Lesson 3 will consist of the following topics
For lesson 3, read pages 39-46 in Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, Seventh Edition by L. R. Gay and Peter Airasian (2003, Merrill/Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-099463-4)
or read pages 32-55 in Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, Eighth Edition by Lorrie Gay, Geoffrey Mills, and Peter Airasian (2006, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-118534-9)
or read pages 68-84 in Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 3rd Edition by John W. Creswell (2008, Merrill/Prentice Hall, ISBN-13: 978-0-13-613550-0)
Although finding or selecting a research problem constitutes a formidible problem for many graduate students, there are a number of approaches to solving this problem, i.e. solving the problem of finding your research topic.
Some approaches to finding a suitable research problem are:
1. Just take a few minutes and jot some research ideas you have been carrying around based on your experience as a teacher (or as an administrator, or as a nurse practitioner, or as a volunteer counselor).
Many times in our practice as a professional, questions present themselves to us. What would happen if I taught reading using this new approach? How effective is this new problem solving approach to learning the addition and subtraction facts? Is it an improvement over using my trusty old flash cards?
2. Page through recent issues of your favorite, research based, professional journal. Look at the titles of the articles in the journal. You can use the idea of an already published study for a research problem of your own. This is called "replication" (repeating a study in a different context to see if the results hold in the new situation). More frequently though, just looking at the titles of and reviewing the articles will give you an idea for your own study that is not a replication of the study you read, but is a new study based on your reading of an existing study.
For example, as you might imagine, I am quite interested in computer based education, or research based more broadly on the use of technology in education. I could probably get an idea for a research topic by skimming through the last three or four issues of the Journal of Research on Computing in Education.
3. Look at the table of contents in a basic text in your area of specialization. This can be a fertile area for research ideas? For example while reading an introductory textbook in learning disabilities, Learning Disabilities: Characteristics, Identification, and Teaching Strategies, 4th edition by William N. Bender (2001, Allyn and Bacon), I came across this interesting statement by the author.
"Further there are some students with learning disabilities who display a level of intelligence in the gifted range. These students are known as gifted learning disabled. Some students with IQs above 130 or two standard deviations above the mean, also demonstrate an ability-achievement discrepancy. These students may be at or above grade level academically, but if there is a large discrepancy between their IQ and their achievement, they may be classified as learning disabled or gifted learning disabled. Research studies that examine the characteristics of this particular group of students are relatively rare. At present, no scholar can make data-based recommendations on appropriate educational programs for these students." (Bender, 2000, page 71)
4. Page through the chapters that interest you in the Encyclopedia of Educational Research or the Handbook of Educational Research.
5. Look at revew articles in areas of interest to you in the Review of Educational Reseach
Note: The Minnesota State University Moorhead library has each of the following items
This would be a good time to just state some research problems. Why don't you take a few minutes, before going on with this lesson, and write down three to five possible research topics. Then you can think about these topics as we proceed with our lesson. If you do this now, you will have a good start on the assignment for this lesson.
When I did this activity, I came up with the following list:
6. What are the educational characteristics of gifted learning disabled students in the middle school?
7. Computerized drill versus flash cards to help students with learning disablities remember the addition and subtraction facts.
8. Computer animation as a substitute for concrete materials, for learning basic math concepts.
9. The effect on reading comprehension of using media for the presentation of written materials.
10. The problem is "researchable" - it is a problem that can be investigated through the collection and analysis of data.
11. The problem has theoretical or practical significance.
12. It is a good problem for you.
A well stated research problem should include each of the following componants.
13. The variables of interest to the researcher.
14. The specific relationship between the variables.
15. The type of subjects involved.
At some point we will need to have an operational definition of each of our variables but we can ignore that componant of a research problem until lesson 5 (Formulation and Statement of a Research Hypothesis).
With these criterea in mind let's go back and clarify the preliminary research topics we mentioned earlier.
16.
What are the educational characteristics of gifted learning
disabled students in the middle school?
To make this into a research problem we are going to have to list the variables
we are interested in. In other words, What specific variables are implied by
"educational characteristics?" Pupils are classified as gifted partly
on the basis of cognitive ability (tested IQ). Pupils are classified as
learning disabled primarily on the basis of a severe discrepancy between
ability and school achievement in reading, math, or written language. With this
information we are ready to state our research problem.
IQ, Reading Achievement, Mathematics Achievement, and Achievement in Written Language for gifted students with learning disabilities in the middle school.
17. Computerized drill versus flash cards to help students with learning disablities remember the addition and subtraction facts. Here we want to compare two types of instruction in mathematics and evaluate the effect that has on a measure of addition and subtraction facts knowledge. We could state our research problem as:
The effect of type of instruction (computer program versus flash cards) on knowledge of addition and subtraction facts for elementary students with learning disabilities.
18. Computer animation as a substitute for concrete materials, for learning basic math concepts. Modern mathematics instruction has stressed the importance of using concrete models (as well as a problem solving approach) in mathematics instruction. A computer with a two dimensional screen is only capable of showing pictures of the objects rather than the objects themselves. However, some investigators (don't press me for the reference on this right now - but I am looking for it) have suggested that animation can be used as a way of making an object more like an actual object than a picture of the object. Of course, some kinds of computer similations, e.g. virtual reality, would be presenting concrete objects for all practical purposes.
One of the ways we could state this research problem is: The effect of type of presentation (concrete manipulables versus animated computer images) on efficiency in learning addition and subtraction facts by first grade students.
19. The effect on reading comprehension of using media for the presentation of written materials. In this study, we want to compare the effectiveness of reading from a computer screen with reading printed text on reading speed and reading comprehension. We might also be interested in the type of font used and the size of type. This is developing into a fairly complex study with three independent variables (mode of presentation, type of font, and type size) and two dependent variables (reading speed and reading comprehension). Even though this is a complex study, once we have identified the independent and dependent variables it is fairly easy to state our research problem:
The effect of mode of presentation, type of font, and type size on reading speed and reading comprehension among middle school students.
Finally, we can summarize our experiences in stating research problems by suggesting that there are four models we can use for stating research problems. There is one for each type of quantitative research.
20. [variable], [variable], and [variable] among [type of subjects] - descriptive research.
21. The relationship between [variable] and [variable] among [type of subjects] - correlational research.
22. The effect of [independent variable not under experimenter's control] on [dependent variable] for [type of subjects] - quasi-comparative research.
23. The effect of [independent variable under experimenter's control] on [dependent variable] for [type of subjects] - experimental research.
Click on Lesson 3 Assignment to go to the assignment for Lesson 3.
Click on Lesson 3 Quiz to go to the Quiz for Lesson 3.
Please send electronic mail to the course instructor if you have any questions about this lesson or other concerns.