Combining worlds: a mixed method for understanding learning spaces
Author(s)
McCrone, Luke
Kingsbury, Martyn
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Understanding student interaction in learning spaces is an ongoing challenge. The move away from didactic lecture delivery towards more active and hybrid learning renders this challenge ever more difficult. Researching pedagogic use of informal learning space, which is not formally timetabled or controlled, is always challenging because it is interacted with only transiently by both students and teachers. This paper introduces a mixed methods, phenomenological approach used in recent research to investigate campus learning spaces in face-to-face learning contexts. The full mixed methods approach combined space occupancy monitoring data with naturalistic ethnographic observation, field interviews and, where appropriate, more formal in-depth interviews to provide an effective way of understanding student and teacher engagement with learning spaces. Convergent use of these qualitative and quantitative methods yielded data which informed the application of subsequent methods, and the investment of researcher, pedagogic and infrastructural resource. In this paper we argue that as learning outside of formal teaching spaces increases, these mixed methods enable better, more efficient monitoring of pedagogic use of informal learning spaces. The mixed method can be adapted depending on the question being addressed and has the potential to inform resource allocation and investment into pedagogic and infrastructural change.
Date Issued
2023-05-02
Date Acceptance
2023-04-18
Citation
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2023, 22, pp.1-10
ISSN
1609-4069
Publisher
SAGE Publishing
Start Page
1
End Page
10
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Volume
22
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2023. Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further
permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further
permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
License URL
Identifier
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/16094069231173781
Subjects
Ethnography
Methods in Qualitative Inquiry
Mixed Methods
Phenomenology
Secondary Data Analysis
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2023-05-02