ABSTRACT
A scientific method of gaining knowledge involves: identifying a problem, formulating hypotheses, determining what information needs to be collected; organizing the gathered information; then interpreting the results. The goal of research is to know by describing, predicting, and explaining situations involving human beings using an empirical approach, which is a formal and systematic way of applying these steps of a scientific method to study a problem. Research is broadly categorized into quantitative and qualitative. The two categories are similar in that both involve collecting and analyzing data, as well as arriving at conclusions and interpretations. Verbal narrative data in a qualitative research would provide in-depth information and be descriptive in its conclusion, but data analysis is time-consuming. Numerical data in a quantitative research is easier to analyze and yields conclusive results.
