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

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

3. Identifying a Topic
A research topic focuses and provides structure for the steps in the scientific and disciplined inquiry approach

4. Identifying a Topic Three main sources of Research 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

5. Identifying a Topic Available electronic resources Listserves
American Educational Research Association
AERA - Teacher and Teacher Education
Educational Administration Discussion List
Educational Resources on the Internet
ERIC Listserves
Web sites
Public Listserves

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

7. Identifying a Topic Suggestions for focusing topics
Talk to experts in the field
Read sources that provide overviews
Handbooks
Encyclopedias
Reviews

8. Identifying a Topic
Differences between quantitative and qualitative studies in terms of focusing the topic
Quantitative studies tend to narrow the topic initially
Qualitative studies tend to narrow the topic throughout the research process itself

9. Identifying a Topic 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 process
can be adequately researched given the expertise, resources, and time constraints of the researcher.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. Identifying a Topic
The emergent nature of the formal statement of a qualitative research topic
Initial statements tend to be stated as general issues or concerns
Topics become focused as more is learned about the context, participants, and phenomena of interest
Typically specific topics are stated late in a written study

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

14. 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

15. The Literature Review Recommendations for conducting a review
Bigger does not mean better
Heavily researched topics provide enough references to focus only on major studies
Lesser researched topics require reviewing any study related in some meaningful way

16. The Literature Review Four stages of conducting a review
Identifying key words to guide the search
Identifying sources
Abstracting your references
Analyzing, organizing and reporting the literature

17. The Literature Review Identifying key words
Indexing systems of indices in which you will search
Importance of experimenting with several key words and combinations of them
ERIC Thesaurus

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

19. 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.

20. The Literature Review Identifying sources Searching for books
Electronic databases of university libraries
Keyword searches
Searching for journals
ERIC
Education Index
Psychological Abstracts
Dissertation Abstracts
Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
Annual Reviews of Psychology

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

22. The Literature Review Identifying sources Educational sites
ERIC, Ingenta, New Jour, Education Week, National Center for Education Statistics, Bill Hunt's Homepage, US Dept. of Education, WWW Library Resources, Psych Web
Evaluating web sites
Quality, honesty, bias, and authenticity
Internet Detective, Thinking Critically about WWW Resources, Critically Analyzing Information Sources

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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 lest relevant studies first followed by the most relevant studies
Summarize the review and discuss the implications related to the research problem

26. 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, interpreted, and synthesized

27. Stating Hypotheses Quantitative hypotheses
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 hypotheses leads to support or lack thereof

28. Stating Hypotheses A good 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.

29. Stating Hypotheses Types of hypotheses
Inductive – a generalization made from a number of observations
Deductive – derived from theory and aimed at providing evidence to support, expand, or contradict aspects of that theory

30. Stating Hypotheses Types of hypotheses (continued)
Research hypotheses state the expected relationship between two variables
Non-directional – a statement that a relationship or difference exists between the variables
Directional – a statement of the expected direction of the relationship or difference between variables
Null – a statement that no statistically significant relationship of difference exists between variable

31. Stating Hypotheses Qualitative hypotheses
Given the nature of qualitative research, formal a-priori hypotheses are not stated
Generating 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)

32. Stating Hypotheses Formats for experimental studies Testing hypotheses
P who get X do better on Y that 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