Purposes of qualitative and quantitative data

Name:

Date:

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Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A school wants to know how many students bought lunch from the canteen this week. Which type of data answers this?

A Quantitative data

B Qualitative data

2. A teacher wants to understand why Year 11 students feel stressed about SACs. Which type of data fits best?

A Quantitative data

B Qualitative data

3. Which statement describes the purpose of quantitative data?

A It measures how many or how much using numbers

B It explains why people feel the way they do

4. Which statement describes the purpose of qualitative data?

A It explains why or how people feel using descriptions and opinions

B It measures how much using numbers only

5. Research question: 'How much did the average household spend on electricity last quarter?' What is the best data type?

A Qualitative data (written comments)

B Quantitative data (dollar amounts)

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1=AVERAGE(B2:B50)		A=COUNTIF(C2:C100,"Yes")
2"Why did you stop using the app?"		BA how many question needs quantitative data (a count or number), but the answer is a vague description.
3Choosing the data type for the research question 'How many students buy lunch each day?'		CQualitative: an open question whose written answers explain reasons and feelings
4Combining both types gives a fuller picture: the numbers show what happened and the comments explain why		DQuantitative: gives a number that shows how much, such as the average hours of sleep
5Question: Why do students feel stressed? Data: =AVERAGE(C2:C50)		ERating: 4/5 \| Comment: "Easy to use"
6Question: How many students own a laptop? Answer: "Lots of them"		FA why question needs qualitative data, but the average of numbers only shows how much stress. It does not explain the reasons.

Definitions

quantitative vs qualitative

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

Question: How many students own a laptop? Data type: ____________

Question: Why do students dislike the app? Data type: ___________

Quantitative data is recorded as _______

Qualitative data explains how people ____

Using ____ types gives a fuller picture

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A Question: How many sold?

B Type: quantitative

C Method: count sales in sheet

D Answer: a quote from a buyer

Question 2

A Question: Why do users quit?

B Type: qualitative

C Method: interview 5 users

D Answer: an average of 4.2

Question 3

A Question: How much was spent?

B Type: qualitative

C Data: dollar amounts

D Result: total of $1250

Question 4

A Question: How do fans feel?

B Type: quantitative

C Method: open comments

D Result: feelings in words

Question 5

A quantitative = how people feel

B qualitative = why, feelings

C both = fuller picture

Answer Key

Purposes of qualitative and quantitative data

Section A: Quick Questions

A — Quantitative data

B — Qualitative data

A — It measures how many or how much using numbers

A — It explains why or how people feel using descriptions and opinions

B — Quantitative data (dollar amounts)

Section B: Match the Pairs

=AVERAGE(B2:B50) → Quantitative: gives a number that shows how much, such as the average hours of sleep

"Why did you stop using the app?" → Qualitative: an open question whose written answers explain reasons and feelings

Choosing the data type for the research question 'How many students buy lunch each day?' → =COUNTIF(C2:C100,"Yes")

Combining both types gives a fuller picture: the numbers show what happened and the comments explain why → Rating: 4/5 | Comment: "Easy to use"

Question: Why do students feel stressed? Data: =AVERAGE(C2:C50) → A why question needs qualitative data, but the average of numbers only shows how much stress. It does not explain the reasons.

Question: How many students own a laptop? Answer: "Lots of them" → A how many question needs quantitative data (a count or number), but the answer is a vague description.

Section C: Definitions

quantitative vs qualitative — Quantitative data answers how many or how much questions with numbers; qualitative data explains why or how people feel. Using both gives a fuller picture.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

Question: How many students own a laptop?
Data type: quantitative

Question: Why do students dislike the app?
Data type: qualitative

Quantitative data is recorded as numbers

Qualitative data explains how people feel

Using both types gives a fuller picture

Section E: Spot the Error

D — Quantitative data answers 'how many' with numbers. The answer line should be a number such as 85, not a quote.

D — A 'why' question needs qualitative data, which is explanations in people's own words. An average is a number, so it is quantitative.

B — 'How much' questions are answered with numbers, so the type should be quantitative, not qualitative.

B — Asking how people feel needs descriptive, qualitative data. It should say qualitative.

A — Quantitative data answers how many or how much with numbers. How people feel is qualitative.