education

1. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Dr. Sc. Agr. Agung Karuniawan, Ir., M.Sc. Agr
Monday, 13 September 2021

2. CONTENT
1. Research Problem Definition
2. A Research Problem Will Explain
3. What are research questions
4. The research process: why are research problems important?
5. Steps To Defining Your Research Problem
6. Differentiating Quantitative from Qualitative Research Problems
7. Writing the Problem Statement

3. RESEARCH PROBLEM DEFINITION
• A research problem is the issue being addressed in a study.
• The issue can be a difficulty or conflict to be eliminated; a condition to be
improved; a concern to handle; a troubling question, a theoretical or practical
controversy (or a gap) that exists in scholarly literature.

4. RESEARCH PROBLEM DEFINITION
• A research problem helps in narrowing the topic down to something that is
reasonable for conducting a study. Research problem as a general educational
issue, concern, or controversy addressed in research that narrows the topic.
• To better understand research problems suggested to compare it to other parts of
the research process, i.e. research topic, purpose, and research questions.

5. A RESEARCH PROBLEM WILL EXPLAIN
As well as outlining the topic and/or opportunity, a
research problem will explain:
• Why the area/issue needs to be addressed,
• Why the area/issue is of importance,
• The parameters of the research study

6. A RESEARCH PROBLEM WILL EXPLAIN
• The reporting framework for the results and
• What the overall benefit of doing so will provide
(whether to society as a whole or other researchers
and projects).
• Having identified the main topic or opportunity for
discussion, you can then narrow it down into one or
several specific questions that can be scrutinized and
answered through the research process.

7. WHAT ARE RESEARCH QUESTIONS?
Research questions are generated from problems that require further
research and understanding while fulfilling the objectives of the study.
For example, using the research problems above, our questions could
be:
1. "What strategies can we adopt for conservation of genetic
resources in the era of climate change?”
2. “How can we produce more food while implementing adaptation
and mitigation measures at the same time?”
3. “What are the concrete steps farmers and governments should take
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?”

8. WHAT ARE RESEARCH QUESTIONS?
• Research questions are questions derived from the purpose that a researcher is
trying to answer in a study. A research question should be as specific as possible.
If the purpose is quite complex, the researcher can make two or more research
questions to cover it.
• A research question can also be referred to as a "problem statement".
Note: good research supports multiple perspectives through empirical data. It’s
focused on key concepts rather than a broad area, providing readily actionable
insight.

9. WHAT ARE RESEARCH QUESTIONS?
• In a quantitative research, the research question is followed by
hypothesis, while a qualitative research does not have
hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is a statement that can be proved or disproved. A
research question can be made into a hypothesis by changing it
into a statement.
• A hypothesis is commonly stated into two forms: null (h0) and
alternative (ha).
• Null hypothesis is a hypothesis to be disproved. It is usually
made by adding “not” to the alternative hypothesis. To illustrate,
look at the two examples above.
• The first one is typical of a quantitative research, while second
belongs to a qualitative research.

10. THE RESEARCH PROCESS: WHY ARE RESEARCH
PROBLEMS IMPORTANT?
A research problem has two essential roles in setting your research project on a
course for success.
1. Set the scope
• The research problem defines what problem or opportunity you’re looking at
and what your research goals are. It stops you from getting side-tracked or
allowing the scope of research to creep off-course.
• Without a strong research problem or problem statement, your team could
end up spending resources unnecessarily, or coming up with results that aren’t
actionable - or worse, harmful to your business - because the field of study is
too broad.

11. THE RESEARCH PROCESS: WHY ARE RESEARCH
PROBLEMS IMPORTANT?
2. Tie your research to goals and actions
• Defining your research means you always have clarity on what’s needed to make
those decisions. You can show the effects of what you’ve studied using real
outcomes.
• Then, by focusing your research study on a series of questions tied to business
objectives, you can reduce the risk of the research being unactionable or
inaccurate. It's also worth examining research (existing or online) to see how
others have explored specific topics.

12. STEPS TO DEFINING YOUR RESEARCH PROBLEM
1. Observe and identify
Research today have so much data that it can be difficult to know
which problems to address first. A researcher’s job is to sift through
these inputs and discover exactly what higher-level trends and
key concepts are worth it
A small-scale preliminary study might be worth doing to help get a
more comprehensive understanding of there search context and
needs, and to make sure your research problem addresses the most
critical questions. This could take the form of a few in-depth
interviews, an environmental scan, or a literature review.

13. STEPS TO DEFINING YOUR RESEARCH PROBLEM
2. Review the key factors involved
As a researcher, you must work closely with your team of researchers to define and
test the influencing factors and the wider context involved in your study. This is
referred to as a relational research problem.
To do this, you have to identify the factors that will affect the research and begin
formulating different methods to control for them.
You need to determine:
1. which factors affect the solution to the research problem.
2. which ones can be controlled and used for the purposes and to what extent.
3. the functional relationships between the factors.
4. which ones are critical to the solution of the research problem.

14. Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research Problem
After identifying a research problem, you should
also consider if it better suits a quantitative or
qualitative approach. Both approaches have merit,
but since they differ in their essential characteristics,
you need to decide which one is more appropriate
to use for your specific research problem.
Differentiating Quantitative from Qualitative
Research Problems

15. WRITING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Problem as a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a
difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in theory or in practice
that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation.
• A problem statement concisely overviews the issues or problems existing in the
concerned area selected for the research. It explains the issues predominant in a
particular area which drives the researcher to do in-depth study and analysis in order to
understand the issues and/or solve the problem.
• Research problem Statement using the “Ideal, Reality, and Consequences” Format

16. WRITING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
• A problem statement usually includes five aspects:
1) The actual research problem.
2) Justification of the importance of the problem as found in
current studies and practice.
3) Deficiency (gap) in present literature about the problem.
4) Method (timeframe, participants, location and trend).
5) The organization, and/or the individuals that will benefit
from a better understanding or solution to the problem.

17. THANK YOU