The use of advanced quantitative methods within mixed methods research has been investigated in a limited capacity. In particular, hierarchical linear models are a popular approach to account for multilevel data, such as students within schools, but its use and value as the quantitative strand in a mixed methods study remains unknown. This article…

Developing student's confidence with qualitative research methods presents a challenge to many educators and is even more of a challenge when the 'educator' themselves are unfamiliar with such methods. This paper offers a three-way reflective account of bringing one such colleague 'into the fold'; their journey to the 'dark side.' It documents the…

Background: Despite the importance of social networks for health and well-being, relatively little is known about the ways in which adults with intellectual disabilities in the U.K. experience their social networks. Method: A systematic review was completed to identify research focused on the social networks of adults with intellectual…

Many factors influence students' progress in higher education. However, the students' own voices are seldom heard. Using a qualitative approach, the study explored students' own experiences of the factors that have influenced their studying. Research has indicated that students' experiences are often related to their approaches to learning.…

Between-subject design surveys are a powerful means of gauging public opinion, but critics rightly charge that closed-ended questions only provide slices of insight into issues that are considerably more complex. Qualitative research enables richer accounts but inevitably includes coder bias and subjective interpretations. To mitigate these…

An advantage of well-designed survey research is that, typically, it yields large volumes of quantitative and qualitative data. A key challenge researchers face is mining and reporting these data appropriately and promptly to inform research publications and presentations. When mixed methods are employed, and researchers attempt to master computer…

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments provide learners with multiple representational tools for storing, sharing, and constructing knowledge. However, little is known about how learners organize knowledge through multiple representations about complex socioscientific issues. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to…

The complexity of educational issues underscores the need for rigorous inquiry, whose findings are to drive appropriate reforms. There have been long-standing debates among scholars on which of the qualitative and quantitative methods is more rigorous in contributing towards shaping education. While some scholars believe that since education deals…

By distinguishing between a survey and--a newly introduced term--a "probe," we recast the relationship between qualitative and quantitative approaches to social science. The difference turns on the "uniformity" of the phenomenon being examined. Uniformity is a fundamental idea underlying all scientific research but is rarely…

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was utilized for the reporting of the research literature in "The Journal for Specialists in Group Work" (JSGW) since a 1997 special issue focused on contemporary issues in the research of group work was published. The focus of this review was to explore the…

Any attempt to influence behavior by sharing a research finding that makes a probabilistic statement (e.g., a p value) should necessarily entail consideration of how consumers of the information might interpret this information. Such consideration can be informed, at least in part, by applying phenomenological principles of inquiry. This does not…

This paper is concerned with investigating the integration of quantitative and qualitative data in mixed methods research and whether, in spite of its challenges, it can be of positive benefit to many investigative studies. The paper introduces the topic, defines the terms with which this subject deals and undertakes a literature review to outline…

Purpose: Repeated duration data are frequently used in behavioral studies. Classical linear or log-linear mixed models are often inadequate to analyze such data, because they usually consist of nonnegative and skew-distributed variables. Therefore, we recommend use of a statistical methodology specific to duration data. Method: We propose a…

Big qualitative data (Big Qual), or research involving large qualitative data sets, has introduced many newly evolving conventions that have begun to change the fundamental nature of some qualitative research. In this methodological essay, we first distinguish big data from big qual. We define big qual as data sets containing either primary or…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify how intervention research weighed in nonintervention research in the field of human resource development (HRD) by examining the number, citation frequency and use of experimental studies in HRD academic journals. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 2,700 articles published between 1990 and 2014…