Abstract
In wake of federal legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that have called for “scientifically based research in education,” this study examined the possible trends in mixed methods research articles published in 2 peer-reviewed mathematics education journals (n = 87) from 2002 to 2006. The study also illustrates how the integration of quantitative and qualitative research enhances the findings in mathematics education research. Mixed methods research accounted for 31% of empirical articles published in the 2 journals, with a 10% decrease over the 5-year span. Mixed methods research articles were slightly more qualitatively oriented, with 59% constituting such a design. Topics involving mathematical thought processes, problem solving, mental actions, behaviors, and other occurrences related to mathematical understanding were examined in these studies. Qualitative and quantitative data were used to complement one another and reveal relationships between observations and mathematical achievement.
