Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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As presented critically in Chapter VI, Section 1a the label of mixed methods research is given to any
project which collects, analyses and interprets some mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods within a
study. Throughout the numerous professions which have utilised mixed methods over the years, a variety of
number and typology of mixed methods design have been utilised. Cresswell and Piano-Clark (2006) however
argue that many of the classifications share numerous similarities although with emphasis on small differences,
and henceforth described four major types of design (and hence reasons for conducting mixed studies) within
which studies which utilise mixed methods can be placed.
According to Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2009) mixed methods exist on a continuum from not being mixed
through to fully mixed methods. While non-mixed methods (also described as monomethod designs) utilise solely
qualitative or quantitative, fully mixed designs are the most highly mixed with partially mixed methods existing in
between the two. Indeed the largest difference between partially and fully mixed research is with partially mixed
work the data is collected either sequentially (i.e. in a logical sequence/order) or concurrently (i.e. both qualitative
and quantitative data are collected and analysed at approximately the same time) before being mixed during the
data interpretation stage.
In the presented thesis the method of mixing the two data types has been greatly facilitated by the depth of
information gained throughout the qualitative AI phases, as well as the outputs given from the MSIT analysis tool.
Survey 1 analysis tool outputs (see Appendix 6) show the areas which are working well, according to benchmark
data determined by the publishers, as well as those requiring improvement. Each of the seven areas are clearly
defined and summarised from the analysis tool, and therefore the overall meanings of these results can be safely
compared with the qualitative data outcomes. It is therefore likely that there are to be both convergent and