The Future of Education
Strengths and Limitations of Quantitative Research Applied in the Educational Sciences
Iuliana Lazar, Faculty of Engineering, “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau (Romania)
Maria-Ema Faciu, Faculty of Engineering, “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau (Romania)
Liliana Mata, Faculty of Sciences, “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau (Romania)
Gabriel Lazar, Faculty of Engineering, “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau (Romania)
Abstract
The aim of this study consists in identifying the most common advantages and limitations of quantitative research applied in the educational sciences. There are explored the main quantitative tools: factory analysis, clusters analysis, and multiple regression technique. The aim of factor analysis is to test a hypothesis or theory about the research structure. By cluster analyses the data can be summarized bringing together the variables and can be classified based on similar answers. The types and degree of relation between the dependent and the independent variables are given by regression models. Studying the educational results of these techniques we identify the advantages and limitations of quantitative analyses that we must take into account on the initial research design for improving the educational research. The strengths of quantitative research applied in the educational sciences consists in the fact that it can be interpreted big data with a lot of endogenous and exogenous variables. Also, the latent structure among the investigated variables can be identified. The limitations are related to abnormal distribution present on natural dependent variables and the long period that is required to apply the research instrument.
Keywords: educational sciences, limitations, quantitative research, strengths
