|
I
have
read several dissertations whose research questions focused on concept
knowledge of statistics, which is og great interest to me.
All of
them were mixed methods, or so I thought. I had the idea that
mixed methods was merely conducting qualitative research on one
research questions and quantitative research on another research
question. Throughout this course, Dr. Maxwell stressed the
integration of the two methods and that the interplay between the two
methods can lead to discovery which would not be made if methods were
used in isolation. When utilized wisely, these two methods
hav
ethe potential to unlock connections which they would not in isolation.
I will admit that we had a voluminous amount of reading to complete in
this course and some of it was less than interesting.
However,
even if the topic of the research was not of interest to me, I could
always get something valuable from it, such as how the research
questions were framed, how validity threats were addressed (or not),
how differing methods assisted each other, etc. We analyzed
articles from every direction and usually found fault with them.
We learned to see steps or approaches which the
author had
missed, or perhaps, chose to not include. Discussions of how
the
same data could be interpreted differently depending on the
other information available to the researcher were daily
occurrences in this class.
I am glad that I took this class in the summer when I was not working
full time, as it demanded a large chunk of my time. But, I
also
applied what I was learning to my own ideas and started to question
what my own viewpoints or approaches might be causing me to miss.
I have found myself taking more time to analyze and think
about
what data may mean and what other information could illuminate any
meanings.
I found this class to be extremely enlightening and I expect it to be
very useful for me, too.
|
