Data sources:
primary, secondary
Objectives:
descriptive, exploratory, correlational, explanatory
Time for data collection:
cross-sectional, longitudinal (panel, trend)
Data types:
qualitative, quantitative (survey, experimental)
Primary: studies based on primary, or original, data sources, such as classroom observations or real students, or their test scores, or their responses to a questionnaire.
Secondary: studies based on secondary sources such as other researhers’ books and articles, including library research and literature reviews.
Descriptive: studies involving the collection of data in order to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subjects of the study.
Exploratory: studies conducted into an issue or problem where there are few or no earlier studies to refer to. The focus is on gaining insights and familiarity for later investigation.
Correlational: The basic question for descriptive research is - "What are the values of a number of variables for a given sample of subjects. The basic research question for correlation research is - What is the relationship between two or more variables for a given set of subjects. Notice that we said relationship between variables and not the effect of one variable on another variable.
In descriptive research we are just describing our subjects in terms of one or more variables, while in correlational research we are looking at the relationship between the variables.
Correlational: The basic question for descriptive research is - "What are the values of a number of variables for a given sample of subjects. The basic research question for correlation research is - What is the relationship between two or more variables for a given set of subjects. Notice that we said relationship between variables and not the effect of one variable on another variable.
In descriptive research we are just describing our subjects in terms of one or more variables, while in correlatio
