Schools are turning to research-based social emotional learning (SEL) practices to improve student achievement and school progress. Research to support SEL implementation, however, has lagged behind outcomes-based evaluations, often resulting in poor SEL program quality and fidelity. This mixed methods study explores SEL implementation at a…

Learning how to actively theorise music is a complex process which is challenging to observe and describe for teachers, students and researchers. In this study, we explore the potential of a mixed-methods research design for understanding how theorising is developed and how the different methodological approaches used in the study can improve our…

A defining characteristic of mixed methods research, integration receives considerable attention in the field, yet evidence suggests that the process of integration may be challenging in practice. Crossover analyses, in which methods typically used with one data type are applied to a different data type, can deepen integration. Using an example…

In this article, I address a specific methodological issue, namely the analysis of interaction that researchers undertaking design-based research (DBR) face when adopting a traditional approach to context. I first describe my methodological worldview in which the meaning of context is continuously negotiated by participants from sociocultural…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the principal coaching and/or professional development activities that expert high school principals experienced that helped them to achieve expert status, i.e. exemplary leadership, and positively impact student outcomes, to rate the effectiveness of the identified activities as reported by the…

Attention to mixed methods studies research has increased in recent years, particularly among funding agencies that increasingly require a mixed methods approach for program evaluation. At the same time, researchers operating within large-scale, rapid-turnaround research projects are faced with the reality that collection and analysis of large…

The importance of well elaborated cognitive structures in a science knowledge domain has been noted in many studies. Therefore, the main aim of this particular study was to employ a new diagrammatic assessment approach, students' generated systemic synthesis questions (SSynQs), to evaluate and compare the quality of high school students' and…

Integration in mixed methods involves bringing together quantitative and qualitative approaches. There is a need for practical examples of how to integrate the two approaches in an explanatory sequential design at the methods level and at the interpretation and reporting level. This article reports an explanatory sequential mixed methods study of…

A number of recent studies have revealed that taking part in a sail-training-based Adventure Education Programme elevates youths' self-esteem. Across two studies, we sought to examine the extent to which youths' sense of belonging contributed to this increase in self-esteem. Study 1 revealed that participants who completed the voyage showed an…

Underwater photo-elicitation is a novel experiential marine education technique that combines direct experience in the marine environment with the use of digital underwater cameras. A program called Show Us Your Ocean! (SUYO!) was created, utilising a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative methods) to test the efficacy of this technique.…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of distributed leadership in Public Senior High Schools (SHS) with regard to school improvement. Using the Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Method design, 92 teachers and 4 head masters and 4 assistant head masters were randomly and census sampled. Three research questions were formulated and…

Social justice research is popular in education, but social scientists have limited emancipatory methodological procedures, especially in scale construction approaches that empower marginalized communities in defining their own lived experience. Therefore, this study develops the Transformativist Measurement Development Methodology, exemplified…

This mixed methods study focused on adolescents who rejected conventional singular racial/ethnic categorization by selecting multiple race/ethnicities or writing descriptions of "Other" racial/ethnic identities in response to a survey item asking them to identify their race/ethnicity. Written responses reflected eight distinct categories…

In this case, I describe the "Paths on Life's Way (Paths)" project. The "Paths" project is the only longitudinal study of its kind in British Columbia and one of the few longitudinal studies in Canada. The research, now spanning 22 years-with a 28-year follow-up underway-is designed to provide a detailed examination of the life…

Dual-enrollment programs have been proposed as a useful way to ease students' transition from high school to community college. Several studies have shown that dual enrollment produces positive effects for students, but less is known about the mechanisms these programs use to support student success. Symbolic interactionism suggests that clarity…