USING MIXED METHODS RESEARCH TO STUDY THE PROBLEM OF VIOLENCE AMONG STUDENTS IN BANGKOK

Information sources from the Bangkok area, Thailand during 2011 - 2014 reflected an increase in violent behaviors among students in Bangkok, Thailand such as punching, slapping, hitting and quarreling with fellow students. There is an essential to study more details in terms of research in order to discover an appropriate guideline to prevent and solve problems of that violence. As we have learnt about a popular research technique in this century which the most well-known term is mixed methods research. Some may say it is similarly an integration of qualitative and quantitative methods that was used a long time ago. This research technique may be the appropriate research method to answer these research questions. Moreover, one of the results from this research will present a new knowledge of using mixed methods technique for Thai educational research context. The objectives of this research are 1) to study problems of violence among students in Bangkok, 2) to study and develop a mixed methods technique for educational research in Thai institutions by using questionnaires and qualitative research. The research found that the violent behaviors are increasingly among students in primary school and reducing in vocational level. To succeed in preventing and resolving the problem, agencies and communities cannot work alone. It's required that agencies to be responsible for the whole system and full cooperation in all levels. The research also presented that, although there have been different points of view on the two different research paradigms, this technique is very necessarily for researchers because it can be reduced the limitations of qualitative and quantitative research and combining both strengths. Mixed methods can much more clearly answer research questions. However, we should have an awareness that mixed methods research needs researchers who know well of both qualitative and quantitative paradigms.