Education Commons^™

Practical Recommendations For Mixed Methods Sampling In Psychological Intervention Research: A Mixed Methods Case Study, Analay Perez

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sampling is integral to the research process and, if not appropriately addressed, can affect the meta-inferences of the mixed methods study. Sampling is also closely related to recruitment, retention, and additional methodological components. Sampling issues are magnified in social and health sciences intervention research due to the temporal placement of data collection and analysis. Limited research has examined sampling based on researchers’ rationales and decision-making across mixed methods psychological intervention research. This study explored this phenomenon to develop and refine a list of practical recommendations for sampling in mixed methods that were tested using content validity.

Using an exploratory sequential …

Guidelines For Interpretive Interview Fidelity In Mixed Methods Research Within The Context Of A Randomized Controlled Trial, Amanda L. Garrett

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Interviews fascinate and capture individuals’ attention. Researchers value the data they glean from interviews, while participants enjoy being asked to share their voices and opinions. Some of the most complex, stringent research designs are now being revised to include interviews, such as randomized controlled trials. But, how do we know that the interviews that are conducted are valid? We need to know more about how interviews are developed and delivered within the context of intervention research. Therefore, the aim of this methodological dissertation is to create a set of recommendations for interpretive interviews in a mixed methods randomized controlled trial. …

Into The Gap: A Mixed Methods Study Of Acculturation, Stress, And Refugee Family Functioning, Kieu Anh T. Do

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Every day, new waves of refugees result from increasing social, political and environmental instabilities around the world. Numerous studies have detailed the various stressors and adjustment issues that refugees face when resettled in a new host society. The majority of these studies focus on individual-level variables and not on the family as a whole. Thus, more studies are needed to understand how refugee families adjust in the resettlement context in order to promote positive outcomes. Studies that have examined family-level functioning often focus on how acculturative differences increase stress in refugee families, contributing to higher levels of familial tension and …

Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study Of Mixed Methods Research In South Africa, Debra Rena Miller

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Notwithstanding the dramatic expansion of mixed methods research, research methodologies, methods, and findings are culturally situated. Problematically, studies conducted outside the global north often embrace canonical methodologies aimed at understanding concepts more explicit than tacit. Learning about the needs of researchers and participants in South Africa may bring to light taken-for-granted assumptions in Anglo-American orientations of mixed methods. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore aspects of tacit cultural knowledge that contextualize mixed methods research in South Africa.

In-person interviews among South African professors as well as a corpus of books, sections, journal articles, and theses informed the …

The Adoption Of Mixed Methods In China: An Exploratory Instrument Design, Yuchun Zhou

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Mixed methods is “the third research paradigm” and a methodology along with traditional quantitative and qualitative methodologies (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, p.14). It is at the expansion/diffusion stage of development where researchers are most interested in how this method is adopted across disciplines and countries. However, very little literature is found regarding the use of mixed methods in non-Western cultural contexts, such as East Asia. Hence, the current study aimed to explore the expansion of mixed methods in an underrepresented population, China, a non-Western context and developing country.

The study employed an exploratory instrument design to investigate Chinese scholars’ decisions of …

A Mixed Methods Approach To Examining The Getting Ready Intervention For Supporting Young Children With Challenging Behaviors, Miriam E. Kuhn

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Families and preschool teachers of children with persistent challenging behaviors are taxed daily by difficulties presented in care and management of such children in their homes and early education settings. This study utilized a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach in three phases to better understand a collaborative partnership model of intervention, Getting Ready (Sheridan, Marvin, Knoche, & Edwards, 2008), for supporting preschoolers with challenging behaviors attending Head Start or state-funded pre-kindergarten programs. Preschool teachers received professional development and individual coaching to help them improve partnerships and collaboratively plan with parents to promote children’s growth, and enhance parent-child interactions.

In Phase …

Fidelity Of Implementation, Teacher Perspectives And Child Outcomes Of A Literacy Intervention In A Head Start Program: A Mixed Methods Study, Dawn Davis

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The success of early childhood interventions have been influenced by the degree to which they were implemented with fidelity (e.g., Davidson, Fields & Yang, 2009; Dusenbury, Brannigan, Falco, & Hansen, 2003; Elliot & Mihalic, 2004), meaning “the degree to which teachers and other program providers implement programs as intended by the program developers” (Mellard & Johnson, 2008, p. 240). This study examines relations among implementation fidelity, teacher characteristics, their perceptions, and child literacy outcomes within a preschool literacy intervention using a mixed methods design.

This study examines child literacy outcome data from 247 preschool children and fidelity, perceptions and demographic …

Structures And Relationships Between The Business Executive And Information Technology Executive At The University: A Mixed Methods Study, Angela K. Hollman

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study uses an explanatory mixed methods methodology to attempt to determine the reporting relationships between business and IT executives within the university. The study also explores IT and business executives thoughts on these relationships. Supporting research from organizational studies and business-IT alignmfent is combined in order to enhance the study. In the first quantitative phase, an exploratory factor analysis is used to determine organizational dimension factors while simple response and frequency analysis are used to model the top occurring organizational structures between IT and business executives. The second qualitative phase used semi-structured interviews with 12 random CIOs and CFOs …

A Mixed Methods Approach To Food Safety Knowledge, Beliefs And Practices In Hispanic Families With Young Children In Nebraska, Kristen M. Stenger

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed methods study addresses food safety for Hispanic families with young children in Nebraska. A convergent mixed methods design was used, where qualitative and quantitative data were collected in parallel, analyzed separately and then merged in analysis and interpretation. A quantitative food safety knowledge survey (n=90, 52 from focus groups, 38 from piloting the survey), was used to assess the FightBac!™ concepts: Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill, and two additional concepts: foods that increase risk, and groups at increased risk. Qualitative focus groups explored food safety handling beliefs and practices through the lens of the Health Belief Model. Focus groups …

Exploring Student Perceptions To Explain The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Academic Achievement In Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study, Megan J. Hylok

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A nationwide survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2007 reported 65% of high school students did not meet the recommendation that youth participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity most days of the week (CDC, 2008). While research has focused its attention primarily on bodily health, growing evidence supports the benefits of physical activity on brain health (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). Physical activity is important and many adolescents are not meeting the recommendation, therefore, it is important to explore the adolescent perceptions to understand which factors influence physical activity participation. The significance of this study …

Value Added By Mixed Methods Research: A Multiphase Mixed Methods Design, Courtney Haines

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the perceived value of mixed methods research for graduate students at a Midwestern university. A multiphase mixed methods design was used to measure graduate students perceptions of the value of a study’s methodology. The study consisted of three phases. Phase I was conducted in order to construct passages and the goal of Phase II was to create a survey. These two phases were then combined to create Phase III. Part one of Phase III was an experiment that looked at the effect of a study’s methodology on the value of the …

Pathways To Reflection: Exploring The Reflective Analytical Practices Of Novice Teachers, Emily Hayden

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed methods study explores reflective practices of novice teachers teaching in a University Reading Clinic. Novices’ reflective practices are compared to those of experienced teachers in a pilot study. A theoretical model of novices’ reflective practices is developed and tested. Twenty-three novices wrote structured reflections after each teaching week. Theoretical coding identified six themes: Description, Confidence, Locus of Control, Adaptations, Discourse,Transfer. Graduated scoring and ANOVA explored trends, correlations, effects among themes. Confidence followed a significant linear trend. Adaptations, Discourse, Transfer followed significant quadratic trends. Significant correlations were found between Description-Discourse, Locus of Control-Discourse, Locus of Control-Adaptations, Discourse-Adaptation Slope. Significant …