The purpose of this article is to identify proper uses for mixed methods in leadership research and assessment. This article will highlight research and assessment questions that are best served by mixed methods and will offer practitioner-friendly guides and examples for integrating quantitative and qualitative data to help eat the whole whale…

A qualitative study is presented to answer the research questions of (1) What are the main factors influencing the decision-making behaviours of civil engineering students and (2) What role could education play in enhancing the decision making of both students and practitioners. A pilot co-curricular intervention programme is described that blurs…

Student dropout can be conceptualized as a decision-making process, consisting of different phases. Based on previous literature on student dropout, decision-making, and action-phases, we proposed that the process of developing dropout intentions includes the following phases: "non-fit perception," "thoughts of…

In a time when fewer resources force school leaders to make critical decisions, the data-driven decision-making model continues to offer promise. This research project provides observations about factors used for decision making from 14 district leaders across five Iowa school districts. Placing these factors for decision making within the…

Fidelity is defined as doing what is intended. The purpose of measuring fidelity is to assist with supporting implementation. Collecting fidelity data provides an opportunity to problem-solve throughout the process versus waiting for outcome data. More often than not, purchased programs and curriculum materials are missing a research-validated…

This is a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study of teachers' professional development experiences within two Educational Service Agencies in the northeastern part of the United States. It examines how much and what types of professional development teachers receive, and the factors that contribute to school leaders' decisions for offering…

Educational leadership and informal teacher leaders are the heartbeat of school initiatives, successes, and growth, and they serve as the foundation of positive school reform. However, it is not known to what extent teacher leaders engage in informal leadership roles or how they use these informal leadership roles to enact change and make positive…

The intent of this study was to explore and understand the effects of professional experience on the ethical profiles of housing and residence life staff. Through a survey design, this study used the Managerial Ethical Profile (MEP) to analyze the professional experience of members of the Association of College and University Housing Officers --…

Longitudinal randomized controlled trials generally assign individuals randomly to interventions at baseline and then evaluate how differential average treatment effects evolve over time. This study shows that longitudinal settings could benefit from "Recurrent Individual Treatment Assignment" ("RITA") instead, particularly in…

Over past decades, the term 'evidence-based policy' has come to dominate policy discussions. This is true across Australia and internationally, in education policy as well as other policy areas. In education, there is often talk of getting evidence into early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and schools, such as making practitioners…

This article builds upon a proiminent definition of construct validity that focuses on variation in attributes causing variation in measurement outcomes. This article synthesizes the defintion and uses Rasch measurement modeling to explicate a modified conceptualization of construct validity for assessments of developmental attributes. If…

Rather than professional-driven decisions, shared decisions are central to family-centered philosophy and practices. This qualitative study investigated how four home visitors and 12 families engaged in institutional decision-making about 16 infants and toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start. The following research question was addressed: How do…

This study used a mixed-methods design to examine teachers' responses to professional learning on mathematics differentiation. Grade 3 classroom teachers (N = 28) attended four 2-h professional learning sessions and an additional 2 h individually on differentiation and completed pre- and post-surveys with quantitative and short response items…

The aim of this study was to examine gender stereotyping by pre-school children in selecting a picture book cover and assigning gender to animal characters in illustrations. We aimed to explore which gender children would assign to bear characters, when these are portrayed in different more or less gender stereotyped activities, occupations or…

This paper presents the findings of the push and pull factors that cause professionals to leave academia. Previous research has mostly focused on academic professionals' intent to leave their current organisations and largely neglected occupational turnover, that is, the cases where faculty abandon an academic career. The study included 40…