The trends and challenges for early carrier educational researchers in quantitative research in Turkey

Abstract

There are numerous problems in quantitative research in education literature. The purpose of the study was to identify the tendencies and challenges early carrier educational researchers face in quantitative data analysis. A basic qualitative design was applied. The study was conducted in four different phases and in every phase there are different samples and data collection tools. The research data was obtained from Ph.D. students, lecturers, Ph.D. thesis and Ph.D. programs. The qualitative data were collected through questionnaires, and document analysis to achieve triangulation. The descriptive analysis method was used to analyze the qualitative data for four phases. The study identified the most commonly used statistical techniques which are descriptive statistics, correlation, t-test and analysis of variances. The results of the study also demonstrated issues that novice educational researchers encountered in quantitative data analysis process. Participants had difficulties in defining the conceptual framework, finding the appropriate test and assumption check.