Research Scenarios

Scenario 1: Ten students are available for in-depth interviews. Participants will be selected based on their involvement with the peer mediation program. They will be observed over three weeks. Analysis will attempt to determine issues concerning peer mediation.

I believe that a qualitative research approach to this scenario would be best. This is because this scenario uses observation to collect data. When observing, the data that is collected contains less numbers and more narrative thought and response. I believe the case study qualitative approach should be used. This approach examines “a case, over time in detail” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2008, p. 26) which is what this scenario would be doing. The students will be observed over three weeks of time.

Scenario 2: Two classrooms of students are selected. There are 30 students in each class; each group will have similar demographics—age, sex, race, socio-economic background, etc. Classes will be randomly divided into two groups of 15 students. Of these two groups, one randomly selected group will get training on peer mediation and the other group will not. Thus in each classroom there will be one group that is trained in peer mediation and one that is not. Analysis will occur on which groups have the fewest office referrals.

For this scenario I think that the quantitative approach would work best. A quantitative approach answers questions using numbers. With this scenario, the data will be the number of office referrals of the students. This would be data involving numbers. I also believe that the true experimental design would work for this scenario. McMillan & Schumacher (2008) state “the unique characteristic of a true experimental design is that there is random assignment of subjects to different groups” (p. 24). This approach would work with this scenario because the students that are selected will randomly be placed into either a group that receives peer mediation or a group that does not receive mediation.

Scenario 3: A school counselor is interested in knowing how student attitudes affect the value of peer mediation to decrease the number of office referrals that are being filed for inappropriate interactions.

I believe that for this scenario, a mixed method exploratory approach would work best. McMillan & Schumacher (2008) state that in this exploratory mixed method approach “the qualitative data are gathered first and a quantitative phase follows” (p.28). I believe that this approach would work best because first, the school counselor will use qualitative methods to find out more about student attitudes and thoughts, and second, the number of office referrals would be looked at which is more quantitative methods.

Scenario 4: Peer mediation has become widely used in many schools. The feelings of those involved in the process are little known—either from those doing the mediation or those receiving it. The ZASK-R Acceptance Preference Survey will be given as pre- and post-tests to 40 students participating in mediation. Follow-up interviews will be conducted on a bi-monthly basis.

I believe that a mixed research approach would work best for this scenario. I think that an explanatory design would work best. In an explanatory design, “quantitative data are collected first and, depending on the results, qualitative data are gathered” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2008, p. 28). I feel that this design fits with the scenario because a survey will be given first as pre and post tests, which would be the quantitative data and then interviews would be conducted, which would be the qualitative data.

References:

McMillan, J., & Schumacher, S. (2008). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry (Laureate custom edition). Boston: Pearson