Learning in Action Through Simulation: Teaching Mixed-Methods Research for the Public Good

• In Event: Accepting Educational Responsibility: Approaches and Frameworks to Teaching Research Methods

Abstract

In times of evidence-based, data-driven, and socially equitable calls for improvement, it is imperative to equip students with research skills to address immediate practical issues and optimize translation of research findings into practice. Intersecting mixed methods with community-based participatory action research provides a strong methodological foundation for students to learn how to design and conduct stakeholder-informed, context-specific, and action-oriented studies, in order to enhance a meaningful and socially equitable change. We describe how we develop these skills by using simulation as a pedagogical approach in an online graduate course on mixed methods applications in community-based participatory action research. This paper aims to address the dearth of reported evidence on how simulation can be used in learning research methods.

Authors

• Nataliya V. Ivankova, The University of Alabama - Birmingham

• Ivan Herbey, University of Alabama at Birmingham