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Essay / Quantitative Research Questionnaire - 1207
1. Introduction The research skills module aims to learn how to conduct effective research. During this time, it is necessary to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire is classified as quantitative research as opposed to the qualitative research interview. 2. Questionnaire as a Data Collection Tool The definition and objective of quantitative research is to collect information from many individuals so that it has the ability to generalize (Ranjit Kumar, 2014). Compared to qualitative research (interview), collecting the entire sample may not take much time, as the researcher conducts it at the same time if desired. Additionally, it might not really fatigue respondents from the interview. As the term suggests, compared to interview, it is easy to collect data in terms of time required to correct it, but it still takes time to write a well-structured questionnaire. Another strength of the questionnaire is that it is easy to analyze, as there are already formats and asks the same questions to all respondents. 2.2 Potential Threats or WeaknessesOne of the weaknesses of quantitative research is the limitation of in-depth analysis (Ranjit Kumar, 2014). The reason behind this idea is that a limited number of questions can be provided in the questionnaire. In relation to the interview, unless it is a structured interview, the interviewer can ask whatever he wants in response to the situation. However, this is impossible for the questionnaire, because the same paper will be given to all respondents for the sake of fairness. This makes it difficult to understand all the potential questions. 3. Using the questionnaire as a data collection method 3.1 Design of the questionnaire 3.1.1 The questionnaire Results and discussion Fortunately, 60% of the participants have already voted and 76% of them like to know more about government and politics, which is very useful for research. There is an interesting finding that could be the answer to one of the research questions; “What could be done to encourage students to get involved in politics? While 76% of respondents do not study politics compulsory in school, 48% of them agree (disagree: 24%) that students study politics compulsory at school. This shows that people think that studying politics, which is compulsory in school, would help students. So this could be one of the possible solutions to one of the research questions. 5. Summary Quantitative research focuses more on the number of participants, so it is easy to analyze the variety of data, which is interesting to see. Overall, the important lesson and required improvement for my research skills is specificity, although there are nonetheless some interesting results. 6. References Kumar, R. and Kumar, PK (2014) Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. 4th ed. London: SAGE