IDENTIFYING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

A/Professor Denis McLaughlinSchool of Educational Leadership

DEFINITION Research problems are educational

issues or concerns studied by researchers

In education, a problem is a concern to educators that exists in educational settings

Ask yourself To help locate your research problem for your thesis, ask

yourself such questions as:

What was the issue/problem you want to study?

What is the concern being addressed “behind” this study?

Why do you want to undertake this study?

Why is this study important to the scholarly community?

DEFINING TERMS Research Problem: Educational issue/problem in a

study

Research Topic: Broad subject matter being addressed in a study

Purpose: Major intent or object of study

Research Questions: Questions to answer or address in a study

General

Specific

Topic

Research Problem

Research Statement

Research Questions

OVERVIEW

PROBLEM RESEARCHABILITY1. Will your research contribute to knowledge and practice?

It fills a void or extends existing research It replicates a study with new participants or a new site Problem has not be studied or understudied It gives “voice” to people not heard, silenced, or rejected in society It informs practice

2. Accessed to people & sites

3. Time, Resources and skills

4. Therapy

5. To prove what your already know

DESIGNING & WRITING THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. The research problem within this study

2. Justification for the problem (based on past research and practice)

3. Shortcoming of past research or practice

4. The importance / significance of the problem

GETTING STARTED Write down the purpose statement of your study Embedded in this purpose statement are key terms

that will help you to start your literature review This part of the literature review searches for core

literature and it should focus almost exclusively on empirical studies

Look for studies similar to your problem statement in Australia.

Look for studies similar to your problem statement in other countries.

LITERATURE PRIORITY

CORE

RELATIONAL

PARENT

WHERE TO START1. Encyclopedia of educational research (Alkin, 1992) The

appendix ‘Doing library research in education’ is brilliant

2. HandbooksInternational Handbooks of Educational Administration, Educational Leadership, Lifelong Learning etc quickly introduce you to the major players and research issues in your study

3. ThesesOverseas – Dissertation abstracts, US computer disksBritish Dissertation abstractsAustralia – Cunningham library, ACER, www.acer.edu.au

4. DatabasesERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre) www.accesseric.org. (world’s largest source of information – one million abstracts)Australian Education Index (AUSINET)

5. Current index to journals in education and resources in education: locate through ERIC

6. Social Science Citation Index: CDROM

7. Online Journals (anbar)

8. Google (search engine)

INITIAL ORGANISING THE LITERATURE

Print out your research problem and research purpose statement in font size 20pt & bold & adhere to a place near your computer where your regularly see. Do not be a dilettante . You need to get a reasonably solid grasp of your proposed topic relatively quickly in order to focus or flick.

Read, categorise, file

Construct a literature map (different from but a pre-requisite to a conceptual framework)

From Creswell (2002).