Selecting a Research problem

What is research problem?

• A difficulty experienced by researcher for which

he/she tries to seek solution.
 What we need to understand?
• Need to formulate the research problem
• How to identify the research problem
• Steps in formulating the research problem
• statement of problem
• Formulating research question / hypotheses
• Identify research objectives
• delimit the Scope of research
• Expected outcome of research
 Your research problem
• What is your area of interest?

• Where could you look for help in deciding upon a

specific research problem?

• What criteria will you apply when deciding upon

a specific research problem?

• How could you narrow down your research

problem?

• How might your value-judgments (preconceived

ideas) affect your research endeavors?
DO YOU KKNOW THE DIFFERENCE?
• What is the difference between research
problem, research topic & research purpose
• research problem is a general educational issue,
concern, or controversy addressed in research
that narrows the topic.
• research topic – broad subject matter addressed
by the study
• research purpose- objective of study
• Research Questions – specific questions the
researcher would like to answer
 Research problem

• A problem is an interrogative sentence or

statement that tells us about the relationship
that exists between two or more variables
• the problem concerns with a broader area of
the field of study,
• the topic is the definition of the problem that
delimits the scope of problem.
Identify Problem

Topic
Theme
Broad area
 Research problem
❖Area - Teacher Education

• Pre service In- service

➢ Curriculum
➢ Teaching learning process
➢ School experience programme
➢ Quality
➢ Management
➢ Teachers’ content & pedagogical knowledge,etc.
 Selection of Problem

• Identify broad area

• Narrow down and identify the problem
• Formulate the problem( operationalize
problem)
• Identify key variables
• Define key variables.
Narrowing the range of Res problem
• On whom
Step 1 • Students/ teachers, parents,
curriculum…

• At what level
Step 2 • Primary/secondary/higher

• On what
Step 3 • Psychology/admin, mathematics,
science
 Narrowing research problem
• On what
Step 4 • Intelligence, attitude, aptitude,
creativity, personality

• Operationalise problem
Step 5 • Study the attitude of primary
children towards mathematics

• Is there any difference in the attitude of

boys and girls towards mathematice?
• Whether the boys perform better than
Step 6 girls in mathematics?
• Whether use of TLM will facilitate positive
attitude in children towards mathematics
 Sources of research problem
• professional experience
• Professional literature: books, journals, encyclopaedia, survey of
educational researches, psychological abstracts, and research
reports, Encyclopaedia of Educational Research, Dissertation
Abstract International, and the Handbook of Research on
Teaching, Psychological Abstracts

• Academic discussion
• Situational needs
• Social and technological advancements :recent developments in
education ,
• Policies & priorities : policies, schemes etc.
• Interface between Theories and Practice ( the theory generated by
different disciplines like psychology, sociology, philosophy and
economics etc).
• Innovations and technological changes
 Criteria for Selecting a Problem
• Interest
– Most important
• Significance
– Theoretical value
– Practical value
– Timeliness
– External review
• Manageability
– Expertise, time, resources
– Free from personal bias
 analyse a problem
major steps to analyse a problem:
• Collect all the facts related to the problem.
• Determine the relevance of collected facts.
• Trace the relationship between facts that might reveal
the key to difficulty.
• Propose various explanations for the cause of difficulty.
• Trace relationship between facts and explanations.
• Question assumptions underlying the analysis of the
problem.
• Analyse and isolate unrelated facts which are not
concerned with the problem.
 Characteristics of good topic
1. Interesting – keeps the researcher interested in it
throughout the research process

2. Researchable – can be investigated through the

collection and analysis of data

3. Significant – contributes to the improvement and

understanding of educational theory and practice

4. Manageable – fits the level of researcher’s level of

research skills, needed resources, and time restrictions

5. Ethical – does not embarrass or harm participants

 Characteristics of good topic
• Have some degree of originality or the
extension of existing knowledge;
• Add to the existing source of knowledge in a
meaningful way;
• Economically viable and not much time
consuming.
 Defining the problem
You must adhere to the following rules:
• Be sure that the topic chosen is neither too vague nor too
broad in scope.
• State the problem in a question form, which requires a
definite answer.
• Identify the variables involved in the problem viz.,
independent, dependent, moderator, control and
intervening variables.
• Carefully state the limits of the problem, eliminating all
aspects and factors, which will not be considered in the
study.
• Define all special terms in describing the variables indicated
in the statement of the problem.
 Statement of the Problem
• very specific statement - clearly identifies the
problem being studied; will usually identify the
key variables as well as give some information
about the scope of the study
• May be in either question or declarative form
• May include inherent sub-problems, if
appropriate
• Formulation of problem statement takes place
after an initial review of related literature and the
distillation process
 Statement of the Problem
• A study of the Effect of mid-day meal
programme on enrolment and retention of
children’
• Whether midday meal programme effects the
enrolment and retention of children in
primary school.
• ‘Effect of leadership behaviour of principal on
school climate’
 Statement of problem
• Karlinger (1983) has identified three criteria of
good problems and problem statements:
• i) the problem should express the relationship
between two or more variables;
• ii.) The problem should be stated clearly and
unambiguously in question form, and
• iii) problem and problem statement should be
such as to imply possibilities of empirical
testing.
 A well-written statement of problem
has following characteristics:
• clearly indicates the variables of research and the
specific relationship between all related variables.
• defines all related variables operationally; operational
definitions define concepts in terms of operations or
processes.
• gives direction to rest of the plan.
• is accompanied by presentation of background of the
problem, including justification for the study in terms
of the significance of the problem(should have certain
rationale)
• The statement of the problem must be brief but
comprehensive.
 Various terms & relationships
• What is the difference between research
problem, research topic & research purpose
• research problem is a general educational issue,
concern, or controversy addressed in research
that narrows the topic.
• research topic – broad subject matter addressed
by the study
• research purpose- objective of study
• Research Questions – specific questions the
researcher would like to answer
 Criteria for evaluation of Research
Problem
• Researchable
• New
• Significant
• Interest & capabilities
• Feasibility & Availability of resources
• Availability of time
• Financial consideration
• Administrative considerations
• Ethical issues
A Research Question Must Identify
1. The variables under study
2. The population being studied
3. The testability of the question
 Variables
• Independent variable (IV): Variable the
experimenter/ researcher manipulates (i.e.
changes) – assumed to have a direct effect on the
dependent variable.

• Dependent variable (DV): Variable the

experimenter/ researcher measures, after making
changes to the IV that are assumed to affect the
DV.
• Extraneous variables – These are all variables,
which are not the independent variable, but
could affect the results (e.g. dependent variable)
of the experiment.
 Types of Extraneous variables
• Situational variables: aspects of the environment
that might affect the participant’s behavior, e.g.
noise, temperature, lighting conditions, etc.
Situational variables should be controlled so they
are the same for all participants.

• Standardized procedures are used to ensure that

conditions are the same for all participants. This
includes the use of standardized instructions
 Types of Extraneous variables
• Person variables e.g. mood, intelligence,
anxiety, nerves, concentration etc.
• The experimenter variable- unconsciously
conveys to participants how they should
behave - this is called experimenter bias.
• Participants will be affected by: (i) their
surroundings; (ii) the researcher’s characteristics;
(iii) the researcher’s behavior (e.g. non-verbal
communication), and (iv) their interpretation of
what is going on in the situation.
• researcher can minimize these factors by keeping
the environment as natural as possible, carefully
following standardized procedures.
 Operational variables
• Operational variables (or operationalizing
definitions) refer to how you will define and
measure a specific variable as it is used in your
study.
 Operational definition
• Effect of leadership behaviour of principal on
teachers job satisfaction.
• A study of the Leadership behaviour of
principal and teachers job satisfaction
• A study of mid day meal scheme and retention
of students in school
 Delimitations
• Delimitations define the scope of the study. That
is, they set the boundaries of the study
• Normally under control of the researcher
• Examples
– number and kinds of subjects
– treatment conditions
– tests, measures, instruments used
– type of equipment
– location, environmental setting
– type of training (time and duration)
 WHY RESEARCH QUESTIONS ARE
CRUCIAL
• GUIDE YOUR LITERATURE SEARCH
• GUIDE YOUR DECISIONS ABOUT THE KIND OF
RESEARCH DESIGN TO EMPLOY
• GUIDE YOUR DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT DATA
TO COLLECT AND FROM WHOM
• GUIDE ANALYSIS OF YOUR DATA
• GUIDE WRITING-UP OF YOUR DATA
• PROVIDE DIRECTIONS
A Research Question Must Identify
1. The variables under study
2. The population being studied
3. The testability of the question