Formulating a Research Question

The terms and concepts that I’m most familiar with regarding research seem to stem from the quantitative approach—statistics, cause and effect, control groups, etc. I’m not exactly sure why this is because healthcare and education (the two fields that apply to me) both utilize qualitative as well as quantitative research.

In preparing for the next assignment in LRNT 502, I came across a resource that I found helpful in differentiating between research questions from the two different approaches. In quantitative research, the researcher poses a research question, a hypotheses or an objective to provide a focus for the research (Creswell, 2008). This is the method that I would describe if I had to explain the research process. I didn’t realize that the qualitative approach to research was different. In qualitative research, there are only research questions, no hypotheses or objectives. The research stems from one or two broad questions, referred to as central questions, and then five to seven subquestions for each central question provide the focus for qualitative research. In quantitative research, the research question or hypotheses is fixed, whereas in qualitative research, the questions are not static; they are guidelines and expected to change as the research evolves. Qualitative research questions often begin with how or what and uses exploratory verbs such as discover, explore, and describe the experience in order to present “an open and emerging design” (Creswell, 2008, p. 130).

Resources:

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Research question and hypotheses. In Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches. (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/22782_Chapter_7.pdf