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For students and researchers new to mixed methods, A Concise Introduction to Mixed Methods Research 2e by renowned author John W. Creswell provides a brief and practical introduction to mixed methods. Many graduate students and researchers in the social, behavioral and health sciences may not have the time or resources to read long treatises or stacks of journal articles on mixed methods research. This text quickly describes the basics of setting up and conducting a study using this methodology. Chapters are short and follow the process of research, from ensuring skills for conducting research, acknowledging the steps in planning a study, designing studies with increasing complexity, planning sampling strategies and integration, and writing up the results of your study. Get started in mixed methods quickly with this brief primer.

There are many textbooks on research methods, plenty of books on popular science, and specialist texts on a whole range of academic fields. However, few bring these together as a framework for a career involving research, and few attempt a practical appraisal of the challenges and opportunities involved in being'a researcher'. Here, the principles underlying humanity's past and continuing acquisition of knowledge are illustrated across a variety of academic fields, from history to quantum physics - telling stories of clever and inventive people with good ideas, but also of personalities, politics, and power. This book draws together these strands to provide an informal and concise account of knowledge acquisition in all its guises. Having set out what research hopes to achieve, and why we are all researchers at heart, early chapters describe the basic principles underlying this - ways of thinking which may date back to the philosophers of the Athenian marketplace but are still powerful influences on the way research is carried out today. Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, Stewart takes the reader well beyond the pure'scientific method', which might work well enough in physics or chemistry but falls apart in life sciences, let alone humanities. Later chapters consider the realities of carrying out research and the ways in which these continue to shape its progress - researchers and their personalities, their employers, funding, publication, political forces, and power structures. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this book is for anyone embarking on a research project or beginning to think about a career involving research, and for those in need of refocusing on why they started research in the first place.

Der bewährte Instrumentenkoffer für die'SMARTe Praxisforschung'stellt eine Palette hilfreicher Verfahren vor, die Forschenden in der Sozialen Arbeit, der Lehrer:innenbildung und den Gesundheitswissenschaften beim Einstieg helfen. Hinter dem Begriff'SMARTe Praxisforschung'verbergen sich die Anfangsbuchstaben der fünf wesentlichsten Merkmale von praxisorientierter Forschung, die der Autor zukünftigen und fortgeschrittenen Forschende anschaulich erläutert. Sein Buch enthält eine Vielzahl von praktischen und methodischen Instrumenten für Untersuchungen, Befragungen, Evaluationen, Auswertungen und Datensystematik. Nach einer Stellungnahme zu den kontrovers diskutierten Begriffen Praxiswissen und wissenschaftliches Wissen führt der Autor die angehenden Forschenden in die Planung von Forschungsprojekten ein und zeigt, wie Praxisforschung immer auch partizipativ angelegt ist. Dabei beschreibt er eine breite Palette bewährter Verfahren und Hilfestellungen, welche die Qual der Wahl minimieren und eine systematische, optimale Auswertung anleiten.