Developing your Research
Problem / Question

Critics of Education Research
• …the inefficient and unscientific methods
used by educators in acquiring knowledge
and solving their problems. An uncritical
acceptance of authority opinion that is not
supported by objective evidence and an
overdependence upon personal experience
have been characteristic of the educator’s
problem solving techniques.
– Will Borg and many others who echo his perspective

Critics of Education Research
• In pairs answer questions:
– How would you assess the validity of the
Borg position? Accurate? Inaccurate?
– What are the reasons behind your
position?
– Does his criticism apply to your own
proposed research?

Identifying Your Research
Problem: Criteria
• It must sustain your interest
• It must be within your range of
competence
• It must be manageable in size
• It must have some basis in theory

Your Research Problem:
Criteria
• It must have the potential to make an
original contribution
• It must be based on obtainable data
• It must permit you to demonstrate you
independent mastery of both subject
and research method

Research Question
• Look for relationship between two or
more variables

Research Question Implies
Relationship
• Affect • Embed
• Approximate • Identical
• Associate • Indicate
• Cause • Influence
• Compare • Parallel
• Depend • Influence
• Divergent • Relate
• Effect • Tension

Techniques to help you define your
research topic and question
• Read the relevant literature
• Challenge assumptions
• Search for inconsistencies in literature
• Organize material you have read
• Talk to specialists
• Get the problem down on paper
• Read the relevant literature

Guidelines
• Research question should grammatically
stated as a question
• Subsidiary questions must be directly
related to research question
• Be careful with seeking to establish
causality. How are you going to isolate the
other variables that may have impact?
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Guidelines
• Why surveying extremely small samples
[<30]? Interviews better?
• do folks you intend to survey / interview
actually have information you need? Can
anyone tell you what someone else is
thinking? Believing?
• Heavy emphasis upon perceptions? Of what
value are perceptions?
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Literature Review / Search
• Goal is to present a representative
sample of the important findings of
relevant studies and theory.
• Literature review is not a mere listing of
most things written on the topic.

Literature Review Should
Answer Such Questions As:
• What has been written…?
• What is the basis of their evidence
(opinion...empirical evidence)?
• What are their conclusions…?
• What are the gaps in the research; what
areas need to be studied?

Assignment: Working In
Groups of 2-3
• Share your research and jointly identify the
strengths and weaknesses of your proposed
research
• Please use Patton & Madsen for guidance

Address such areas:
• Does your research question meet the
criteria suggested above? If not, why not?
• Does your research question look for
relationship between two or more variables?
If not, why not? What are those variables
• Does your literature review meet the criteria
listed above? If not, why not?
• Take 20± minute