{"id":81,"date":"2018-02-13T22:35:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T22:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/?p=81"},"modified":"2018-02-13T22:35:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T22:35:30","slug":"learning-activity-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/2018\/02\/13\/learning-activity-7-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Activity 7.1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What is at the heart of the quantitative\/qualitative debate?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the heart of the debate between quantitative and qualitative research is the purpose of research. Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015) describe the key difference as exploration and explanation. While quantitative research can explain trends or patterns, qualitative research seeks to explore themes or concepts. The research question is the main difference between the two as this then effects the methods used, role of the researcher and forms of data among other things. Mixed methods seeks to use both qualitative and quantitative data in order to provide a greater understanding of something that could not have been achieved otherwise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How has mixed methods been seen as a remedy for advancing leadership research?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The mixed methods approach is valuable for a number of reasons. In leadership research it is valuable because it accounts for some of the complexities of leadership that quantitative and qualitative research do not. Rather than reinforcing previous leadership theories or results, a mixed method approach can help researchers discover new information (Stentz, Plano-Clark, Matkin, 2016). Leadership can be difficult to study as it can be hard to determine what makes a great leader. Many theories have developed in order to explain or quantify leadership (Northouse, 2013). Often times the hard data does not explain the complexity of leadership. Qualitative research can be limited as well as conclusions can sometimes be vague or abstract. By using a mixed methods approach, researchers can combine statistics and data with personal stories, experiences and interpretation of effective leadership qualities in order to give a broader understanding of leadership and to develop new theories of leadership. It can also reinforce previous understanding of leadership theories.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What other fields besides leadership would you like to see more mixed method research done?<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.<\/p>\n<p>Plano-Clark, V., &amp; Creswell, J. (2015).\u00a0<em>Understanding research: A consumer\u2019s guide<\/em>\u00a0(2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.<\/p>\n<p>Stentz, J. E., Plano Clark, V. L., &amp; Matkin, G. S. (2016). Applying mixed methods to leadership research: A review of current practices: Corrigendum.\u00a0<i>The Leadership Quarterly<\/i>,\u00a0<i>27<\/i>(4), 711. doi:10.1016\/j.leaqua.2015.12.006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is at the heart of the quantitative\/qualitative debate? At the heart of the debate between quantitative and qualitative research is the purpose of research. Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015) describe the key difference as exploration and explanation. While quantitative research&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/2018\/02\/13\/learning-activity-7-1\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,32,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs591","category-learning-activity-7-1","category-unit-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/oplearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}