Chapter 9-How To Choose A Research Project-From Research Methods in Education-8th Edition

CHOOSING A RESEARCH
PROJECT
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION AND KEITH MORRISON
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
• What gives rise to the research project? (How to

choose 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
• A summary of key issues in choosing a research topic
or project
CHOOSING A RESEARCH PROJECT
• A problem encountered in everyday work or outside their
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;
• An awareness that a particular issue or area has been
incompletely addressed, 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;
• 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
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH
THE PURPOSES OF 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 effects
• To identify common features • To look at an issue in detail
• To investigate and examine • To generalize
• To collect opinions • To look at long-term effects
• To model • Classroom-based research
• To compare • To investigate sensitive issues
• To look at trends or groups
• • To develop theory
To collect views
• • To see what happens if . . .
To critique policy/practice
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 • Multilevel research
• Ethnography • Multiple regression
• Evaluative research • Network analysis
• Experiment
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith • Observational
Morrison; study
individual chapters, the contributors
FITNESS FOR PURPOSE: PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
DRIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH
• Personal constructs
• Research synthesis
• Role-play
• Simulation
• Structural equation modelling and causal modelling
• Survey
• Testing
IS THE RESEARCH PRACTICABLE?
WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF THE
RESEARCH QUESTION?
• A practical concern
• A literature review
• Identifying a gap in the literature or field of study (gap-filling)
• Identifying where the research can build on existing literature
• A theoretical concern, enabling theories to be generated and tested
• A policy
• Concerns in the media and blogs (including the Internet)
• Society, empirical data
• Personal experience, interest or observation
• Colleagues and contacts
• Experts and practitioners in the field
WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF THE
RESEARCH QUESTION?
• Conferences and conventions
• Faculty seminars, research groups, discussion groups and workshops
• Students
• Societies, associations, research bodies and special interest groups
• Spotting where areas are neglected, e.g. overlooked/under-researched
• Existing studies and influential theories
• Challenge to, problematization of, an assumption, agenda or existing theory
• A novel idea which challenges existing ideas or practices
• Funding bodies and/or project directors
• Spotting where applications may lie
• Spotting where confusions need to be clarified
• Spotting where new methodologies and research methods might be applied
• Others
GENERATING INTERESTING RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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
© 2018of the
Louis answers
Cohen, provided
Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors
TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTION
• ‘How?’ • How to achieve outcomes
• ‘Wh’ questions: who, where, • How to achieve something
why, what, what if, when • How to do something
• Achievement • How to improve or develop
• Alternatives to something something
• Causation • Prediction
• Comparisons • Processes
• Correlations • Properties and 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
© 2018 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith • Understanding
Morrison; individual chapters, the contributors
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 judgement 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.

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CHOOSING A RESEARCH

• What gives rise to the research project? (How to

• Gives credibility and legitimacy to the research.

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