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(Silverman, 2010, p. 97)
References 'People are often impressed when they nd out that you are "doing research". They may even want to know more. If you have ever been in this situation, you will know how embarrassing it can be if you are unable to explain clearly what you intend to study. Such embarrassment can be multiplied a thousand-fold if your interrogator is, say, a smart professor you have never met before. How are you to respond?'
Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods, 3rd Edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Carey, M. (2009) The Social Work Dissertation: Using Small-Scale Qualitative Methodology. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill and Open University Press. De Vaus, D. (2001) Research Design in Social Research. London: Sage. Gilbert, N. (2008) Researching Social Life, 3rd Edn. London: Sage. Punch, K. F. (2006) Developing Effective Research Proposals, 2nd Edn. London: Sage. Silverman, D. (2010) Doing Qualitative Research, 3rd Edn. London: Sage. White, P. (2009) Developing Research Questions: A guide for social scientists: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
'You should not underestimate how difcult or time consuming it can be to develop research questions. [It] is one of the most challenging stages of the research process. [Developing research questions] requires considerable imagination and ... disciplined and logical thought. But time spent thinking about your research questions will pay dividends at later stages of the research.'
(White, 2009, p. 1)
What?
Research questions, general and specic Justication, signicance, importance, contribution, expected outcomes The methods of the research Punch (2006)
Why?
RESEARCH STRATEGIES
Blaikie (2010, p. 58 and p. 81)
Inductive Deductive
Approach 1
Recognising 'feedback loops' between topic(s) and data analysis Understanding that your categories (or variables) are always theoretically saturated
Approach 1
The research area The research topic General research questions Specic research questions Data collection questions
180 180 180 180
1. Answerability
2. Interconnectedness
3. Substantively relevant
(Punch, 2008)
Research area
Research topic
Data General Specic Research Research collection research research area topic questions questions questions / items
Youth suicide
Managing suicide behaviour among teenagers [qualitative]
(Punch, 2008)
Research area
Research topic
What is the relationship between family background factors and the incidence of youth suicide?
Youth culture in high schools Living with Tourettes syndrome Academic success and failures at university Membership of volunteer organisations
(Punch, 2008)
Youth suicide
Factors associated with the incidence of youth suicide [quantitative] What is the relationship between school experience factors and the incidence of youth suicide?
Approach 2
Research area
Research topic
Research objectives
Factors associated with What is the relationship the incidence of youth between family suicide [quantitative] background factors and the incidence of youth suicide?
Youth suicide
Research questions
(Punch, 2008)
Research objective
Research questions
1). What are the patterns of consumption of new technologies amongst different groups of adults in the United Kingdom?
To nd out why certain individuals and groups adopt new technologies before others
Approach 2
2). What reasons do different individuals provide for adopting or not adopting new technologies?
Research objectives
To reconstruct the networks history from inception and evolution to the present day
Research questions
To investigate the nature of transnational higher education networks of learning and teaching in geography by focusing on history, organisation, access, participation and impact.
To explain why academics participate within these networks What are the motivations of geographers to participate in these networks? To explore how academics participate and to evaluate what role technology What are the incentives to join these networks? plays in their networking practice What experiences of barriers have network members faced?
Approach 3
To assess the perceived value of these networks and the impact they have on learning and teaching practice
Research objectives
To reconstruct the networks history from inception and evolution to the present day
Research questions
Approach 3
To investigate the nature of transnational higher education networks of learning and teaching in geography by focusing on history, organisation, access, participation and impact.
To explore how academics participate and to evaluate what role technology plays in their networking practice
How do the members of these networks benet within their research and learning and teaching practice?
How supported do the network members feel by To assess the perceived value of these their department / institution participating these networks and the impact they have on in networks? learning and teaching practice
Main question
How do young people make educational and career decisions at the end of compulsory schooling?
Approach 4
(White, 2009)
Approach 4
Main question Subsidiary questions
The objective
Research questions
To consider [...] problems and or identify factors, actors, processes and outcomes of 2. What descriptive and analytical ideas innovations in higher regarding the establishment and education in CEE. development of the ve innovative institutions are revealed by participats in the stuudy
1. How did the ve innovative higher education institutions develop between 1989 and 2005?
Romenska (2010)
Concepts
'the building blocks of social theories' Important in the theoretical framework that sets a context for the research Determine the data that will be collected How data will be categorised Help to describe the ndings
(Blaikie, 2010, p. 111 - 112)
The research questions, informed by the theoretical framework presented in Chapter 3, are designed to provide insight into the overarching question: What are the implications of media change for learning and literacy? Three more specic questions guided data collection and analysis.In what ways are university students appropriating new media to advance learning?How are emerging tensions and contradictions created by media convergence experienced by students? How do these tensions manifest themselves in practices mediated by digital tools and resources?How might we conceptualise the New Media Literacies required to learn effectively with the aid of digital tools and resources?
(Francis, 2008)
CONCEPT
DIMENSIONS
a common mistake in questionnaire design is to ask respondents the research question rather than a data collection question ... or slightly modied versions of the studys research questions
(White, 2009, p. 45).
SUBDIMENSIONS
Safety of locality
Relationships
Discrimination
FURTHER SUBDIMENSIONS
With peers With mother With father With siblings Frequency of contact Level of conict Feelings of closeness Amount of helping Types of activities engaged in
With grandparents
INDICATORS
DATA
A research question
a question the research itself is trying to answer a question which is asked in order to collect data in order to help answer the research question
Examples
Do the lecturing staff in your institution feel they are over- worked? worked?
Do the lecturing staff in your Do you think you are underinstitution think that they are paid? under-paid?
a process of making general questions more specic by showing its dimensions, aspects, factors, components, or indicators dening a general concept downwards towards it's data indicators.
(White, 2009)
Examples
Do the lecturing staff in your institution feel they are overworked? Do the lecturing staff in your institution think that they are under-paid?
Basic research Applied research ExploreDescribeUndersta ndPredictChangeEvaluate Assess impact 'What' questions'Why' questions'How' questions Top down Bottom up InductiveDeductive
RESEARCH STRATEGIES
RESEARCH PARADIGMS
Positivism Interpretivism Feminism Other Primary data Secondary data Tertiary data Qualitative data Quantitative data
Population Probability sampling Non-probability sampling Qualitative methods Quantitative methods Mixed methods