Mixed Method research
Paper details:
Mixed Methods design was the topic du jure in class. I gave a really quick overview (which is available for download); and, personally never feel that I give enough depth of discussion to the various research methods in any course.
I have provided a pdf set of the slides from the presentation in class that you can download in the content area for class. It “showed up” in the Course Content link this morning. This should provide additional guidance as you complete this Journal assignment…
1) Emphasize the Top 3 scholarly journals within your field to gather all your research sample articles. This will keep you well informed about the (hopefully!) best research being published in your field. *NOTE: It is likely your key journals will have limited Mixed Methods articles. Due to the length of the write-ups, these research reports often end up being monographs rather than journal articles. So, be prepared to do some searching to find what you need.
2) Look to your syllabus for guidance on the number of articles from each research approach to complete the assignment (your “book of research”).
3) Critique (Evaluate) the articles using the Mixed Methods Research Rubric (<–hyperlinked here). You will rate each of the major categories that *should* be included in the article on a Likert-type scale (1–poor to 5–strong); and, I also include blank space for you to make narrative notes about the author(s)’ strengths and weaknesses in the work. Determine an overall score for the article; and, an overview narrative for the work. **Be particularly focused on examining articles for their clarity in use of “snippets” of the data in making the discussion and results. AND, look for data comparisons and cross analysis. These allow the reader to gain awareness about the researcher’s search to balance the findings and support both “flavours” of research chosen for use in the study. Did s/he only report results that promote her/his position or one type of research over the other? (This is a problem!)
4) Carry on in your reading of our course text and finish it. Beyond chapter 3, the authors focus on particular components of articles for emphasis. The course text is a very straightforward way of exploring research articles. I like the simplicity in approach!
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See you next week in class! And, as always, if you have questions, I am only an email away!
