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 researcher’s own interest;
• An area of the researcher’s 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 researcher’s 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 researcher’s 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 examine effects of
• causes
To test practice
• To evaluate an intervention
• To clarify concepts
• To examine causes of
• To identify common features
effects
• To investigate and examine
• To look at an issue in detail
• To collect opinions
• To generalize
• To model
• To look at long-term effects
• To compare
• Classroom-based research
• To look at trends • To investigate sensitive
• To collect views issues or groups
• To critique policy/practice • To develop theory
• To see what happens if . . .
 FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
• Accounts • Grounded theory
• Action research • Historical research
• Case study • Ideology critique
• Comparative study • Interpretive research
• Correlational research • Literature-based research
• Covert research • Longitudinal research
• Descriptive research • Meta-analysis
• Discourse analysis • Multi-level research
• Ethnography • Multiple regression
• Evaluative research • Network analysis
• Experiment • 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?’ • How to achieve outcomes
• ‘Wh’ questions: who, • How to achieve something
where, why, what, what if, • How to do something
when • How to improve or develop
• Achievement something
• Alternatives to something • Prediction
• Causation • Processes
• Comparisons • Properties and
• Correlations characteristics
• Description • Relations (e.g. between
• Evaluation variables, people, events)
• Explanation • Stages of something
• Exploring • Structures of something;
• Factors • Testing
• Function or purpose • 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 researcher’s 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 researcher’s 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.