Critique on Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research 
--Based on Their Application to Education Research
Li Zhiping   1904440
Abstract: It is a recurrent theme in academic circle whether quantitative research or qualitative research is more superior. This study aims to clarify their connections and differences by making a comparison between them, to help the readers to gain a deeper understanding of their advantages and limitations. This study also traces back the history of their application in education research to further illustrate their own properties. The conclusion is that the two research paradigms are mutually connected and supplementary, not antithetic and repulsive. 
Key words: quantitative research, qualitative research, advantages, limitations, supplementary
I.	Introduction
Since the late 19th century, quantitative research as an important manifestation form of positivism has been applied in different research fields, gradually occupying a dominant position in social science research. By the middle of the 1960s, the people came to recognize that quantitative research alone is not sufficient to explain complicated social phenomena the research of which also need resort to other research paradigms and tools, and thus qualitative research began to draw more and more attention of scholars. There emerged the increasing number of academic works on social studies by qualitative research method. Many scholars carried out much discussion and even heated debates around the questions how they connect with each other and which one of them is more superior. 
1.1 Research Background
Many Scholars, whether western or Chinese, have conducted research on qualitative research or quantitative research from different perspectives. Corrine Glesne and Alan Peshkin (1992) give a brief but comprehensive overview of qualitative research, starting from the theoretical basis of Interpretivism, and clarify some debates that keep qualitative inquiry vibrant. David Silverman (1993) insists on the relevance of credibility to qualitative research, thinking that generalizability shouldn’t be a problem in qualitative case studies. Yang Da (2009) explains the theoretical origins of quantitative research of sociology and judges the effects of quantitative analysis results from eight aspects, aiming to establishing academic standards. Martyn Hammersley and Anna Traianou (2012) focus on ethical issues of qualitative research, discuss about the question how researchers should treat the observables in the research project. Qiu Zhongxia and Hu Wei (2016) point out current problems existing in sociology quantitative research methods in China, suggesting the necessity of improving professionalization and standardization in quantitative research. 
Since qualitative research and quantitative research are two study paradigms of different natures but with certain relations, some sociologists tend to make a comparison between them. John W. Creswell (2003) works out a framework, a process, and compositional approaches respectively for designing qualitative research, quantitative research, and mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative research in the human and social science. Yang Hua (2001) defines quantitative research and qualitative research from the perspective of philosophy and advocates that these two research methods should be combined so that they can supplement each other. Keith F Punch (2013) scrutinizes the entire research process with a new viewpoint, by focusing on matching research questions to qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. W. Lawrence Neuman (2014) analyzes the differences between qualitative research and quantitative research from the perspectives of concept, measures, design procedures, and analysis techniques, etc. Chris Barnham (2015) recognizes that the way of distinguishing the two methodologies is rooted in our quantitatively determined beliefs about human experience. Barnham also outlines a new platform which can help the readers to understand the distinctions between quantitative research and qualitative research and which connects qualitative research with semiotics. 
1.2	Purpose of Research
There has been a tendency in sociology research for a long time that quantitative research is over-emphasized and qualitative research is marginalized. The effectiveness of qualitative research method was questioned by many sociology researchers, partly because that qualitative research is remarkably complicated and diverse by itself, and partly because many researchers’ understandings of qualitative research are not so deep as that of quantitative research. This paper aims to offer a relatively clear definitions to these two research methods and clarify their connections and differences by making comparisons between them, so that we can reach a more in-depth understanding of them and obtain an accurate mastery of their respective merits and limitations. Only by combination of two methods, their advantages can be utilized to the greatest extent in the research of the nature science and the humanities. 
1.3 Structure of the Paper
There are four questions to be posed in this paper: (i) what analysis methods are covered in qualitative research and quantitative research? (ii) what relations are there between them? (iii) what advantages and disadvantages do they have respectively? (iv) how can they be applied in pedagogy research? To answer these questions, this paper will include four parts: introduction, expounding of quantitative research and qualitative Research, critique about quantitative research and qualitive research, and conclusion. 
II.	Expounding of Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research is a process of finding out social rules and their relations by measurement of social facts to explain the reasons for social changes and thus guide social practice. Qualitative Research is a kind of exploratory process. Through it, people can understand underlying ideas, reasons, perceptions, beliefs and motivations. This chapter will first elaborate the two concepts and their applicable techniques, and then interpret their connections and differences. 
2.1 Quantitative Research
Quantitative Research is a result of long-time exploration towards scientific ideas and methods. It takes Theories of the Middle Range as its construction direction, earning an importance place in positivist research. With the application and popularization of computer, the measurement designs and computational technologies have been improved strikingly and thus quantitative research has been applied in social science more and more widely. 
2.1.1 Definition 
Quantitative research is a kind of analysis of the quantity of something. “Quantity” refers to scale, degree and speed at which something exists and develops, as well as other properties which can be shown by number or figure. Quantitative research can be defined as a process of gathering observable and effective data to answer a research question by applying comprehensive techniques of statistical, computational, or mathematical areas. In quantitative research, the researchers presuppose hypotheses and various variables with cause-effect relations, and then measure and analyze these variables by using tested tools to verify the hypotheses.
2.1.2 Methods Applied for Quantitative Research
In quantitative research, the researchers usually explain social phenomena by data and presuppose theories by deduction. They collect data and evidence to appraise and verify the pre-established models, hypotheses and theories. In early stage, the methods applied for quantitative research include observation, experiment, comparison, sampling, case study, interview, investigation, statistics. By the 1940s, the researchers started to introduce quantitative analysis methods of operations research, cybernetic theory, systems engineering, system analysis, cost-benefit analysis，and computer simulation, etc. To be specific, they include regression analysis method, time series analysis method, analytic hierarchy process, optimization method,  decision-making method, and The input-output analysis method, etc. 
2.2	Qualitative Research
Originated in the 19th century, qualitative research began to develop with the occurrence of social survey movement in the 1930s, and gain a more wide recognition in the 1960s with the emergence of anthropology. 
2.2.1 Definition
Qualitative research is a kind of analysis on the quality of the research object. “Quality” refers to inherent properties which can distinguish one thing to another. Qualitative research can be defined as a process of naturalistic inquiry to pursue profound understanding of social phenomena within their natural setting, by relying on the direct experiences of human beings as meaning-making agents in their daily life. According to Wang Jiayi (1995:69）defines qualitative research from pedagogy research as “research method to understand and uncover educational and teaching phenomena and their internal significance by data collection in a natural setting, interpretation and empathy. 
2.2.2 Methods Applied for Qualitative Research
In qualitative research, the researchers take themselves as the research tool, and they understand and explain the actions and their significance of research objects, by their own insight, and through interaction with the research objects. The researchers usually conduct a deep, meticulous and  long-term study by using the methods such as field experience, open interview, participant or non-participant observation, literature analysis, and case study, etc. in a natural setting. The researchers analyze the collected data mainly by the method of induction, and thus uncover the nature of a certain action. According to Handbook of Qualitative Research (1994), there are mainly eight categories of research strategies: (i) case study; (ii) ethnography, participant observation, performance ethnography; (iii) phenomenology, ethnomethodology; (iv) grounded theory; (v) life histories and evidence science; (vi)； historical approaches; (vii) action research and applied research; (viii) clinical research. American scholar W. Lawrence Neuman (2014) introduces several methods of qualitative research, such as survey, field research, ethnography, ethnomethodology and focus group research, etc. 
2.3 Comparison between Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research and qualitative research run through the process of social science study. They are connected in some ways and different at the same time. We can make a comparison between them in order to clarify their relations, and thus gain a deeper understanding of them. 
2.3.1 Connections
Both quantitative research and qualitative research belong to the commonly used study paradigms for social science, inevitably with some similarities. “Both approaches use multiple research techniques (e.g., survey, interview, ethnography) to gather and analyze empirical data. Despite some real differences between quantitative and qualitative research, they overlap a great deal”. (W. Lawrence Neuman, 2014: 16) Qualitative research is a basis perquisite of quantitative research which in turn further deepens qualitive research. A research project tends to start and end with qualitative research. Without reasonable and in-depth qualitative analysis, it is difficult to draw a scientific and significant conclusion from quantitative research. In light of such connection between quantitative research and qualitative research, Yang Hua proposes a regression pattern of “qualitative analysis--quantitative analysis--qualitative analysis”: the first qualitative analysis is to make a preliminary analysis of the research object to facilitate preposition of hypotheses; the second qualitative analysis is a higher-level analysis based on quantitative research, with a view to make a conclusion. (2001: 220)
2.3.2 Differences
The quantitative research can be regarded as an exploration of a series of ‘what?’ questions. In contrast, qualitative research is almost universally associated with ‘why?’ questions. “The way in which quantitative research and qualitative research are conventionally contrasted with each other runs along familiar lines--the former is seen as offering ‘hard’, ‘factual’data, while the latter is depicted as softer, as providing deeper insight, but at the expense of being necessarily more ‘interpretivist’ and ‘subjective’ in its approach.” (Chris Barnham: 2015:837). In a quantitative study, the researchers may rely more on positivist principles and use a language of variables and hypotheses, and they advocate a value-free position, while in a qualitative study, the researchers more often depend on the principles from interpretive or critical social science. Besides, quantitative research aims at explanation of social phenomena in an overall perspective while qualitative research aims to determine the logic relations and their effects. These two research methods are also manifested in different forms. Quantitative research emphasizes research procedures and predesign, expounding statistic results by data, illustrations and measurements, etc. Qualitative research is mainly narrative expression with written characters. 
III．Critique about Quantitative Research and Qualitive Research 
Any research paradigm has its advantages and disadvantages. There is no exception to quantitative research and qualitative research. Only by an appropriate understanding of their own merits and limitations, we can take advantage of them better to promote the development of social science research. 
3.1 Strengths and Limitations of Quantitative Research
Quantitative research has its distinct advantages in the research process because of the use of statistical analysis and hard numbers, but at the meanwhile, it is limited by neglect or rejection of the nature of human being’s experience, motivations and emotions which can be quantified by numbers.   
3.1.1 Strengths
Quantitative Research has noticeable advantages in data, procedures, results, technologies and applicability.  
(i) Collected data is objective 
Since the collected data is depicted with mathematical language, it helps the researchers to judge in a more straightforward way which data are appropriate to use. It can also help them to make deep comparison, classification, analysis and interpretation of the statistical data more accurately and objectively to prove their hypotheses and theories. 
(ii) Experimental procedures are standardized
Quantitative research requires careful experimental designs. Since a set of standardized procedures has been established for quantitative research, it is convenient for the researchers to design and follow their experimental procedures and for other researchers to replicate and test the experiment results. This makes the procedures, collected data and results more reliable and less open to argument.
(iii) Results are scientific and convincing 
Quantitative Research involves statistics and mathematic analysis which can improve standardization and precision of social science study. It requires rigorous logical reasoning to statistic data, so the results of data analysis can uncover better the complicated relations among various factors involved and development rules in human society. It is widely believed that the results obtained by quantitative research are more scientific, convincing and valuable. 
(iv) Theoretical and technological support are relatively complete
Quantitative research has been developed to a relatively mature research method by nowadays. With the advancement of computer science, mathematics, statistics and probability, it has obtained more support in modern technologies and equipment of software and hardware. 
(v) Applicability is wide 
Since quantitative research focuses on exploration of overall, macroscopic and universal issues, it can be applied widely in research of various natural and social phenomenon, especially in the occasions where data collection is relatively easy, or relations among variables need to be probed into, or large-scale survey at a macro level needs to be conducted. 
3.1.2 Limitations
We have understood many advantages of quantitative research, but at the same time we must recognize its deficiencies in the research of complicated social phenomena.
(i)	It is not enough to explain human subjective feelings
The research objects of social science not only cover objective facts, but also include human’s psychological activities. Quantitative research has limitations in the research of complicated psychological condition, such as human’s feelings, attitudes, life values, motivations, and creation wisdom, because these factors cannot be quantified and explained simply with mathematic language. Sometimes, a statistic survey only leads to a superficial information, instead of a profound knowledge about nature of human society. Quantitative research is more applicable to research of natural phenomena than to Humanistic phenomena. Only by mixing with qualitative research, quantitative research can interpret clearly the unique nature and characteristics of human actions and psychological state.
(ii) The research results may be misleading
It is generally assumed that because quantitative research is based on statistics, it is more credible or scientific than qualitative research. However, the research results may be subjective and misleading if a certain variable is not controlled appropriately. The opinions and biases that a researcher holds may impact more or less quantitative approaches to information gathering. The impact of this kind may also occur earlier in the process of quantitative research than it does in the process of qualitative research. For instance, before a researcher conducts quantitative research, his or her individual value orientation may be carried, intentionally or unintentionally, into the process of posing research questions, establishing hypotheses and sampling social facts, because the researcher is also a participant of the social setting. Therefore, it is practically impossible to isolate a researcher’s subjective ideas from the research. 
(iii) The process control is extremely strict
When a quantitative research is conducted, the researchers need to develop carefully a hypothesis and set up a reliable model to collect and analyze data. Any error in setting up of such a model, a bias on the part of the researchers, negligence or mistake in execution can impact or even invalidate all results. Therefore, the whole process needs to be controlled strictly.
3.2	Strengths and Limitations of Qualitative Research 
Qualitative research develops from reflections and critiques about quantitative research, with some advantages not found in quantitative research, but of course, it also has some obvious shortcomings of which the most prominent is sample bias since the tool adopted in qualitative research is just the researchers themselves.
3.2.1	Strengths
Qualitative research has some advantages in research approaches, setting, observability, the researcher’s creativity space, which can make up deficiencies of quantitative research. 
(i) Approaches are flexible and adjustable
Qualitative Research can provide much more flexible approaches which are not bound by the limitations of quantitative methods. If useful insights are not being captured researchers can quickly adapt questions, change the setting or any other variable to improve responses. Even though the responses are not consistent with the researcher’s expectation, they may be equally useful to explain something which numbers alone cannot reveal.
(ii) Research setting is natural and authentic
Qualitative research usually proceeds in a natural setting, with little artificial control, so it can capture subtle psychological activities and changing attitudes of the target group. Qualitative data capture allows researchers to be far more speculative about what areas they choose to investigate and how to do so. It allows data capture to be prompted by a researcher’s intuition for where good information will be found. 
(iii) Research objects are convenient for observation
Participant observation is a commonly used method for qualitative research. One advantage lies in the convenience for a researcher to observe closely the action motivation, attitude, effort degree, decision-making basis of the target group to be observed. Another advantage lies in that as a participant of a particular social setting, the researcher can get more immediate experience and comprehensive understanding of a certain human action. At the meanwhile, qualitative research also emphasizes the individual feelings and ideas of all participants rather than the researcher, which facilitates the researchers to obtain more diverse and all-round data about social phenomena and then sublime these data to abstract theory through induction. 
(iv) The researchers have greater space for interpretation
Qualitative research is based on interpretivism which does not focus on objective judgment norms, so the researchers have much greater freedom to exert their subjectivity and creativity in explaining social phenomena. In this sense, qualitative research is more advantageous to explain diversity of human behaviors.    
3.2.2	Limitations 
In qualitative research, the conclusion may be limited by subjective arbitrariness, since it is based on the data obtained from the researcher object’s free expression and subjective inference and interpretation by the researchers themselves. In consideration of these factors, qualitative research has inevitably some problems as below:
(i) Research sample may be not representative enough
In qualitative research, the researchers can only select a relatively small size of samples from a limited number of objects or cases for realistic restrictions, such as the convenience of obtaining data and subjective tendency of the researchers themselves. The researchers tend to select those research objects with easier access, because of such a practice can reduce research difficulty and save time and cost. However, these objects may be unable to represent the overall characteristic. For instance, a teacher who intends to conduct a research into the study motivation of English major students in a city may select the classes he or she teaches as the research objects. Tis raises the question of whether sampling will provide a true reflection of the views of the students from other classes or other universities? Besides, the researchers may select subconsciously some research objects more favorable to prove anticipated outcome. This subject tendency is likely to impact the authenticity of the research. As a result, it is unavoidable that people may question about representativeness of the first-hand data collected by the researchers and further about the universality and credibility of the conclusion drawn according to these data.
(ii) Inference process and results are certain to some extent
Qualitative research focus on the information, such as nature and property, which cannot be quantified, so it is difficult for the researchers to provide explicit and strong evidence to prove the cause-effect relation between phenomenon and nature. The inference process in qualitative research is to a great extent relies on the researchers’ experience, capability, inspiration, etc. The researchers’ skills in asking questions also impact the validity of inference results. On one hand, the researchers can only get answers to questions they ask. if researchers don’t ask, that insight into other information may be missed; on the other hand, the people to be asked probably are reluctant to give their authentic ideas or feeling. All these factors may increase uncertainty of the whole inference process. 
3.3	Summary
According to dialectical materialism, anything in real world is a unity of quality and quantity. There is no difference in superiority and inferiority between qualitative research and quantitative research. both qualitative research and quantitative research as means to obtain truth of social science to probe into the nature of something from different perspectives and layers and by varying methods. In view of their own advantages and disadvantages, their relationship is not antithetic, but supplementary. The former can be treated as the perquisite and basis of the latter, and the latter can be regarded as support and supplement of the former. 
IV. Application of Qualitive Research and Quantitative Research to Education Research
Since the 20th century, there have emerged multifarious research methods in education. Tracing back the whole development process of education research, we can find that quantitative research and qualitative research occupy dominant position in the research of pedagogy, a branch of social science. The history of application of these two research models in pedagogy can be roughly divided into three stages: in the first stage, quantitative research prevailed; in the second stage, qualitative research developed, but still in a marginal place; in the third stage, mixed method of  two research paradigms was advocated.  
4.1	Stage of Prevailing of Quantitative Research
With the prevalence of scientism in education field, quantitative research became inevitably dominant in education research. In the beginning of the 20th century, German scholar Ernst Meumann and W. A. Lay established “Experimental Pedagogy”, thinking that the education research aims to infer education principles from experimental research into facts and result analysis to guide practice and accept test of practice. At the meanwhile, the development of children education research and psychological theories compelled people to conduct a research into education by strict observation, statistics and experiments. French psychologist Binet Simon published Intelligence Scale in 1905, which symbolizes coming into being of Measurement Movement with far-reaching influence on scientization of modern education. Edward Lee Thorndike introduced statistic methods into education research, contributing to development of education measurement and examination. As a result, quantitative research of education reached its heyday in the 1930s, with other research methods giving way to it. 
However, education belongs to human practice which is a kind of humanities phenomenon interwoven with individuals’ multifarious factors. Treating education with the attitude taken to natural science is equal to identifying education with physical phenomenon in nature, so that it is difficult to find the interaction relation hidden in education and uncover particularity and nature of education phenomena. Either students, or teachers, are not cold machines of learning and teaching, but distinctive individuals with ideas, so their interactions cannot be studied only with quantitative research method. Human’s spiritual phenomena cannot be measured as precisely and stably as natural phenomena because they have a great randomness.
4.2	Stage of Development of Qualitative Research
Since the 1940s, the dominant place of quantitative research began to shake with the influence of post-positivism theory, and for people’s awareness about the limitations of quantitative research. Some researchers and educational institutions attempted to probe into education issues by qualitative research means, such as literature analysis, interview and case study. In the 1940s, the sociologist Mirra Komarovsky conducted a research into women’s high education by the method of interview. In 1950s, Chicago sociologist Howard S. Becker also studied about professional patterns of teachers in primary schools and middle schools and their opinions about their occupation by interview. In the late 1960s,the qualitative research methods such as phenomenology and ethnography were introduced into education  research. In the 1970s, qualitative research drew much attention of the academic circle, although quantitative research was still popular. Quantitative research has been gradually approaching the central place of education research.  
Qualitative research is particularly suitable to a practical subject like pedagogy, because it emphasizes a deep understanding of the social phenomenon and respects the practitioners’ interpretations about their own behaviours. This property forces the researchers to participate into the education, working with teachers, students and administrative staff to collect their opinions and thus to find the sticking point and solution of a certain issue. Use of qualitative research is helpful for the researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of educational activities. However, there is still remarkable shortcomings in qualitative research. The subjectivity of the parties involved in education may affect the research result. 
4.3 Stage of Advocating of Mixed Method of Quantitative Research and Qualitative Research
In the past decades, there was an endless debate about which one of quantitative research and qualitative research is more advantageous in education research. Faced with such a debate, some scholars attempted to propose a mixed method, namely applying the two methods in the same research project, because using single one method, whether quantitative research or qualitative research, is difficult to produce a satisfactory answer to all educational questions. Since the 1990s, the qualitative methods such as ethnology, case study, narrative inquiry have been widely applied in education research, together with quantitative methods. In 2007, the Journal of Mixed Methods Research was officially published by Saga Publications Incorporation, which indicates that the mixed method of quantitative research and quality research was widely attached importance to. 
Since the two research methods can supplement and support each other, a mixed method facilitates them to exert their advantages and overcome their disadvantages. The strengths of a mixed method can be mainly summarized in four ways: (i) it can help the researchers cross validate relations among different variables (Fraenkel, et al., 2015:555)，so as to improve the validity of education research conclusions; (ii) it can answer different research questions which cannot be answered by a single method; (iii)it can provide more ways to realize research purposes and objectives; (iv)it can interpret data and results more comprehensively. In a word, these two methods are not antithetic but complementary. 
V．Conclusion
The three stages abovementioned further illustrate that quantitative research and qualitative research inevitably have own strengths and limitations. Quantitative research can obtain a relatively precise number indicating size, scale, proportion and level, etc., so it is helpful to judge the development degree of educational activities. However, not all educational issues can be qualified. The educational rules cannot be expressed through concrete and precise numerical relations. Therefore, we should combine quantitative research with qualitative research to make them complement each other. We should also overcome the excessive biases towards any of them in the past, adhering to a basic rule of method pluralization in education research. Advocating of a mixed method just reflects the fact that the two research paradigms are mutually connected and complementary, not antithetic and repulsive. 
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