Research in music education
A "survey" is a systematic method of collecting information on one or more variables. An example of a survey study is a 1998 study by Gillespie and Hamann. The purpose of the study was to gather descriptive information about orchestra programs that can be used as baseline data when considering the needs of school string programs. The findings indicated a continued enrollment increase in school orchestras in the 1990s although the number of orchestra teachers remained stable, and that larger schools are more likely to offer orchestra instruction. The impact of the study was the recommendation that school systems should provide larger, more adequate teaching facilities and that universities and string teachers should emphasize strategies for teaching larger string classes in their teacher preparation programs.
Product planning
Market researchers always use quantitative and qualitative research to differentiate the methods of investigation into those which are cared about getting an understanding of a subject and those which are involved in measuring things. At a word, quantitative and qualitative mean that one is based on quantity and the other one on quality. Qualitative research can be looked upon as a number of ways. Qualitative researchers do not need to interview so many people but they speak to really do count. The researchers are interested in asking ‘How’ questions not like ‘how many’. Sampson(1967) has said that “ it is centrally concerned with understanding things rather than with measuring them” this means that the lack of measurement can not make sure that the findings are accuracy. For example, the government has until recently used little qualitative research as it is worried that the public security would not believe these findings. Qualitative research is suited to solve the problem areas as following. The first one is basic market exploratory studies. For example, the research findings can be used to define consumer segmentations in relation to a product brand or understand the dimensions which differentiate between brands. The second one is new product development. For instance, product, packaging, positioning and advertising information can be collected through researching to confirm a new product proposition. The third one is diagnostic studies which is used to determine to what extent the brand image has changed since the start of an advertising campaign. (Gordon,Wendy,1943). The methods of qualitative research can be departed into observation and focus groups. Nowadays, observation is used wherever people think that watching is better to speaking and it plays an important role in researching people who can not articulate correctly and clearly what they think. It is frequently applied in shopping surveys particularly in-store, it regularly make customers try products and then ask them questions or do surveys. The results sometimes will be more reliable and creditable. Focus groups also can be called group discussions which is a tool on the basis of psychotherapy where it has found that if people are divided into small groups and asked to share their opinions and suggestions, they will be open up. Because there will generate a brainstorming effect in the groups so that a comment from one person can stimulate another one's ideas. Although qualitative research does not need many people to attend, one group is not enough that will cause the results are untypical. In general, there are always need four groups to cover a single respondent type. And the outcomes of group discussions are rely on the group leaders’ abilities of structuring the discussion, conducting the meeting and analyzing and understanding the results.