Question

Considering the five quantitative approaches, randomized experimental approach, comparative research approach, phenomenological approach, descriptive approach and the grounded theory approach pick two approaches, and explain them both.

Answer 1

1. Grounded theory----------Grounded theory is one of the method qualitative approach, which investigates the experience of people and their responses and reactions, to generate a theory or an illustration the process and how it works. The reasons for the name of the grounded theory are that the grounded theory is usually generated only from the data that is collected in the study, and does not come from other sources, such as other theories, textbooks or researcher's opinions. Grounded theory is suitable to use when there are no existing theories regarding the process that are of interest to the researchers; there is a theory that exists, but they have created for a certain group of people that the researchers are interested. Data analysis of the grounded theory usually done through three stages, such as the open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The final step of conducting the grounded theory is the discriminant sampling, where the researcher recruits a whole new group of participant, who are similar to the original participant, and conduct the same interview questions. The purpose of the discriminant sampling is the determining if the new participants experience with the process of interest will be similar to the theory that was already created, this helps the test and verify if the theory was accurate or not. The limitation of the grounded theory lay on the different aspect such as the difficulty of recruiting participant, long time to gather data, analysis difficulty, researcher bias, and the small number of participants.

2. The Phenomenological Approach------Phenomenological approach is interested in the study of the phenomenon. Where it's a way to describe things that already exist, as part of the world in which we live. The phenomenon may be events or situations, or, or experiences, or concepts. There is two type of Phenomenology; Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Transcendental phenomenology. When you want to describe an event, activity, or phenomenon, the aptly named phenomenological study is an appropriate qualitative method. In a phenomenological study, you use a combination of methods, such as conducting interviews, reading documents, watching videos, or visiting places and events, to understand the meaning participants place on whatever’s being examined. You rely on the participants’ own perspectives to provide insight into their motivations.

Like other qualitative methods, you don’t start with a well-formed hypothesis. In a phenomenological study, you often conduct a lot of interviews, usually between 5 and 25 for common themes, to build a sufficient dataset to look for emerging themes and to use other participants to validate your findings.

For example, there’s been an explosion in the last 5 years in online courses and training. But how do students engage with these courses? While you can examine time spent and content accessed using log data and even assess student achievement vis-a-vis in-person courses, a phenomenological study would aim to better understand the students experience and how that may impact comprehension of the material.