Educational Research
Chapter 2
Selecting and Defining a Research Topic
Gay and Airasian
Topics Discussed in this Chapter
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Identifying a Research Topic
Reviewing the Literature
Stating Hypotheses
Identifying a Topic
A research topic focuses and provides
structure for the steps in the scientific
and disciplined inquiry approach
Identifying a Topic
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Three main sources of Research topics
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Theory – an organized body of concepts,
generalizations and principles that can be
subjected to investigation
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Provides conceptually rich topics
Provides confirmation of some aspects of
theory
Personal experience
Replication
Identifying a Topic
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Available electronic resources
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Listserves
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American Educational Research Association
AERA - Teacher and Teacher Education
Educational Administration Discussion List
Educational Resources on the Internet
ERIC Listserves
Web sites
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Public Listserves
Identifying a Topic
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Narrowing and focusing topics
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Three problems with broad topics
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Enlarges the scope of the review beyond
reason
Complicates the organization of the review
itself
Creates studies that are too general, difficult to
carry out, and difficult to interpret
Identifying a Topic
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Suggestions for focusing topics
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Talk to experts in the field
Read sources that provide overviews
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Handbooks
Encyclopedias
Reviews
Identifying a Topic
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Differences between quantitative and
qualitative studies in terms of focusing
the topic
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Quantitative studies tend to narrow the
topic initially
Qualitative studies tend to narrow the topic
throughout the research process itself
Identifying a Topic
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Researchable topics…
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can be investigated through the collection
and analysis of data.
have theoretical or practical significance.
have been conducted ethically.
contribute to the educational process
can be adequately researched given the
expertise, resources, and time constraints
of the researcher.
Identifying a Topic
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Non-researchable topics…
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address philosophical or ethical issues.
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Cannot be resolved through the collection and
analysis of data
address “should” questions.
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Ultimately these are matters of opinion
Identifying a Topic
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The formal statement of a
quantitative research topic…
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identifies the variables of interest.
describes the specific relationship between
the variables.
identifies the nature of the participants.
Identifying a Topic
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The emergent nature of the formal
statement of a qualitative research
topic
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Initial statements tend to be stated as
general issues or concerns
Topics become focused as more is learned
about the context, participants, and
phenomena of interest
Typically specific topics are stated late in a
written study
The Literature Review
The review of the literature involves the
systematic identification, location, and
analysis of documents containing
information related to the research
problem
The Literature Review
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Functions of a literature review
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Determine what has been done already
Provide insight necessary to develop a logical
framework into which the topic fits
Provides the rationale for the hypotheses being
investigated and the justification of the
significance of the study
Identifies potentially useful methodological
strategies
Facilitates the interpretation of the results
The Literature Review
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Recommendations for conducting a
review
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Bigger does not mean better
Heavily researched topics provide enough
references to focus only on major studies
Lesser researched topics require reviewing
any study related in some meaningful way
The Literature Review
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Four stages of conducting a review
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Identifying key words to guide the search
Identifying sources
Abstracting your references
Analyzing, organizing and reporting the
literature
The Literature Review
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Identifying key words
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Indexing systems of indices in which you
will search
Importance of experimenting with several
key words and combinations of them
ERIC Thesaurus
The Literature Review
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Identifying sources
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Characteristics of sources
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Primary and secondary
Empirical and opinion
Importance of using handbooks,
encyclopedias, and reviews early in the
review process
The Literature Review
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Identifying sources
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Broadening and narrowing keyword
searches
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Three important Boolean operators
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AND narrows a search
OR broadens a search
NOT narrows a search
Narrowing and focusing by date of publication,
specific authors, titles, etc.
The Literature Review
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Identifying sources
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Searching for books
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Electronic databases of university libraries
Keyword searches
Searching for journals
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ERIC
Education Index
Psychological Abstracts
Dissertation Abstracts
Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
Annual Reviews of Psychology
The Literature Review
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Identifying sources
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Searching the web
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Search engines
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Subject directories
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Google, Excite, HotBot, Northern Light
Yahoo!, Web Crawler, Lycos
Meta search engines
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Dogpile, Momma, Vroosh
The Literature Review
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Identifying sources
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Educational sites
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ERIC, Ingenta, New Jour, Education Week, National
Center for Education Statistics, Bill Hunt's Homepage, US
Dept. of Education, WWW Library Resources, Psych Web
Evaluating web sites
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Quality, honesty, bias, and authenticity
Internet Detective, Thinking Critically about WWW
Resources, Critically Analyzing Information Sources
The Literature Review
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Abstracting the references
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Locating, reviewing, summarizing, and classifying
references
Seven steps
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Read the article abstract
Skim the entire article
Record complete bibliographic information
Classify and code the article
Summarize the article
Identify thoughts about the article you believe important
Indicate direct quotes properly
The Literature Review
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Recommended strategies when abstracting
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Begin with the most recent references and move
toward the most dated
Record all bibliographic information
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Author, date of publication, title, journal name or book
title or website name, volume and issue, pages, library
call number or URL
Identify direct quotes and record page
numbers
Identify main ideas
Literature Review
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Analyzing, organizing and reporting
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Technical nature of reporting
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Documentation
Formal language
Adherence to prescribed styles (e.g., APA)
Outline the review
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Group by topics
Analyze for similarities and differences within
subheadings
Discuss the lest relevant studies first followed by the
most relevant studies
Summarize the review and discuss the implications
related to the research problem
Literature Review
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Differences between quantitative
and qualitative reviews
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Quantitative reviews are typically
conducted in the initial stages of the study
Qualitative reviews are ongoing throughout
the entire study reflecting the need to
understand data as it is collected,
interpreted, and synthesized
Stating Hypotheses
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Quantitative hypotheses
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A researcher’s tentative prediction of the
results of the research
Formulated on the basis of knowledge of
the underlying theory or implications from
the literature review
Testing hypotheses leads to support or lack
thereof
Stating Hypotheses
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A good hypothesis…
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is based on sound reasoning.
provides a reasonable explanation for the
predicted outcome.
clearly and concisely states the expected
relationships between variables.
is testable.
Stating Hypotheses
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Types of hypotheses
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Inductive – a generalization made from a
number of observations
Deductive – derived from theory and aimed
at providing evidence to support, expand,
or contradict aspects of that theory
Stating Hypotheses
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Types of hypotheses (continued)
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Research hypotheses state the expected
relationship between two variables
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Non-directional – a statement that a relationship or
difference exists between the variables
Directional – a statement of the expected direction of the
relationship or difference between variables
Null – a statement that no statistically significant
relationship of difference exists between variable
Stating Hypotheses
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Qualitative hypotheses
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Given the nature of qualitative research,
formal a-priori hypotheses are not stated
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Generating role of qualitative research
Testing role of quantitative research
Focus is on generating new hypotheses as
a result of the study (i.e., inductive
hypotheses)
Stating Hypotheses
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Formats for experimental studies
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P who get X do better on Y that P who do not get X
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P represents the participant
X represents the treatment
Y represents the outcome
Testing hypotheses
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Statistical analysis of data
Importance of the results regardless of the outcome