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Mixed methods research

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Nastaran Hoseinkhani
Mixed methods research
DORNYEI, CHAPTER 7
Typological organization
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'QUAL' or 'qual' stand for qualitative research

'QUAN' or 'quan' stand for quantitative research

Capital letters denote priority or increased weight

Lowercase letters denote lower priority or weight

A plus sign (+) represents a concurrent collection of data

An arrow (→) represents a sequential collection of data
Dimensions and categories

If a study has only two components: a qualitative and a quantitative

Both the sequence and the dominance dimensions have three categories:

Sequence: qualitative first, quantitative first or concurrent

Dominance: qualitative dominant, quantitative dominant or equal status

If we include more dimensions in a typology, it will become far too large to serve
any practical purpose
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Mixed methods research open up almost unlimited potential for future research
Possible combinations
sequential designs:
concurrent designs:
QUAL → QUAN
QUAL + QUAN
QUAN → QUAL
QUAL + quan
QUAL → quan
QUAN + qual
qual → QUAN
QUAN → qual
quan → QUAL
Exemplar-based typology

Typological approach is abstract
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More useful for the purpose of post-hoc classifications of studies than for designing new
research projects
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We will follow a more pragmatic approach in presenting mixed designs that are
organized around the actual data collection methods

Positive side: it uses descriptive labels to facilitate understanding

Negative side: list is selective rather than comprehensive that is it only includes the most
prominent basic combinations
QUAN → qual
Questionnaire survey with follow-up interview or retrospection

sequential explanatory design

Questionnaire: collect a large amount of data/ short time, inherent weakness

Adding a subsequent qualitative component to the study can remedy this weakness

In a follow-up interview (individual/ group) ask respondents to explain or illustrate the
patterns

It is easy to implement and analyze, yet which enriches the final findings

An important variation of this design involves conducting a “retrospective interview”
using the respondents' own survey responses as the retrospective prompts for further
open-ended reflection about what they really meant

use for validating test results with a newly developed test
qual → QUAN
Questionnaire survey facilitated by preceding interview

Designing a new questionnaire: involves conducting a small-scale exploratory
qualitative study first (group or one-to-one interviews)

to provide background information on the context

to identify or narrow down the focus of the possible variables

to act as a valuable source of ideas for preparing the item pool for the purpose of
questionnaire scale construction

Improves the content representation of the survey and thus internal validity of the
study

It is routinely used when a researcher is building a new instrument
QUAL → quan
Interview study with follow-up questionnaire survey

Strength of Qualitative: exploratory, allowing us to gain new insights and formulate new
theories

because of the non-representativeness of the typical samples, qualitative data cannot
inform us about how widely what is discovered exists in the rest of the world

Combining a qualitative interview study with a follow-up survey can offer the best

the questionnaire can specifically target the issues uncovered in the first phase of the
research and investigate the generalizabitity of the new hypotheses in wider
populations

the questionnaire can also be used to test certain elements of the theory emerging
from the qualitative phase
quan → QUAL
Interview study facilitated by preceding questionnaire survey

Qualitative research is vulnerable in small sample sizes of the respondents

The solution is to apply a purposive sampling including an initial questionnaire to
help to select the participants for qualitative phase

it can be used for most theoretical sampling purposes due to its flexibility

Drawback: it does not work if the initial questionnaire is anonymous because then
we cannot identify the appropriate survey participants.
concurrent designs

use two methods in a separate and parallel manner

they do not influence the operationalization of each other

results are integrated in the interpretation phase

The main purpose of this design is to broaden the research perspective and provide a
general picture and

to test how the different findings complement or corroborate each other

They are useful for combining micro' and macro perspectives
QUAN + qual
Experiments with parallel interviews

the questionnaire survey and the interview study, as the key research components

a natural and potentially highly fruitful design

can greatly enhance the study's internal validity

It is useful, for describing an aspect of a quantitative study that cannot be quantified
a qualitative component within a larger, primarily quantitative study such as a
program evaluation
QUAL + QUAN
Combining self-report and observational data

ways of gaining information about people:

(a) self-report: through the individuals' own accounts (interviews or questionnaires)

(b) external observation
Why don't people mix methods more?
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1) a lack of sufficient knowledge about method mixing → easy to deal with

2) a lack of expertise to implement a mixed design

shortcoming: it requires the competent handling of both qualitative and quantitative research. But
Most established researchers are not equally well-versed in "both" QUAL and QUAN methodologies
which is most probably related to differences in their cognitive styles and certain personality trait

the real potential for the implementation of mixed methods research lies in working in teams that
consist of members with different research orientations

by mixing methods they arrived at a unique, complex understanding of their research topic

the authors might choose to try and publish the results of the phases separately
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