Modern Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Mixed Methods to Social Science Researchers

Abstract

Mixed methods research is burgeoning across the social sciences. Yet there is a need to implement more modern approaches to teaching it in higher education. The aim of this work is to outline pedagogy and preliminary evaluation of new mixed methods workshops designed and implemented in an Australian university. A specific feature of these workshops included unpacking the ontological, epistemological and axiological understandings of various methods and the paradigms or worldviews that underpin each approach. This overview of the processes of scientific inquiry that permits mixing-in within and across quantitative and qualitative research designs aims to help participants to see how logics moved among these divides. In order to engage participants in critically learning about these abstract concepts, we adopted teaching strategies of flipped classroom and active learning. Results, from the workshop evaluations and individual learning reflections, provided preliminary evidence that: (i) due to this broad overview on mixed methods, participants would likely use mixed methods in the future in their field; and (ii) there is a strong appetite for high quality Mixed Methods instruction in higher education.