In this article, I apply autoethnography to recount and analyze my experiences as a recent enrollee and course completer of a massive open online course (MOOC). Research surrounding MOOCs heretofore has been predominantly quantitative in nature, whereas this research utilizes a qualitative approach and offers a student's in-depth perspective.…

Although there are numerous calls to enhance the professionalism of teachers, there is little empirical research in the United States that examines educators' understanding of the concept. This exploratory case study compared the conceptualization of professionalism by faculty and students in a college of education vis-à-vis the…

The purpose of this study was to explore empathy and prosocial behaviors within real-world issues among Korean middle-childhood children living in Australia. Using a qualitative approach, seven students were engaged in six sessions of group or individual activities including five sessions of responding to video vignettes which demonstrated…

Many important educational situations such as traumatic brain injury among preschoolers, school gun violence, preadolescent eating disorders, and adolescent suicide happen relatively infrequently. In this article, the authors explain why mixed methods research designs offer more meaningful empirical results than do qualitative or quantitative…

The current laws that mandate special education originated through the advocacy of families (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1990). Over the years, families have challenged the system to provide free and appropriate public educations for their children. We share, through qualitative measures, the experiences of one African American family and the educators…

Blended learning has become a prominent method of course content delivery in higher education. Researchers have found that motivation, communication, and course design are three factors that contribute to the overall success of blended learning courses and students' satisfaction with blended learning courses. This qualitative study also found that…

In this article, the author challenges the validity and usefulness of the concept of "paradigm," as this term has been used in the social sciences generally, and specifically in the debates over research methods. He emphasizes that in criticizing what he sees as the misuse of the paradigm concept, he is not arguing for dismissing or ignoring…

When the editors of this journal asked the author to provide his evaluation of the concept of "paradigms" and provide a commentary on Joseph Maxwell's article on the subject, he responded positively because he believes that too often important ideas are not clarified, discussed, and debated in the literature. In this article, he first defines some…

A common perception that girls are good at writing may lead educators to overlook girls. This study examined the writing engagement of three sixth grade girls and how their writing self perception affected their attitudes in a writing classroom. Using a qualitative case study methodology, three themes emerged: the importance of writing tasks, the…

Most people agree that young children benefit academically from attending kindergarten; however, some research suggests that any academic advantage attributed to attending full day kindergarten compared to half-day programs will disappear as early as third grade. Based on the results of this study which looked at students in typical classroom…

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe a design that mixes single-case (sometimes referred to as single-subject) and qualitative methods, hereafter referred to as a single-case mixed methods design (SCD-MM). Minimal attention has been given to the topic of applying qualitative methods to SCD work in the literature. These two…

In this paper, two beginning qualitative researchers describe the challenges and successes of conducting a collaborative self-study. For two academic years, the authors wrote and analyzed personal narratives related to their experiences as a lesbian and a gay man, respectively, in educational contexts. This article addresses the data analysis…

While a discussion-based instructional approach is often employed by classroom teachers and university professors for teaching English, literature and varied content areas, there are few studies that have focused on how intellectually sophisticated doctoral students participate in class discussions to acquire discipline-specific content and what…

The historical debate surrounding quantitative and qualitative research paradigms has been at times rather passionate. Arguments for and against methodologies often have centered on the philosophical differences regarding issues such as generalizability, epistemology, and authentic representation of the phenomena under research. More recently,…

Educational theory should be the foundation for most practice and research, but this is not a one-way relationship. Good inductive research may help to develop theory instead of coming from it. The relationship of theory to research can be different in qualitative research than in quantitative research. Practice can and should also inform and be…