For mixed methods, the instrument section has to accommodate
both qual and quant instruments. For the qualitative components, identify each
instrument (observation sheet, interview protocol, focus group protocol,
videotape, audiotape, artifacts, archival data, and other kinds of data
collection instruments). State the source of each item and provide the
permission for it in your appendix.
For published instruments, identify who developed it, where
and with what populations it has been used. State why you think it is
appropriate for your study, and any cultural or context issues that might be
present with your population.
If you are designing qualitative instruments, explain how
you developed them – what was the basis for them? How will you establish
content validity?
Similarly, for the quantitative components, explain the background
of each instrument. Discuss validity and reliability in previous studies and
where it has been used before.
See my comments 12/18 on developing your own quantitative
instrument. The next section is how you will recruit participants for each component
(qual and quant). Go into detail on how and where the data will be collected
for each component.
Finally, you need to lay out your data analysis plan for
each component. For the quantitative aspects, indicate your hypotheses and what
statistical tests will be used for each. How will you interpret the results?
For the qualitative portion, indicate how you will code the transcripts and how
you will handle discrepant cases. Then you need to integrate the two types of
data and compare their results. How will you do this? Many students do a figure illustrating their analysis plan for mixed methods studies, you might find this helpful.
Next time we will continue our review - Chapter 3: Threats
to Validity. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to
discuss in a future post? Would you like
to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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