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Objective

Not to convert you ... But to help you to speed along your ordained path
(Silverman, 2010, p. 97)

Developing research questions


For PhD Researchers
Palitha Edirisingha University of Leicester, UK.

References 'People are often impressed when they nd out that you are "doing research". They may even want to know more. If you have ever been in this situation, you will know how embarrassing it can be if you are unable to explain clearly what you intend to study. Such embarrassment can be multiplied a thousand-fold if your interrogator is, say, a smart professor you have never met before. How are you to respond?'
Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods, 3rd Edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carey, M. (2009) The Social Work Dissertation: Using Small-Scale Qualitative Methodology. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill and Open University Press. De Vaus, D. (2001) Research Design in Social Research. London: Sage. Gilbert, N. (2008) Researching Social Life, 3rd Edn. London: Sage. Punch, K. F. (2006) Developing Effective Research Proposals, 2nd Edn. London: Sage. Silverman, D. (2010) Doing Qualitative Research, 3rd Edn. London: Sage. White, P. (2009) Developing Research Questions: A guide for social scientists: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

(Silverman, 2010, p. 83)

What before how ... Questions before methods ...

'You should not underestimate how difcult or time consuming it can be to develop research questions. [It] is one of the most challenging stages of the research process. [Developing research questions] requires considerable imagination and ... disciplined and logical thought. But time spent thinking about your research questions will pay dividends at later stages of the research.'
(White, 2009, p. 1)

Research topic and problem


Explore Describe Understand Predict Change Evaluate Assess impact

What is in a research proposal ...


Basic research Applied research
Main themes What is the proposed research about What is it trying to nd out / achieve What we will learn from that and why it is worth learning Questions that the proposal needs to answer Content

RESEARCH QUESTIONS and purpose

'What' questions 'Why' questions 'How' questions

What?

Research questions, general and specic Justication, signicance, importance, contribution, expected outcomes The methods of the research Punch (2006)

Why?

RESEARCH STRATEGIES
Blaikie (2010, p. 58 and p. 81)

Inductive Deductive

How will I go about doing How? that

Issues for researchers


Findings a workable (not just narrow) research topic [and questions]

Approach 1

Recognising 'feedback loops' between topic(s) and data analysis Understanding that your categories (or variables) are always theoretically saturated

(Silverman, 2010, p. 96)

Approach 1

The research area The research topic General research questions Specic research questions Data collection questions
180 180 180 180

Workable research questions - 3 features


data required to answer the questions, how the data are going to be collected a meaningful connection among the questions questions 'interesting' and 'worthwhile', justifying the investment and effort
(Silverman, 2010, p. 97)

1. Answerability

2. Interconnectedness

3. Substantively relevant

(Punch, 2008)

Research area

Research topic

Suicide rates among different groups [quantitative]

Data General Specic Research Research collection research research area topic questions questions questions / items

Factors associated with the incidence of youth suicide [quantitative]

Youth suicide
Managing suicide behaviour among teenagers [qualitative]

Youth culture and the meaning of suicide [qualitative]

(Punch, 2008)

Research area

Research topic

General research questions

Research area Youth suicide Absenteeism at work

What is the relationship between family background factors and the incidence of youth suicide?

Youth culture in high schools Living with Tourettes syndrome Academic success and failures at university Membership of volunteer organisations
(Punch, 2008)

Youth suicide

Factors associated with the incidence of youth suicide [quantitative] What is the relationship between school experience factors and the incidence of youth suicide?

Approach 2

Research area

Research topic

General research questions

Specic research questions


What is the relationship between family income and the incidence of youth suicide? OR Do youth suicide rates differ between families of different income levels? What is the relationship between the emotional attachment to parents and the incidence of youth suicide? OR Do youth suicide rates differ between families where parents and children have a close emotional attachment, and families where they are not?

Research objectives
Factors associated with What is the relationship the incidence of youth between family suicide [quantitative] background factors and the incidence of youth suicide?

Youth suicide

Research questions

(Punch, 2008)

Research objective

Research questions
1). What are the patterns of consumption of new technologies amongst different groups of adults in the United Kingdom?

To nd out why certain individuals and groups adopt new technologies before others

Approach 2

2). What reasons do different individuals provide for adopting or not adopting new technologies?

(White, 2009, p. 45)

Aims of the research

Research objectives
To reconstruct the networks history from inception and evolution to the present day

Research questions

To investigate the nature of transnational higher education networks of learning and teaching in geography by focusing on history, organisation, access, participation and impact.

To explain why academics participate within these networks What are the motivations of geographers to participate in these networks? To explore how academics participate and to evaluate what role technology What are the incentives to join these networks? plays in their networking practice What experiences of barriers have network members faced?

Approach 3

To assess the perceived value of these networks and the impact they have on learning and teaching practice

Wakeeld (PhD proposal, personal communication)

Aims of the research

Research objectives
To reconstruct the networks history from inception and evolution to the present day

Research questions

Approach 3

To investigate the nature of transnational higher education networks of learning and teaching in geography by focusing on history, organisation, access, participation and impact.

Aims Objectives Research questions

To explain why academics participate within these networks

To explore how academics participate and to evaluate what role technology plays in their networking practice

How do the members of these networks benet within their research and learning and teaching practice?

How supported do the network members feel by To assess the perceived value of these their department / institution participating these networks and the impact they have on in networks? learning and teaching practice

Main question

How do young people make educational and career decisions at the end of compulsory schooling?

Approach 4

(White, 2009)

Approach 4
Main question Subsidiary questions

Main research questions


How do young people make educational and career decisions at the end of compulsory schooling? 1. What factors do young people consider when making their choices? 2. What sources of information do they use to help their decision-making? 3. Which individuals are inuential in shaping their choices?
(White, 2009)

Subsidiary research questions

The objective

Research questions

To consider [...] problems and or identify factors, actors, processes and outcomes of 2. What descriptive and analytical ideas innovations in higher regarding the establishment and education in CEE. development of the ve innovative institutions are revealed by participats in the stuudy

1. How did the ve innovative higher education institutions develop between 1989 and 2005?

Other examples of research questions

Romenska (2010)

Concepts
'the building blocks of social theories' Important in the theoretical framework that sets a context for the research Determine the data that will be collected How data will be categorised Help to describe the ndings
(Blaikie, 2010, p. 111 - 112)

The research questions, informed by the theoretical framework presented in Chapter 3, are designed to provide insight into the overarching question: What are the implications of media change for learning and literacy? Three more specic questions guided data collection and analysis.In what ways are university students appropriating new media to advance learning?How are emerging tensions and contradictions created by media convergence experienced by students? How do these tensions manifest themselves in practices mediated by digital tools and resources?How might we conceptualise the New Media Literacies required to learn effectively with the aid of digital tools and resources?

More on Concepts: Chapter 5, Blaikie (2010)

(Francis, 2008)

CONCEPT

Wellbeing Financial Material Social Physical Psy'cal Emotional

DIMENSIONS

a common mistake in questionnaire design is to ask respondents the research question rather than a data collection question ... or slightly modied versions of the studys research questions
(White, 2009, p. 45).

SUBDIMENSIONS

Safety of locality

Relationships

Discrimination

FURTHER SUBDIMENSIONS

With peers With mother With father With siblings Frequency of contact Level of conict Feelings of closeness Amount of helping Types of activities engaged in

With grandparents

INDICATORS

DATA

(De Vaus, 2001, p. 26)

A research question

a question the research itself is trying to answer a question which is asked in order to collect data in order to help answer the research question

A data collection question

From research questions to data collection questions

data need to be linked to concepts, and concepts to data.

From specic research questions to data collection questions

Examples

Do the lecturing staff in your institution feel they are over- worked? worked?

Better versions Do you think you are over-

Do the lecturing staff in your Do you think you are underinstitution think that they are paid? under-paid?

a process of making general questions more specic by showing its dimensions, aspects, factors, components, or indicators dening a general concept downwards towards it's data indicators.
(White, 2009)

(White, 2009, p. 45).

Examples

Now let's turn to your research questions

Do the lecturing staff in your institution feel they are overworked? Do the lecturing staff in your institution think that they are under-paid?

(White, 2009, p. 45).

Next time... Thank u!


pe27@le.ac.uk

Research design: key components

Research topic and problem

Basic research Applied research ExploreDescribeUndersta ndPredictChangeEvaluate Assess impact 'What' questions'Why' questions'How' questions Top down Bottom up InductiveDeductive

Grand theories Mid-range theories Literature (as proxy for theory)

Concepts, theories, hypothesis and models

RESEARCH QUESTIONS and purpose / objective

RESEARCH STRATEGIES

RESEARCH PARADIGMS

Ontological considerations Epistemological considerations Methodological considerations

Positivism Interpretivism Feminism Other Primary data Secondary data Tertiary data Qualitative data Quantitative data

Research methodology / design

Data types, forms and sources

Historical Cross-sectional Longitudinal Case study Experiments Comparative Other?

Natural social settings Semi-natural settings Articial settings Social artefacts

Criteria of good research: ethics, validity, reliability, generalisability, other?

Selection from data sources

Population Probability sampling Non-probability sampling Qualitative methods Quantitative methods Mixed methods

Data collection and timing

Data reduction and analysis

Grounded theory Thematic analysis Content analysis

Adapted from Blaikie (2010)

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