There has been much discussion about quantitative and qualitative approaches to research in different disciplines. In the behavioural and social sciences, these two paradigms are compared to reveal their relative strengths and weaknesses. But the debate about both traditions has commonly taken place in academic books. It is hard to find an article that deals with the generic issues related to the quantitative and qualitative divide by drawing on distinguished research literature. Interested in addressing this need, this article aims to explain the essential characteristics of quantitative and qualitative research approaches with an emphasis on their underlying epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. It elucidates the research design issues and concepts in relation to both research paradigms, from planning research to collecting and analyzing data, and reporting findings. The criteria that are used to evaluate research strategies and findings are also discussed.

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In this qualitative research study, the author investigated social studies teachers' conceptions of history by conducting in-depth, semistructured interviews with 12 in-service teachers. Results indicated that participants tended to look at the outcome of historical knowledge construction without considering its process or mentioning forces that shape historical writing. Rather than considering the whole relationship or interplay between the past, the recorded past, and the historian, participants observed a part of the relationship among distinctive yet interrelated components of history. A realistic view of the world and a naive epistemological view of history seemed to characterize the conceptions of most participants who viewed history as objective knowledge. Most participants did not perceive the relevancy of intellectual foundations of history to their profession and professional development.

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Increasing the sunflower seed oil content as well as improving its quality makes it compatible for industrial demands. This is an important breeding objective of sunflower which increases its market value and ensures high returns for the producers. The present review focuses on determining the progress of improving sunflower seed oil content and modifying its quality by empirical and advanced molecular breeding methods. It is known that the sunflower oil content and quality have been altered through empirical selection methods and mutation breeding programmes in various parts of the world. Further improvement in seed oil content and its components (such as phytosterols, tocopherols and modified fatty acid profile) has been slowed down due to low genetic variation in elite germplasm and complex of hereditary traits. Introgression from wild species can be carried out to modify the fatty acids profile and tocopherol contents with linkage drags. Different transgenes introduced through biotechnological methods may produce novel long-chain fatty acids within sunflower oil. Bio-engineering of sunflower oil could allow it to be used in diverse industrial products such as bio-diesel or bio-plastics. These results showed that past and current trends of modifying sunflower oil quality are essential for its further expansion as an oilseed crop. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.