experiences and aspirations? Long ago I had the dream of being a corporate
pilot, flying for someone like Oprah, or the CEO of Apple computers, Tim Cook. However, once children came
into the picture, that dream and my plans for the future changed. I knew I
wanted to stay in aviation, but I didn’t know what I could do (and still don’t).
So, I need to do some qualitative research about what I want and need for my
career. I have conducted small interviews of people in other fields of aviation
and even interviews with the people who know me best. I have had focus groups
(Embry-Riddle classes) where I have been able to listen to other people talk
about what their plans are and what area of aviation they are going into, and
how they are going about it. I have observed those people and others in the careers that the focus group said they were going into. And last,
and most importantly, I have done major self-study. I have asked myself questions
like, “What is my purpose?” and “What will I do with my findings?”
I have not come to a conclusion at this point. The research
is still taking place.
Reference:
University of Surrey. (n.d.). Module 9 : Introduction to
Research. Retrieved February 19, 2016, from
http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction to Research and Managing
Information Leicester/page_58.htm
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