The Creswell section on mixed methods procedures focuses on the start of a mixed methods study. It includes step-by-step guidelines as well as a checklist for guidance. It emphasizes the importance of defining mixed methods and discussing some of its history, since it is still fairly new. Pay special attention to timing, weight, mixing, and theorizing/transforming and include these in your proposal. The chapter goes on to discuss the 6 strategies for data collection; they are centered on how data is collected (sequentially, concurrently, or with transformative lens). Research tips are included to help decipher which strategy to choose as well as data collection, analysis and checks for validity procedures. This didn't exactly simplify the thought of mixed methods, but did provide a sort of guidebook, which I suppose is the intended purpose. I would like still lean more towards a qualitative method though. This process seems highly time-consuming and not for the ill-experienced researcher.
I found the chapter in On the Case much more interesting than the Creswell text, likely because real, or should I say realistic, were used much more frequently. The chapter focuses on the nature and the value of case studies, a sort of ground-up look at the topic. It distinguishes units and cases and how each may lead to insight to another person's situation or life. They discuss how processes or objects gain meaning, and how contexts are not fixed concepts as well as cultural practices. I found this passage very interesting: "Everyday teaching and learning are complex social happenings, and understanding them as such is the grand purpose of qualitative case studies" (9). It's really the central notion of our field, if we so choose to study qualitatively; I thought it was stated, we should strive to understand, regardless of our biases. The chapter goes onto discuss how it's tempting to merge quantitative and qualitative studies when researching, and how we must be weary of this. Essentially, the chapter aims to point out that we want to make perceptions of others' perceptions, to see their "real worlds". I preferred this style of text over the formulaic version (Creswell). Reading about real situations helped me gain an understanding of case studies and it should be very helpful when I begin my research endeavors.
Although Creswell does provide for a pretty solid foundation for informing his audience on how to research, so to speak, the other text, On The Case, does give their readers more of a realistic premise. I find that this makes it easier to relate the context of the book to real life applications which in turn creates more pathways to remember the information.
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