Choosing a mixed method research design

¶ … post-tenure review can have a serious impact on the study findings. This research aims to explore the nature of post-tenure review, and how it affects not only teacher performance and perceptions, but also student academic performance. Thus, there are qualitative and quantitative elements which much be mixed and blended properly to provide the most sound results.

In order to achieve this, research methods must be fine tuned. This study will be a naturalistic inquiry with a qualitative design, where phenomenon is observed, recorded, and then analyzed. These study designs have been used in countless prior research to evaluate a particular human phenomenon that occurs outside the range of the study designers. Thus, this is meant to evaluate such a phenomenon, not recreate it. Out of the four major design types, the Triangulation style proves most correlative. Triangulation Design aims to observe and account for different "but complimentary data on the same topic," (Croswell 62). Qualitative and Quantitative data are collected separately and then combined to create an interpretation of research findings. It will feature a qualitative survey of educator's perceptions, with a comparison to the quantitative data representing actual student academic performance in institutions with and without post-tenure review. It will use the data transformation model, which "also involves the separate collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data sets," (65). This presents the best method for analysis. According to research, it "allows the data to be mixed during the analysis stage and facilitates the comparison, interrelation, and further analysis of the two data sets," (65).

Additionally important is the choice of timing, weighting, and mixing of the study. It will use Sequential timing "implements the methods in two distinct phases, using (collecting and analyzing) one type of data before using the other," (81). This research cannot ask students to take additional tests -- therefore that whole wing of the research will occur independently from the qualitative survey. The research will have to use scores from prior standardized testing. Additionally, the sequential timing method will allow researchers to make general correlations between the existence of post-tenure review and the perception of educators separately from measuring academic performance. This will allow a foundation for which the quantitative academic performance measures can be interpreted. Both collection of qualitative and quantitative data play "an equally important role in addressing the research problem," (82). However, academic performance can be influenced by other measures, and so the qualitative data representing teacher perceptions should be weighted more heavily. Institutions with and without post-tenure review will then be merged through merging the data sets. This will integrate the two groups in order to allow the context of this research to make general assumptions about any correlations or significant differences.