1. Selecting and Defining a Research Topic
Educational Research
Chapter 2
Selecting and Defining a Research Topic
Gay, Mills, and Airasian

2. Topics Discussed in this Chapter
Identifying a Research Topic
Reviewing the Literature
Developing and Stating Hypotheses

3. Identifying a Topic
A research topic focuses the study to a defined, manageable size
It provides structure for the steps in the scientific method
It is discussed in many ways
Research question
Research problem
Purpose of the research

4. Identifying a Topic Four main sources of topics
Theory – an organized body of concepts, generalizations and principles that can be subjected to investigation
Provides conceptually rich topics
Provides confirmation of some aspects of theory
Personal experience
Replication
Library immersion
Obj. 1.1

5. Identifying a Topic Narrowing and focusing topics
Three problems with broad topics
Enlarges the scope of the review of the literature beyond reason
Complicates the organization of the review of the literature itself
Creates studies that are too general, too difficult to carry out, and too difficult to interpret
Obj. 1.3

6. Identifying a Topic Suggestions for narrowing topics
Talk to experts in the field
Professors in your college or department
Researchers you know
Read secondary sources that provide overviews of your topic
Handbooks
Encyclopedias
Reviews
Obj & 1.4

7. Identifying a Topic
Quantitative and qualitative studies – differences in when a topic is narrowed
Quantitative studies tend to narrow the topic initially
Qualitative studies tend to narrow the topic throughout the research process itself
Obj. 1.4

8. Identifying a Topic Researchable and non-researchable topics
can be investigated through the collection and analysis of data.
have theoretical or practical significance.
have been conducted ethically.
contribute to the educational processes
can be adequately researched given the expertise, resources, and time constraints of the researcher.
Obj. 1.5

9. Identifying a Topic Non-researchable topics…
address philosophical or ethical issues.
Cannot be resolved through the collection and analysis of data
address “should” questions.
Ultimately these are matters of opinion
Obj. 1.6

10. Identifying a Topic
The formal statement of a quantitative research topic…
identifies the variables of interest.
describes the specific relationship between the variables.
identifies the nature of the participants.
Obj. 1.7 & 1.8

11. Identifying a Topic
The formal statement of a qualitative research topic…
emerges over the course of the study.
begins as an initial statement that tends to be stated as a general issue or concern.
becomes focused as more is learned about the context, participants, and phenomena of interest.
is typically stated late in a written study.
Obj. 1.8

12. The Literature Review
The review of the literature involves the systematic identification, location, and analysis of documents containing information related to the research problem
Obj. 2.1

13. The Literature Review Functions of a literature review
Determine what has been done already
Provide insight necessary to develop a logical framework into which the topic fits
Provides the rationale for the hypotheses being investigated and the justification of the significance of the study
Identifies potentially useful methodological strategies
Facilitates the interpretation of the results
Obj. 2.2

14. The Literature Review
General recommendations for the scope of the review
Bigger does not mean better
Heavily researched topics provide enough references to focus only on the major studies
Lesser researched topics require reviewing any study related in some meaningful way even if this means searching related fields
Obj. 2.3

15. The Literature Review Four stages when conducting a review
Identifying key words to guide the search
Identifying sources
Abstracting the information found in the references
Analyzing, organizing and reporting the literature
Obj. 2.4

16. The Literature Review Identifying key words
Importance of experimenting with several key words and combinations of them
Using “legal” key words for particular data bases
ERIC Thesaurus
Accessed through the ERIC homepage
Obj. 2.4 & 2.8

17. The Literature Review Identifying sources Characteristics of sources
Primary and secondary
Empirical and opinion
Importance of using secondary sources such as handbooks, encyclopedias, and reviews early in the review process
Obj. 2.6

18. The Literature Review Identifying sources
Broadening and narrowing keyword searches
Three important Boolean operators
AND narrows a search
OR broadens a search
NOT narrows a search
Narrowing and focusing by date of publication, specific authors, titles, etc.
Obj. 2.5

19. The Literature Review Identifying sources Searching for books
Electronic databases of university libraries
Keyword searches
Searching for journals or papers
ERIC
Indices usually accessed more easily through the library at your university using EBSCO or other such search tools
Education Index
Psychological Abstracts
Dissertation Abstracts
Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
Obj. 2.7 & 2.10

20. The Literature Review Identifying sources Searching the web
Search engines
Google, Excite, HotBot
Subject directories
Yahoo!, Web Crawler, Lycos
Meta search engines
Dogpile, Mamma, Vroosh

21. The Literature Review Identifying sources Educational sites
ERIC, Ingenta, New Jour, Education Week, National Center for Education Statistics, US Dept. of Education, Developing Educational Standards, Education Resource Organization Directory
Evaluating web sites
Quality, honesty, bias, and authenticity
Thinking Critically about WWW Resources, Critically Analyzing Information Sources
Obj & 2.12

22. The Literature Review Abstracting the references
Locating, reviewing, summarizing, and classifying references
Seven steps
Read the article abstract
Skim the entire article
Record complete bibliographic information
Classify and code the article
Summarize the article
Identify thoughts about the article you believe important
Indicate direct quotes properly
Obj. 4.1

23. The Literature Review Recommended strategies when abstracting
Begin with the most recent references and move toward the most dated
Record all bibliographic information
Author, date of publication, title, journal name or book title or website name, volume and issue, pages, library call number or URL
Identify direct quotes and record page numbers
Identify main ideas

24. Literature Review Analyzing, organizing and reporting
Technical nature of reporting
Documentation
Formal language
Adherence to prescribed styles (e.g., APA)
Outline the review
Group by topics
Analyze for similarities and differences within subheadings
Discuss the least relevant studies first, followed by the most relevant studies
Summarize the review and discuss the implications related to the research problem

25. Literature Review
Differences between quantitative and qualitative reviews
Quantitative reviews are typically conducted in the initial stages of the study
Qualitative reviews are ongoing throughout the entire study reflecting the need to understand data as it is collected, analyzed, and interpreted
Obj. 3.1

26. Literature Review Meta-analysis
A statistical approach to summarizing the results of many studies that have investigated the same problem
Two unique characteristics
The review is as inclusive as possible
The results of each study are translated into a statistic called an effect size (ES)
Obj. 4.3

27. Literature Review Meta-analysis Effect sizes
Essentially the difference between the means for the experimental and control groups in control group standard deviation units
The average of all effect sizes for all of the studies summarizes the overall effect of the studies
Effect size indices generally range from 0.00 to slightly more than 1.00
Obj. 4.3

28. Literature Review Meta-analysis Interpreting effect sizes
There is no single standard by which effect sizes are interpreted
The authors suggest the following criteria
If the effect size is less than 0.30 it is considered small
If the effect size is greater than 0.30 and less than 0.70 it is considered moderate
If the effect size is greater than 0.70 it is considered large
Obj. 4.4

29. Developing Hypotheses
Two views of hypotheses
Inductive – a generalization made from a number of observations
Typical of qualitative studies
Deductive – derived from theory and aimed at providing evidence to support, expand, or contradict aspects of that theory
Typical of quantitative studies
Obj. 5.1 & 5.4

30. Developing Hypotheses
Defining a hypothesis
A researcher’s tentative prediction of the results of the research
Formulated on the basis of knowledge of the underlying theory or implications from the literature review
Testing a hypothesis leads to support of the hypothesis or lack thereof
Obj. 5.1

31. Developing Hypotheses
A good quantitative hypothesis…
is based on sound reasoning.
provides a reasonable explanation for the predicted outcome.
clearly and concisely states the expected relationships between variables.
is testable.
Obj. 5.2

32. Developing Hypotheses
Types of quantitative hypotheses
Research hypotheses state the expected relationship between two variables
Non-directional – a statement that no relationship or difference exists between the variables
Directional – a statement of the expected direction of the relationship or difference between variables
Null – a statistical statement that no statistically significant relationship or difference exists between variables
Obj. 5.5 & 5.6

33. Developing Hypotheses
Non-Directional
Directional
Null
There is no relationship between math attitudes and math achievement
There is a strong positive relationship between math attitudes and math achievement
H0:  = 0
There is no difference in the achievement of students using technology or not using it
Students using technology will have higher levels of achievement than students who are not using it
H0: 1 - 2 = 0
Obj. 5.5 & 5.6

34. Developing Hypotheses
Hypotheses in qualitative studies
Given the nature of qualitative research, formal a priori hypotheses are not stated
Generative role of qualitative research
Testing role of quantitative research
Focus is on generating new hypotheses as a result of the study (i.e., inductive hypotheses)
Obj. 5.10

35. Stating Hypotheses Formats for quantitative experimental studies
P who get X do better on Y than P who do not get X
P represents the participant
X represents the treatment
Y represents the outcome
Testing hypotheses
Statistical analysis of data
Importance of the results regardless of the outcome
Results support or fail to support hypotheses, but they never prove or disprove hypotheses
Obj. 5.7 & 5.9