Reviewing the Literature and Developing Research Questions

You will be able to:Identify research problems.Explain why it is necessary to conduct a literature search.Conduct a literature search.Explain the reason for stating the purpose of a research study and the research questions.Explain the difference between purpose statements and research questions in qualitative and quantitative studies.Explain the purpose and necessity of stating your research questions and hypotheses.Explain the difference between problem statements in qualitative and quantitative studies.

Sources of Research Ideas

Research topic

Research problem

Research Purpose

Research Question

Hypothesis

Flowchart of the development of a research idea

Ideas that Can’t Be Resolved Through Empirical Research

Making judgments of :

AESTHETICS

MORALITY

RELIGION

Review of the LiteratureHas it been researched

already?

Assist in forming research questions

Ideas how to proceed and design your

study

Can point out methodological problems

Identify appropriate

data collection

instruments

Literature Review for Qualitative Research

• Explain theoretical underpinnings of the study• Assist in formulation of the

research question and selection of the study population• Stimulate new insights

Two Schools of Thought

• Conduct a thorough lit review before collecting data

• Ignorance is Bliss: review literature after research to avoid bias or only review enough to know if the study

has been done

Sources of InformationBooks on a single topicSpecialized encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia of Educational ResearchJournals: 1)Current Index to Journals in Education(CIJE) 2)Resources in Education(RIE) Both are produced by Educational Resources Information Center(ERIC) 3) Psychological Abstracts 4) Sociological Abstracts

• Computer Databases: EBSCO storage and retrieval system: ERIC, PsychINFO, SocINDEX• Internet: www.notess.com, www.searchenginewatch.com

How to Judge the Quality of Internet Resources

Authority: a. lists author and credentials and address has a preferred domain such as edu.org, or .gov b. Identify the qualifications of the publisher of the web document. Read “about us” or “mission” of “Who We Are”

Accuracy

• Look for credentials of author

• Look for a link or e-mail address that allows you to contact the offer

• Is there an acknowledgement of the limitations of the information?

• Identify the purpose of the information: public service announcement, advertising, sales pitch, news release, published research? This may suggest a certain bias.

Objectivity

Highest when :• there is no little or no

advertising • Provides accurate and

objective information

Identify if there is any bias:• Is the information

traceable to factual information presented in some bibliographic or Internet reference? Info may be less biased

• Do authors express own opinions? Opinions suggest bias

currency CoverageIs good when you can view

the information on the web page without paying fees or having additional software applications.

•Determine when the web page was produced

•Determine when the page was updated and ho up-to-date the links are•Web page and links should be updated regularly

Feasibility

• After literature review synthesize the material to formulate specific research questions and a hypotheses to be investigated.

• Determine feasibility? Do you have the time, resources, participants needed?

Research Problem

Quantitative• Emphasis on the need to

explain, predict or describe some outcome or event

• Attempt to explain why the problems exist as well as how to ameliorate them

Qualitative• Focus on exploring some

process, event or phenomenon

Purpose of the Study

Quantitative• Declarative statement that

identifies the type of relationship being investigated between a set of variables.

• The relationship could be causal or descriptive.

Qualitative A statement that the intent of the study is

to explore or understand some phenomenon experienced by certain individuals at a specific research site.

• should be to describe, understand , develop or discover something

• Should state the central idea to describe understand or discover

• State method of data collection• State unit of analysis/and or research site

Research Question

Quantitative• Interrogative sentence that asks a question

about the relationship that exists between two or more variables.

• Common forms are predictive, descriptive and causal research questions

1. descriptive: how often? How much? What is changing over time or over different situations?

2. predictive: can one or more variables be used to predict some future outcome?

3. causal: compare different variations of some phenomenon to identify the cause of something

• Be specific: ensures you have a good understanding of your research and aids in design and conduct of study

Qualitative• Interrogative question about

some process, issue or phenomenon that is to be explored.

• General, open-ended and over-arching question you would like to answer

• Then you narrow down to specifics by writing subquestions

Formulating Hypotheses• Formal statement of prediction of relationship that exists

among the variables under investigation• Logically follows the research question• Typically emerges from the literaure review or theory• Can also come from reasoning based on casual observation of

events• Must be able to be confirmed or not confirmed

Consumer Use of the Literature

• Must not consider any one study’s results to be conclusive

• Look across studies to see whether the findings are repeatedly confirmed or replicated

• For a study to be reliable, the results must be replicated by other researchers on other populations in other locations

• Meta-analysis will have more accurate results than a study that only integrated a few studies