ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of basic issues in quantitative educational research. They begin by discussing research problems and research questions. There are two main approaches to educational research: qualitative and quantitative. Importantly, the distinctions between these are not as cut and dried as they might appear in our description of them. In quantitative research, questions typically center around group differences, changes in scores over time, or the relationship among variables. Instead, truths (plural) are situated in particular moments, relationships, contexts, and environments. Although this perspective posits multiple truths, it's worth noting that it doesn't hold all truth claims as equal. Though there is no absolute universal truth underlying those truth claims, there is no reason to doubt these conditional or relational truths in interpretivism. Deconstructivism is another large umbrella term with a lot of diverse perspectives under it. These might be variously referred to as postmodernism, poststructuralism, deconstructivism, and many other perspectives.
