Mixed Research in Gifted Education: A Mixed Research Investigation of Trends in the Literature

The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of mixed research techniques in empirical studies published in gifted education journals. During Phase 1, empirical full-text databases and relevant electronic bibliographic databases related to gifted education were searched during a time span of 10 to 18 years, resulting in the identification of 32 mixed research studies. During Phase 2, frequency data were compiled detailing the types of methods (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) implemented in empirical studies published in three leading gifted education research journals covering the time span of 5 years. A sequential mixed analysis was conducted on Phase 2 data, and results indicated that authors of empirical research articles utilized primarily quantitative methods. Among the 19 studies identified as mixed research, 5 utilized a mixed design that was categorized as a partially mixed, concurrent, dominant status design.