CHOOSING A RESEARCH
PROJECT
LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION, KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
What gives rise to the research project?
(Choosing a research project)
The importance of the research
The purposes of the research
Is the research practicable?
Research questions
The scope of the literature review
CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
A problem encountered in everyday work or outside
everyday work;
An issue that the researcher has read about or seen;
A problem that has arisen in the locality, e.g. in
response to government policy or practices or to local
developments;
An area of the researchers own interest;
An area of the researchers own experience;
A perceived area of importance;
An interesting question;
A testable guess or hunch;
A topical matter;
Disquiet with a particular research finding that one
has met in the literature or a piece of policy;
CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
An awareness that a particular issue or area has
been incompletely studied, and a wish to plug the
gap;
A wish to apply a piece of conceptual research to
actual practice, or to test a theory in practice;
A wish to rework the conceptual or theoretical
frameworks that are often used in a specific area;
A wish to revise or replace the methodologies that
are often used in researching a specific area;
A desire to improve practice in a particular area;
A desire to involve participants in research and
development;
CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
A desire to test out a particular methodology in
research;
An interest in seeing if reported practice holds
true for the researchers own context (e.g. a
comparative study);
An interest in investigating the causes of a
phenomenon or the effects of a particular
intervention in the area of the phenomenon;
A priority identified by funding agencies;
An issue identified by the researchers supervisor
or a project team of which the researcher is a
member.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
Is the research significant?
What difference will the research make?
Does the originality of the research render it
significant?
How and where does the research move forward
the field?
Where do originality and significance lie in the
research:
Conceptually
Theoretically
Methodologically
Substantively
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
What is the likely impact of the research?
What is the use of the research what will it
deliver?
What benefit will the research bring, and to
whom?
Is the research worth doing?
THE PURPOSES OF THE RESEARCH
What are the deliverables in the research?
What does the research seek to do?
What do you wish to come from the research?
EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT PURPOSES
OF RESEARCH
To test a theory/hypothesis
To test practice
To clarify concepts
To identify common features
To investigate and examine
To collect opinions
To model
To compare
To look at trends
To collect views
To critique policy/practice
To examine effects of
causes
To evaluate an intervention
To examine causes of
effects
To look at an issue in detail
To generalize
To look at long-term effects
Classroom-based research
To investigate sensitive
issues or groups
To develop theory
To see what happens if . . .
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
Accounts
Action research
Case study
Comparative study
Correlational research
Covert research
Descriptive research
Discourse analysis
Ethnography
Evaluative research
Experiment
Grounded theory
Historical research
Ideology critique
Interpretive research
Literature-based research
Longitudinal research
Meta-analysis
Multi-level research
Multiple regression
Network analysis
Observational study
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
Observational study
Personal constructs
Research synthesis
Role play
Simulation
Structural equation modelling and causal modelling
Survey
Testing
IS THE RESEARCH PRACTICABLE?
Access
People
Institutions
Data sources
Permission
People
Institutions
Review panels
Informed consent and ethical issues
Scope of research
Disposition, commitment and expertise of
researcher
Duration of research
Availability of resources (human, material,
temporal, administrative, supervision)
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Research questions must be operational, yielding concrete
answers to research purposes and research objectives.
Clarity
Complexity
Comprehensibility
Comprehensiveness
Concreteness
Contents
Difficulty,
Ease of answering
Focus
Kinds of data required to answer them
Purposes
Specificity
Utility of the answers provided
TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTION
How?
Wh questions: who,
where, why, what, what if,
when
Achievement
Alternatives to something
Causation
Comparisons
Correlations
Description
Evaluation
Explanation
Exploring
Factors
Function or purpose
How to achieve outcomes
How to achieve something
How to do something
How to improve or develop
something
Prediction
Processes
Properties and
characteristics
Relations (e.g. between
variables, people, events)
Stages of something
Structures of something;
Testing
Types of something
Understanding
SCOPE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Gives credibility and legitimacy to the research;
Shows that the research is up-to-date, focuses
on key issues, is aware of the theoretical,
conceptual, methodological and substantive
problems in the field;
Clarifies key concepts, issues, terms and
meanings;
Leads into the researchers study, raising issues,
showing where there are gaps in the research
field, how to move the field forwards, and
justifying the need for the research;
Shows the researchers own critical judgment on
prior research or theoretical matters in the field;
SCOPE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW
Provides new theoretical, conceptual,
methodological and substantive insights and
issues for research;
Sets the context for the research and
establishes key issues to be addressed;
The literature must inform the research, not
simply stand alone with no relation to what
comes after.
