Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Jaimie Howe contributed today's post. Click here to read more of Jaimie's thinking.

Over the last few months these two words have resonated with me quite frequently. After several presentations over the last two months regarding word study and the transfer of skills (see my last blog post), I’ve found myself stopping to think about these two words quite often. I’ve said so many times in conversations that reading/literacy is not black and white and that we need to stop trying to make it that way.  I feel this ties right into qualitative and quantitative processes. At what point do we ever really stop and analyze which adjective describes the way we teach, assess, and respond to student’s learning?

Below are the dictionary definitions of these two terms.

qualitative

/ˈkwɒlɪtətɪv; -ˌteɪ-/

adjective

1.involving or relating to distinctions based on quality or qualities

quantitative

/ˈkwɒntɪtətɪv; -ˌteɪ-/

adjective

1. that is or may be estimated by quantity.

2. of or relating to the describing or measuring of quantity.

Qualitative referring to quality and quantitative referring to quantity. Which term would you rather have describe your teaching?

In my opinion we don’t use qualitative measures enough.  We seem to be very heavy on the quantitative side.  I think about the amount of assessment we do, the push to always do more, get as much in as possible.  It seems to always be about quantity.  I do believe quantitative measures are definitely needed, but like everything else, in balance with qualitative.  I understand why we lack the use of qualitative measures as well- they take time.  But sit back and imagine a group of teachers sitting down at a table and really analyzing the miscues on a student’s running record and making instructional decisions based on student’s use of the meaning, syntactic, and visual cueing systems versus based on a number they received on any particular quantitative assessment.

We need to push ourselves to use qualitative practices more often, in conjunction with all of the quantitative measures we already have.The qualitative practices require us to really think, analyze, and discuss students’ core needs.   We can’t afford to continue to disregard some of the best information we have on our students. It’s worth the time and effort.