IDENTIFYING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

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IDENTIFYING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

• A/Professor Denis McLaughlin
• School of Educational Leadership

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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

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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?

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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

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OVERVIEW
General
Topic
Research Problem
Research Statement
Research Questions
Specific
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PROBLEM RESEARCHABILITY

• 1. 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
• Therapy
• 5. To prove what your already know

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DESIGNING WRITING THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

• The research problem within this study
• Justification for the problem (based on past
  research and practice)
• Shortcoming of past research or practice
• The importance / significance of the problem

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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.

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LITERATURE PRIORITY
PARENT
RELATIONAL
CORE
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WHERE TO START

• Encyclopedia of educational research (Alkin,
  1992) The appendix Doing library research in
  education is brilliant
• Handbooks
• International Handbooks of Educational
  Administration, Educational Leadership, Lifelong
  Learning etc quickly introduce you to the major
  players and research issues in your study
• Theses
• Overseas Dissertation abstracts, US computer
  disks
• British Dissertation abstracts
• Australia Cunningham library, ACER,
  www.acer.edu.au

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• Databases
• ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre)
  www.accesseric.org. (worlds largest source of
  information one million abstracts)
• Australian Education Index (AUSINET)
• Current index to journals in education and
  resources in education locate through ERIC
• Social Science Citation Index CDROM
• Online Journals (anbar)
• 8. Google (search engine)

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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)

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From Creswell (2002).