ABSTRACT
Interesting labels, such as QUAL and QUAN, have appeared in a number of recent publications, including several books—all of them dealing with the widely discussed topic of "mixed methods research". The interesting feature was the use of the special "labelling" with newly coined words "QUAL" and "QUAN" along with conventions concerning their use in labelling research designs. Charles Reichardt and Thomas Cook went on to examine the logical relations among the supposed essential characteristics of the two paradigms. Their careful analysis showed that quantitative studies are not always hypothetico-deductive, and there is no logical compulsion that qualitative studies are always exploratory and inductive. In the great majority of instances, mixed methods consisted of the gradual acceptance of qualitative research methods in topical areas of social and behavioural sciences that had been dominated by quantitative approaches. In many ethnographic studies of schools and classrooms the major aim is to produce an inductive, descriptive understanding of what happens in schooling situations.
