11.013 - PDC04: Creative Strategies for Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches in Mixed Methods Research

Session Type: Professional Development Course

Abstract

This interactive, problem-centered course introduces creative ways to mix qualitative and quantitative approaches in a mixed methods research project. Led by a faculty member with over fifteen years of experience teaching introductory and advanced graduate-level research methods courses in mixed methods, this one-day course is targeted toward graduate students and early career researchers with little or no prior knowledge of mixed methods research practice. The purpose of the course is to use a problem-oriented activity related to critical incidents and to use visual methods to generate creative ideas about synergistic ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative data during analysis. Objectives for the course include (a) reviewing the distinctions between multi-method, mixed method, and fully integrated mixed method research; (b) distinguishing major reasons for using a mixed method approach; (c) presenting dialectical pluralism as the paradigmatic grounding for mixed method research; (d) describing strategies for mixing at all phases of the research process, including at the design and sampling stage, and (e) demonstrating a way to capture mixing through the construction of meta-inferences. Participants completing the course will take away ideas about ways to design a mixed methods research study. Participants will find it useful to bring a computer. A pre-course assignment is to read: Creamer, E. G. (2016). A primer about mixed methods research in an educational context. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Education Research, 15(8), 1-13.

Sub Unit

• Professional Development and Training Committee

Instructor

• Cherie D Edwards, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University