Fundamental Pedagogy Jana Doležalová

14.2 Approach to Educational Phenomena
In educational research, it is also important to specify in the approach to 
educational phenomena whether the quantitative or qualitative approach should 
prevail.
* Quantitative research is an approach requiring facts (so-called hard 
data) exploring the frequency, degree of occurrence of a certain 
phenomenon, etc. It is rather analytical in nature. It seeks to clarify 
causality and predict consequences. 
* Qualitative research seeks to capture the level of educational 
activities, relations and situations and their holistic picture. It is rather 
synthetic in nature. It seeks to interpret and understand the problem 
under study. 
14.3 Methods of Educational Research (Data Collection)
There is a range of tools for how to draw specific conclusions and collect the 
necessary data. These tools (methods) of acquiring the required information 
may be categorised by the overall nature of research as follows:
a) quantitative methods 

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Quantitative methods (as is apparent from their designation) are based on the 
numerical data; they establish the amount, extent, frequency or degree of a 
given phenomenon. Their advantages include the relatively easy mathematical 
treatment of the data collected this way. However, the problem of quantitative 
research is that is requires exact definition of variables, emphasises their strict 
and accurate measurement and analysis of causes of the respective relations.
Emphasis is placed on the determination of a sample set (sample of 
respondents) which must be described in detail (especially with regard to any 
comparisons and possibilities to use them in longitudinal research), and the 
researcher must also choose the procedure for the selection of specific 
respondents. All of this then enables statistical processing of the data.