Sequential mixed methods design
Version of this field of mixed methods has only been widely accepted for the last decade, though researchers have long been using multiple methods, just not calling them “mixed. Mixed methods research takes advantage of using multiple ways to explore a research can be based on either or both ch problems can become research questions and/or hypotheses based on prior literature, knowledge, experience, or the research sizes vary based on methods collection can involve any technique available to retation is continual and can influence stages in the research use mixed methods? Be easy to describe and to be useful when unexpected results arise from a prior help generalize, to a degree, qualitative l in designing and validating an position research in a transformative are some weaknesses? Discrepancies between different types of designs generate unequal be difficult to decide when to proceed in sequential guidance on transformative ologist john creswell suggested a systematic framework for approaching mixed methods research. His framework involves four decisions to consider and six decisions for mixed method designs (creswell, 2003, p. Sequential terized by: collection and analysis of quantitative data followed by a collection and analysis of qualitative e: to use qualitative results to assist in explaining and interpreting the findings of a quantitative study. Sequential terized by: an initial phase of qualitative data collection and analysis followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and e: to explore a phenomenon. The results are integrated in the interpretation e: to employ the methods that best serve a theoretical perspective. Concurrent terized by: two or more methods used to confirm, cross-validate, or corroborate findings within a study. Data collection is e: generally, both methods are used to overcome a weakness in using one method with the strengths of terized by: a nested approach that gives priority to one of the methods and guides the project, while another is embedded or “nested. D bloggers like this:Explanatory sequential mixed method design as the third research community of knowledge ation a-z e and open access and academic an journal of educational . Education-4-7-10 | review atory sequential mixed method design as the third research community of knowledge ndu university school of education, nepal. Teaching of mixed ional fraternity is moving towards research based practices to improve educational standards. Many novice educational researchers are in dilemma to adopt research design in order to explore reality through their research endeavor because of a tag of war on ontological epistemological and axiological perspectives among qualitative and quantitative researchers. In this connection, this article aims at explaining the holistic ideas of mixed method design focusing particularly on philosophical premises, generating research questions, data collection and analysis process, potential ethical issues, quality of inference and teaching mixed methodology. This article highlights on the growing interest of educational researchers on sequential mixed method design in order to collect and analyze data for legitimize knowledge claim. This article is expected to be useful to novice researchers who are in quandary to adopt explanatory sequential mixed method as a research method and it also creates a roadmap in educational research indicating methodological possibilities for new knowledge ds: mixed method design, philosophical premises, generating research questions, data collection and analysis, ethical issues, quality of inference and teaching mixed ght © 2016 science and education publishing.
Explanatory sequential mixed methods design
They often find difficulties to choose possible alternative methods to carry out their research work. In this context, denzin and lincoln [4], geven [6], tashakkori & teddlie [13, 14], bryman [20], ritchie and lewis [21] and klenke [22] state that there are three communities of researchers in the educational field: qualitative oriented methodologists, quantitative oriented methodologists and mixed methodologists. Pragmatism on the other hand, embraces mixed method as the third research community in order to avoid either or view of positivism and every educationist raises a question: which method is appropriate to claim reality in the educational field? These questions led me towards mixed method tradition to review its mixed methods research tradition is less well known than quan or qual traditions because it has emerged as a separate orientation during only the past 20 years. Mixed methodologists present an alternative to the quan and qual traditions by advocating the use of whatever methodological tools are required to answer the research questions under study. In fact, throughout the 20th century, social and behavioral scientists frequently employed mixed methods in their studies and they continue to do so in the 21st century, as described in several sources [1, 7, 13]. Tashakkori & teddlie [13] defined mixed method as ‘a types of research design in which qual and quan approaches are used in types of questions, research methods, data collection and analysis procedures and inferences’(p. In this regard, it would be worth effective to mention teddlie &tashakkori [14] as they say mixed method research provides better inferences and minimizes unimethod bias. Many researchers select mixed method in order to search out the opportunity for a greater assortment of divergent views. Review of tradition on mixed method above underscores the fact that it has been a growing interest educational researcher to avoid methodological bias in order to better understand the reality of the phenomenon being investigated. Many mixed methodologists [5, 9, 14, 20, 21] claim mixed method as the best paradigm of research because of a number of reasons. First of all it gives a paradigm that philosophically embraces the use of mixed model designs. If this design is the best for educational research, why are educational researchers reluctant to use it widely in their research process? The literature above also claims that out of six mixed method design, explanatory sequential design is popular among educationists. In this backdrop, creswell et al [2] say that despite its popularity and straightforwardness, this mixed-methods design is not easy to implement. Researchers who choose to conduct a mixed method explanatory sequential study have to consider certain methodological issues. Although these issues have been discussed in many books, some methodological aspects of this design procedure still require clarification.
For example, how researchers decide on which method to assign priority in this design, how to consider implementation issues, how and when to connect the quantitative and qualitative phases during the research process, and how to integrate the results of both phases of the study to answer the research gap above in the existing body of literature on mixed method explanatory sequential design led me to explore some more practical guidelines in solving those issues which could help researchers to make the right and prompt decisions when designing and implementing mixed-methods explanatory sequential studies. Philosophical premises of mixed method designklenke [22] points out that each paradigm makes assumption about the nature of reality or ontology, how knowledge is constructed or epistemology, and assumes that the values(axiology) a researcher brings to selection of method, participants, data collection, analysis and interpretation influence the research process. Generating research questions for mixed method designonce the objectives of a research study are enunciated, researchers can drive specific questions and hypotheses. As tashakkori & teddlie [14], bryman [17, 20], and ritchie and lewis [21] state that mixed methods research questions are concerned with unknown aspects of a phenomenon and are answered with information that is presented in both numerical and narrative forms. They further clarify that a unique aspect of any given mixed method study is that it requires at least two research questions (one quan, one qual). In this respect, creswell [3] also argue that research questions are important than methodology in mixed method design. This indicates that research questions drive the selection of research methods, which are often mixed method in nature the complexity of those research questions. The process is even more complicated in mixed method research because these researchers typically want to integrate the quan research questions with qual research questions. After reviewing many mixed research studies, i found a suitable research questions in the work of teddlie and stringfield [16]. These researchers conducted a longitudinal mixed method study in which they examined school and classroom processes in eight matched pairs of differentially effective elementary schools. A relatively unexplored issue remains to be investigated: how should we frame research questions in a mixed method study? First approach entails first proposing an overarching mixed research question and then expanding it into separate quan and qual sub questions. We believe that in most mixed method studies an overarching question is necessary for justifying the choice of a mixed method design for the study and paving the way for alignment of the purpose and question. Collection and analysis in various mixed method we go through creswell [3], we come to know six types of mixed method design. They are: the convergent parallel design, the explanatory sequential design, the exploratory sequential design, the embedded design, the transformative design and the multiphase ll [3] says that the researcher in the convergent parallel design, gathers both quantitative and qualitative data, analyzes both datasets separately, compares the results from the analysis of both datasets, and makes interpretation as to whether the results support or contradict each other. Figurefigures view larger figure in new gent parallel explanatory sequential design according to plano clark (2011) consists of first collecting quantitative data and then collecting qualitative data to help explain or elaborate on the quantitative results. Figurefigures view larger figure in new view previous atory sequential exploratory sequential design, according to creswell and plano clark (2011) explain that the researcher first collects qualitative data and then quantitative data.
The purpose of an exploratory sequential mixed methods design involves the procedure of first gathering qualitative data to explore a phenomenon and then collecting quantitative data to explain relationships found in the qualitative ger image(png format). Figurefigures view larger figure in new view previous atory sequential purpose of embedded design, as creswell and plano clark (2011) state; is to collect quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously or sequentially, but to have one form of data play a supportive role to the other form of data. Figurefigures view larger figure in new view previous intent of the transformative mixed methods design, as creswell and plano clark (2011) state; is to use one of the four designs (convergent, explanatory, exploratory or embedded), but to encase the design within a transformative framework. Figurefigures view larger figure in new view previous ormative the transformative design, the multiphase design is a complex design that builds on the basic convergent, explanatory, exploratory and embedded designs. Multiphase mixed methods designs occur when researchers or a team of researchers examine a problem or topic through a series of phases or separate studies (creswell and plano clark (2011). Of six mixed method designs explained above, the explanatory sequential design is highly popular among researchers. In this design, according to plano clark (2011) consists of first collecting quantitative data and then collecting qualitative data to help explain or elaborate on the quantitative results. Then the question is: how can the process of explanatory sequential design be more pragmatic to the novice researchers? The literature above is silent on procedure and product under each phase of the explanatory sequential design. After reviewing possible books and articles on explanatory sequential designed, i came to the following process in order to make holistic process of it more realistic. Process for selecting an appropriate mixed methods designas we discussed earlier, there are six mixed method designs and they require certain strategies in order to claim new knowledge. Typology of mixed method design causes difficulties to the novice researchers to choose the best one which addresses their research problems. This leads to a research for literature which can solve the problem of selecting an appropriate mixed method design out of many for the research endeavor. This has been a hurdle for novice educational researchers to choose mixed method in their research as a methodology. To solve this problem many mixed method researchers (like [1, 5, 7, 9, 14, 20, 21]) have created a large body of literature on their works. After reviewing their works, i found tashakkori & teddlie [14] appropriate to explain the steps in selecting an mixed method design that best fits the requirements of the investigator’s research questions. According to them the following steps take the researcher from the determination of the appropriateness of a mixed method design to the selection / development of the best mixed method research design for a study.
The novice researchers must first determine if their research questions require a mono method or mixed method , tashakkori & teddlie [14] want to make it clear to the novice researchers that step 1 decision is made primarily on the nature of the research questions and whether both qual and quan data are required to answer those questions. If all of the research questions can be answered by either quan data or qual data then a mono method design is more appropriate. The novice researchers should be aware that a number of typologies of mixed method research design exist, and you should know how to access details regarding them. Here they mean, the novice researchers have to gather a lot of information on typologies of mixed method research design. Select the best available mixed method research design for your study, but you realize that you may have to eventually generate your own. Here they mean researchers’ job is to recognize all the possible typologies of mixed method research design but they are free to choose the most appropriate or single best available research design rather than the perfect fit. The novice researchers need to be aware of the criteria emphasized by each of the mixed method design typology and of their implications for their study. Apply the selected criteria to potential designs, ultimately selecting the best research design for your study. Here they mean to say that any research must determine which research design is most in accordance with the desired qualities on the selected criteria. For example, if you believe that qual research will play the dominant role in your study, then you should select a design that emphasizes it. In some cases, you may have to develop a new mixed method design, using flexibility and creativity, because no one best design exists for your research project, either when it starts or as it evolves. Potential ethical issues in mixed methods researchsince mixed methods research combines quantitative and qualitative research, ethical considerations need to attend to typical ethical issues that surface in both forms of inquiry. They are:• in a convergent design, the quantitative and qualitative sample sizes may be different. In an explanatory design, researchers may use a large quantitative database for the initial phase of the research. In an embedded design, conducting initial qualitative interviews to build an intervention before an experiment may be helpful in designing the intervention. Quality of inferencemixed methodologists prefer to use quality inference to avoid either or perspectives of quantitative and qualitative research for addressing trustworthiness or reliability and validity kori and teddlie [14] have proposed the strategies for reducing and / or dealing with possible threats to inference quality. Different methods such as prolonged engagement, persistent observation, use of triangulation techniques, peer debriefing, negative case analysis, referential adequacy, member checks, thick description, dependability audit, conformability audit and reflective journal for determining the trustworthiness are strategies for reducing and / or dealing with possible threats to inference quality in qualitative part.
Teaching of mixed methodologymany research teachers around the world have been developing syllabuses for teaching mixed methodology and sharing their best practices assuming common concerns for research teachers. Understand and explain the rationale for using a mixed methods research approach in a study. Understand and explain the major types of mixed methods research designs; their strengths and weaknesses. Summarize types of data that are often collected in mixed methods research and be able to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative. Apply the steps in designing a mixed methods research study and develop a mixed methods study proposal. Conclusionthis paper highlighted the critical debate on choice of paradigm in educational research in order to claim new knowledge exploring signature literature on explanatory sequential mixed method design as the third research community of knowledge claim. In this process, novice researchers who are in dilemma to adopt mixed method design because of the fear of divergent findings get better insight from this article. This article guides them through philosophical premises generating research question, data collection and analysis process, potential ethical issues, quality of inference and teaching mixed methodology. After reviewing several books and journals in mixed method design, i came to this point of understanding that there has been a growing interest of educational researchers for philosophical, metaphical and practical reasons to adopt pragmatism to avoid methodological bias in order to better understand the reality of the phenomenon being investigated. Mixed method research focused on two general approaches for generating research questions that is either single question which incorporate both quan and qual sub questions or separate quan and qual questions. In this design a researcher first collect quantitative data followed by qualitative and integrate both data in order to come to the conclusion. Mixed methodologists prefer to use quality inference to avoid either or perspectives of quantitative and qualitative research for addressing trustworthiness or reliability and validity issues. While adopting syllabus for teaching mixed method methodology if we adopt natalya ivankova’s syllabus as advocated by tashakkori and teddlie [14] then we can properly track our students towards right direction in mixed method design. Foundations of mixed methods research: integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches in social and behavioral sciences. Ltd all rights atory sequential mixed method design as the third research community of knowledge ation a-z e and open access and academic an journal of educational . Ltd all rights video is queuequeuewatch next video is methods exploratory sequential ed wisdom resource cribe from embraced wisdom resource group? Please try again hed on nov 1, rd youtube autoplay is enabled, a suggested video will automatically play methods explanatory sequential ed wisdom resource methods research methods embedded ed wisdom resource talk: mixed methods in social er methods convergent parallel ed wisdom resource is mixed methods methods: an for research ping mixed methods research with dr.
