Mixed Method Research Design

To Prepare

• Read this week’s Learning Resources on mixed methods designs. Think about how each design sequences and combines quantitative and qualitative approaches to achieve research objectives.
• Review your Week 1 through Week 4 Discussions on a quantitative and qualitative research problem, purpose, research question, and theoretical/conceptual framework.
• Identify a mixed methods design that would accomplish your quantitative and qualitative research objectives.
• Alignment of scenario elements is important. See the Examples of Aligned and Misaligned Scenariosdocument, which can be downloaded from the Week 5 Learning Resources area of the classroom.
• Discussion posts are pass/fail but have minimum criteria to pass. See the Discussion Rubric to ensure you understand the pass/fail criteria.

Program of Study: Identify your specific program of study and, if applicable, your concentration area.

Social Problem: Briefly describe the social problem or phenomenon of interest. Typically, this can be done in 3 or fewer sentences.

Quantitative Research Problem: Complete the following sentence: The scholarly community does not know…

Quantitative Research Purpose: Typically, this is a 1-sentence statement addressed by completing the following sentence: The purpose of this quantitative study is…

Quantitative Research Question: Typically, this is a 1-sentence question unless you have more than one research question.

Theory or Conceptual Framework: Identify a specific psychological or sociological theory or specific aspects of a conceptual framework that guides the scenario. Briefly describe how the specific theory or conceptual framework guides your research question and will aid in interpretation of results.

Quantitative Research Design: Identify a specific quantitative research design. Do not use broad terms, such as survey design, cohort design, longitudinal design, causal-comparative design, cross-sectional design, and so on. Briefly describe how the selected design fits your scenario.

Quantitative Sampling Strategy: Be specific.

Quantitative Data Collection Method: Be specific.

Qualitative Research Problem: Complete the following sentence: The scholarly community does not know…

Qualitative Research Purpose: Typically, this is a 1-sentence statement addressed by completing the following sentence: The purpose of this qualitative study is…

Qualitative Research Question: Typically, this is a 1-sentence question unless you have more than one research question.

Theory or Conceptual Framework: Identify a specific psychological or sociological theory or specific aspects of a conceptual framework that guides the scenario. Briefly describe how the specific theory or conceptual framework guides your research question and will aid in interpretation of results.

Qualitative Research Design: Identify a specific qualitative research design. Do not use broad terms, such as descriptive design, exploratory design, hermeneutics, lived experience, and so on. Briefly describe how the selected design fits your scenario.

Qualitative Sampling Strategy: Be specific.

Qualitative Data Collection Method: Be specific.

Mixed Method Design: Identify the design as either (a) convergent, (b) explanatory sequential, or (c) exploratory sequential (see Creswell & Creswell, Chapter 10), and briefly describe how the design fits the objectives of your quantitative and qualitative scenarios.