Week 7 Lecture 1

Welcome to this micro-lecture on writing your research proposal delivered as part of your
ONLED06 – Research Proposal module.

By the end of the two micro-lectures this week, you should be able to:
 Analyse and articulate the theoretical framework to support your proposal research
 Develop a plan to enable you to structure a coherent research proposal

In these two micro-lectures, we will briefly recap the ideas around philosophical assumptions
and theoretical frameworks, to give practical guidance on how these can be integrated into
writing your research proposal. We will also discuss the structure of your proposal, and suggest
practical strategies to help you plan and write effectively and efficiently.

As you watch this micro-lecture, ask yourself the following questions:

 What steps do I need to take to plan my writing for my research proposal?
 How can I organise my time effectively and efficiently?
 How do I ensure my research proposal is critically argued?

The reading by Juliet Eve set out a clear structure for a research proposal – of course, you can
deviate from this structure and the headings, as long as overall you provide a coherent and
critically argued research proposal.

By coherent, I mean a proposal that ‘hangs together’ and all the elements are congruent – we
have already mentioned how your methodology needs to reflect your research questions. A
critically argued research proposal will move beyond describing ‘what’ you are going to do, to
providing a clear rationale for ‘why’ and ‘how’ you are going to conduct your research, and how
your approaches and ideas are informed and underpinned by appropriate literature.

The following sections are the ones you are most likely to want to include in your research
proposal:

 Title
 Introduction/Context
 Aims and Objectives/Purpose
 Literature Review
 Research Design/Methods
 Ethical considerations
 Outputs/Dissemination
  Timetable
 Resources

However, this is just a guide, and there is nothing to stop you rearranging, or changing these
elements – as long as you can provide a critical rationale, and your research proposal is
coherent and it is clear what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, and how you will
share and disseminate your findings.

We have already covered the majority of these elements in this module, and the previous
module on research methodology, and you have two very practical readings for this week,
which will also give you guidance.

So, I am only going to discuss each section briefly, with some key points. We will cover the first
four points in this micro-lecture, and the other five in the next, along with some time
management tips, to help you plan. Remember, you have 1500 words in total for your research
proposal, plus or minus 10%, so a maximum of 1650 not including references.

Your title needs to convey enough information to the reader, stating what your research is
about – without being overly wordy. Also, your title needs to be informative enough, that if
your work does get published (let’s hope so!) then a few well chosen key words will make your
research searchable. It’s also fun to have a snappy and memorable title too if you can manage
it. A good example might be: Death by PowerPoint: An investigation into uses of presentation
technology and how they impact undergraduate student’s learning.

Your introduction should briefly set the scene and the context for the reader – you need to
focus the majority of your writing on critical analysis, so about 100 words should be enough to
give the reader a brief overview. Your title and questions should make explicit ‘what’ you are
intending to research, so this introduction could begin with a brief summary of why you have
chosen this particular topic i.e., why it is of interest to you, and the context in which you will
carry out your research e.g., your own classroom, your school, where you are a senior leader,
etc., clarify your own role and briefly summarise your context.

Your aims and objectives, or the purpose of your research are essentially a summary of your
research focus, along with your research question(s). Again, this should not be a long section,
about 100 words maximum. You should, by this point have a very refined set of questions that
have been peer reviewed, and reviewed by your tutor in your previous module.

We covered your literature review in Unit 3, and you should already have a draft version of this
which you completed and had peer and tutor reviewed during Week 3. Your literature review is
a very important element of your research proposal, and as such, should probably be around
500 words or so. Here you will set out the literature you have found that relates to your
research focus and questions. There are two elements to your literature review, one relates to
findings of any research already carried out in your area (or a similar one), and the other relates
to any theories and concepts that have been published which relate to your research questions.
Remember, these might be interdisciplinary.

Within this section, you should also address your theoretical framework, which we discussed in
Week 5. If you remember, this framework is grounded in the literature, and provides the
theoretical foundation which will underpin your research methodology – that is what data you
collect, how you collect it, and how you analyse it. Again, this could be interdisciplinary, and is
likely to be an established theoretical framework such as a psychological theory (e.g.,
behaviourism, cognitivism and humanism), a social theory (e.g., symbolic interactionism,
structural functionism), or an educational theory (e.g., constructivism, experiential,
transformative). There are many nuances of these theories, and of course, some differing
definitions and opinions. You will need to choose and provide a rationale for your own
theoretical framework, and, if you want to show creativity and originality, you could adapt an
existing theory slightly as long as you provide a persuasive argument for doing so!

So, to summarise, in this lecture we have considered the first four sections of your research
proposal, what length they might be, and what you might include within them.

Now you have watched this micro-lecture, what are your reflections on the questions I posed at
the beginning? What other questions do you have? Use the Q & A forum to ask questions of
your tutor and your fellow students.

Write your responses to these questions in your ePortfolio.

The readings and discussion activities you are asked to do this week will help you reflect on the
concepts addressed in this micro-lecture and help you write, evaluate and refine your own
research proposal.

Next time, we will be considering the five remaining elements of your research proposal, which
are:

 Research Design/Methods
 Ethical considerations
 Outputs/Dissemination
 Timetable
 Resources
Don’t forget, you can download these slides and the transcript for this lecture using the link
under this video.

Also, make sure you head over to the discussion for this week to contribute and share your
ideas and understanding with your fellow students.