Introduction to Educational Research (4th ed.) C. M. Charles/Craig A. Mertler

1. Introduction to Educational Research (4th ed.)C. M. Charles/Craig A. Mertler Chapter 3 Selecting, Refining, and Proposing a Topic for Research

2. Sources for Research Topics • Journals in your field • Recent volumes of Education Index or Current Index to Journals in Education • Personal experiences * • Existing literature • “Recommendations for further research…”

3. Considerations in Selecting Topics • Evaluate potential topics against the following: • Personal interest • Importance • Newness • Time requirements • Estimation of difficulty level • Monetary costs • Ethical issues

4. Refining a Research Topic • Refinement needed for effective and efficient research • Narrowed or expanded • Clarified—reworded unambiguously and clearly • Statement of research question(s) or hypothesis(es)— provide specific orientation to research studies • Once refinements have been made, topic becomes known as a… • * RESEARCH PROBLEM *

5. Terminology Related to Research Topics • Topic—usually stated as a phrase • Amorphous topic—stated too vaguely; improved by clarifying • Problem—a refined topic • Problem statement—sentence stating the purpose of an investigation • Research question—fundamental question inherent in the topic/problem • Subquestions—questions of secondary importance to the research question; compliment the investigation of the main question

6. Terminology Related to Research Topics (cont’d.) • Hypothesis—brief statement predicting the outcome of a study • Null hypothesis—states that no difference exists, no relationship exists, no effect will occur, etc. • Directional research hypothesis—statement of true expectations with direction of results specified • Nondirectional research hypothesis—statement of true expectations with no direction for results specified • Theory—overall explanation of why things exist as they do; merely explain; usually the result of many studies

7. Regulating the Size of Research Topics • Best advice is toanticipate the task ahead of you! • Anticipate: • Review of background literature • Foresee the possibility of reviewing 20–50 recent and related published research studies • Organization of the study • Think through and plan the possible study in your mind • Collection and analysis of data • Key is that the data and analysis of that data must parallel the research questions and/or hypotheses

8. The Research Report Format • Introduction • Review of related literature • Method • Findings/results • Conclusions and discussion

9. Format of a Research Proposal • 1. INTRODUCTION • 1.1 Statement of the problem • 1.2 Significance of the problem • 1.3 Research questions/hypotheses • 1.4 Definitions • 1.5 Assumptions • 1.6 Limitations • 1.7 Delimitations • 2.REVIEW oF RELATED LITERATURE

10. Format of a Research Proposal (cont’d.) • 3.METHODOLOGY • 3.1 Documentation of permission to conduct the study • 3.2 Sample selection • 3.3 Instrumentation • 3.4 Data collection procedures • 3.5 Data analysis • 4.TIMELINE • 5.BUDGET • 6.REFERENCES

11. Applying Technology… Web sites to assist in locating/refining research topics • The American Educational Research Association (AERA) (http://aera.net) • U.S. Department of Education (ED)—list of professional organizations (http://www.ed.gov/EdRes/EdAssoc.html) • AERA hypermail archive of LISTSERV activity (http://www.aera.net/resource/listarch.htm)