Guidelines on Writing Research Proposals.2

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8/6/2019 Guidelines on Writing Research Proposals.2

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Liisa K

GUIDELINES ON WRITING

RESEARCH PROPOSALS

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

5/12/20112

� What is educational research?

� Types of Research Proposals

� Introduction of a research proposal

� Literature Review

� Methodology

� Research Ethics

� Budget

� References

What is educational

research?

5/12/20113

y A systematic attempt to answer questions on education

y A systematic way of generating new knowledge with the purposeof enhancing educational theory, policy and practice

y A systematic way of responding to educational concerns

y A systematic way of assessing the impact of educational changes,reforms, activities and interventions

y A systematic way of resolving controversies and interrogatingproposals for change in education

Note the scientific approach that underlies educational research.

Types of Research Proposals

5/12/20114

1. A proposal for a research grant

2. A donor solicited research proposal

3. A research proposal for aconsultancy

4. A research proposal for an academic

project/thesis/dissertation

INTRODUCTION SECTION OF A

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

5/12/20115

y Research topic

y Orientation of the proposal

y Statement of the Problem

y Objectives and/or research questions of the study

y Hypotheses of the study (formulated when

applicable)

Significance of the studyy Limitations of the study

y Delimitations of the study

Research topic

5/12/20116

y The research topic is a self-explanatory concise

expression of the subject of enquiry

y The expression is limited to the scope of the

y The research topic is not a research problem

y For instance: ´ An enquiry into the role of School

Principals in the Oshana Education Regionµ

Orientation of the research

proposal

5/12/20117

� Based on key literature pieces in the area of interest and on

educational topical issues of the day, provide an overview of

research issues to be considered.

� In the overview, state research concerns, disagreements,

controversies, unanswered questions, gaps in knowledge that have

given rise to your research interest.

� State what perplexes you. State what you do not understand.

� For instance: In a study on the boy child in education, state why

you are intrigued by the fact that there are substantially morefemale learners than male learners in the Namibian schools and

tertiary institutions.

EXAMPLE OF AN ORIENTATION STATEMENT

y It is held that education is an important deterrent to the spread of

HIV infection. It is assumed that the more people are aware of

how HIV and AIDS spreads, the more they will be able to guard

against the disease. For more than two decades, these assumptions

have guided HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in manycountries. We do not need high insight to arrive at the conclusion

that the majority of such programmes have yielded little impact in

the way of halting or even slowing down the disease·s devastating

onslaught on many communities, particularly those in Sub-SaharanAfrica. Instead of diminishing, HIV infection has been increasing

on an annual basis, almost unabated, in many communities of the

World.

5/12/20118

An example of orientation

continued

y Voices have been heard pointing to the danger of

¶mis-education· and ¶mis-schooling· in the fight

against HIV infection (Kelly, 2000; Mwape and

Kathuria, 2000; Zimba and Nuujoma-Kalomo,2002).This danger is that contrary to received

wisdom, educated people and educational settings

can in fact promote HIV infection (Stremlau andNkosi, 2001).

5/12/20119

Formulating a Statement of

the Research Problem

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y What is a research problem from the quantitative and

qualitative perspectives?

y Where do research problems come from?

yHow do we formulate research problems?

y What are qualities of good research problems?

What is a research problem from the

quantitative research perspective?

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y From a quantitative research perspective, a research problem

is about relationships between and amongst variables. A

variable is a construct that changes in quantity and quality.

Examples of variables are academic achievement, teacher

effectiveness, school effectiveness, motivation, boredom,

literacy level, numeracy, teaching ability, etc.

Examples of quantitative research

problems

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y Is there a relationship between teacher

qualification and academic achievement?

Does school readiness influence readingfluency at the grade 1 level?

yDoes Early Childhood Education influence

academic achievement in grade 10?

What is a qualitative research

problem?

5/12/201113

y An expression of a concern,

y The need to understand a situation or a state of

y The need to dispel misconceptions or myths

y Examples of concerns- A high failure rate in a

subject, frustration emanating from teaching

without text books and other resources, the lowrepresentation of male students at the University

of Namibia, the low UNAM PGS graduation rate.

Examples of qualitative

research problems

5/12/201114

yWhat are learners· experiences with alcohol

in a school hostel?

Why are some grade 8 learners from onecircuit in one education region unable to

read and write in English?

What should a school do to prevent learnersuicide?

Where do research problems come from?

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y Curiosity

y Need for understanding

y Need for information on which to base decisions

y Need to assess interventions

y Need to learn

y Literature

y Discussions with others

y Experience

How do we formulate

research problems?

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y Identify a research issue or idea of interest

y Discuss the idea with colleagues, friends, teachers, etc.

y Read around the research issue/idea- outline gaps in knowledge,

concerns, disagreements, controversies, myths, etc. requiring

investigation- understand what the gist and need of investigation

is. What requires evidence?

y Either ask several possible research questions or write down

several possible research statements

y Integrate questions or statements to come up with a research

problem

What are qualities of good research

problems?

5/12/201117

Research problems should:

y Be clear as questions or statements

y Render themselves to empirical investigation

y Have critical mass-should be comprehensive and

useful enough to warrant an investigation.

y Be interesting

y Have practical value

y Have theoretical value

Qualities of good research

problems Contd

5/12/201118

Research problems should:

yBe manageable

Focus on one main issuey Involve either a concern, a controversy, a

disagreement, a need for evidence, a need

for understanding, a need to dispel myths orshould focus on a question requiring an

answer

Examples of good research

problems

5/12/201119

y What problems are associated with teaching and

learning in large classes at the University of

Namibia?

y What factors promote HIV infection in student

hostels at tertiary education institutions in

Namibia? What beliefs, values, traditions and the

perceived sexual relations amongst students mayunderlie the risky factors?

Objectives and or research

questions of the study

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y Based on research problems, researchers should

state either objectives or research questions that

will guide their studies.These should be

formulated unambiguously.

y For instance, a research question pertaining to

preventing school suicide could be: ´what skills

do school X·s guidance teachers need to preventsuicide amongst learners?µ

Stating hypotheses

5/12/201121

y In quantitative research, unequivocal and testable

hypotheses that are based on theory and on statements of

research problems could be derived from relationships

between and amongst dependent and independentvariables.

y For instance, a hypothesis could be: ́ Grade 12 learners·

performance in Mathematics influences their

performance in the subject at the end of UNAM·S firstsemester.µ

Significance of the study

5/12/201122

y Practical and theoretical importance of the

intended study should be stated under this

heading. What will the study contribute to

educational practice and theory? Will the findings

of the study enhance the quality of teaching? Will

the study influence decisions made by policy

makers? Will the study, for instance, help schoolsprevent suicide amongst learners?

An example of the significance of a study on

HIV/AIDS

y Although a number of studies on HIV/AIDS awareness, HIV

infection risks, attitudes and practices that may promote HIV

infection have been done at tertiary institutions in Namibia,

we are unaware of systematic and in depth studies on factors

that promote HIV infection in these institutions· hostels. We

are not well informed about beliefs, cultural values and

practices that facilitate HIV infection in the student hostels.

This investigation would provide findings on these and other

issues.These findings would form an important basis fordesigning and implementing specific strategies to mitigate

the impact of HIV/AIDS risk factors.

5/12/201123

Limitations and delimitations

of the study

y Limitations of the study are conditions beyond the

control of the researcher that may negatively influence

the research findings. For instance, time and financial

constraints; inaccessibility of some research sites;unavailability of adequate numbers of respondents.

y Delimitations are boundaries of one·s research.The

researcher should state the coverage or scope of the

study. For example, do not talk about the whole of Namibia when the study is going to be conducted at one

school in one region.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

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y Literature review should:

Show gaps in knowledge;

Reveal the need for further research;

Point to unanswered questions, disagreements in literature;

Identify theoretical and methodological weaknesses andcontroversies that demand further research;

Demonstrate what has been researched and what remainsuninvestigated in one·s area of interest;

Be critical, analytical, synthesized and integrated;

Be current and demonstrate the researcher·s understanding of the area of interest.

LITERATURE REVIEW continued

5/12/201126

y To be current, the literature review should:

Be based on the latest primary and secondary

sources of information in the form of published

research articles; well-researched review positionpapers; books, governmental policy documents;

UN conventions, goals, declarations, frameworks

of action; evidence-based newspaper articles;expert opinions; discussions with researchers in

the field; etc.

METHODOLOGY

5/12/201127

yResearch design

yPopulation

SampleyResearch instruments

yProcedure and research ethics

yData analysisyBudget

Research design

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yEither quantitative or qualitative

research designs should be provided

in this section. Research designs areresearch plans that researchers use

when conducting their studies.

Research design contd

5/12/201129

y Descriptive, pre- experimental, quasi-experimental and

experimental designs are used in quantitative research.

y Whereas surveys, correlational studies, and some case studies are

descriptive studies, various comparison studies are in the

´experimental designµ genre. Very few studies in education applythe true experimental design.

y Different designs handle threats to internal and external

validity in varying degrees. Internal validity refers to whether or

not effects observed are due to treatment . External validityrefers to the extent to which research findings from a study can be

generalized to the population from which the sample was drawn.

Research design contd

5/12/201130

yIn qualitative research, narrative,

phenomenological, grounded theory,

ethnographic and case study designs areused.

yIt is important for the qualitative

researcher to know and understandwhich design he or she is using

Population

5/12/201131

yIn quantitative research, the

researcher must specify the

entire group to which he or shewishes to generalize findings of a

study.

Sample

5/12/201132

y Using appropriate quantitative or qualitative sampling

techniques, researchers should explain how they would

draw samples from their defined research populations.

This should be done in concrete and meaningful ways.Merely stating what sampling is and why it is important

is inadequate.

y There is no population sample.

y Quantitative sampling techniques should not be used inqualitative studies and visa versa.

Research instruments

5/12/201133

y Research instruments are tools that enable

researchers to collect data for answering research

questions.

y Examples of research instruments used inquantitative education research are

questionnaires, tests (standardized and non

standardized, e.g. achievement tests), a variety of scientific measuring equipments, sport

equipment, etc.

Research Instruments continued

yExamples of qualitative research

instruments are structured and open-ended

interview schedules, observation guidelines,

electronic equipment such as video and

digital cameras, tape recorders, cell phones,

yResearch measures should be reliable and

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Data analysis

5/12/201135

y Researchers should provide specific strategies for

analyzing either quantitative or qualitative data. In

quantitative research, researchers should justify

the use of particular non parametric andparametric statistics to analyze data.

y This is that the use of frequencies, cross

tabulations (including the 2), the t-test,ANOVA, regression analysis, correlation

coefficient, etc. should be justified.

Data analysis contd

5/12/201136

yThe use of various types of strategies for

analyzing qualitative data such as content

analysis, coding and creating categories,

narrative data analysis, ethnographic data

analysis; computer assisted qualitative data

analysis, should be explained in this section

Budget

5/12/201137

yThe researcher is required to prepare an

itemized budget if he or she would like to

apply for research funds. Such a budget

should specify expected financial costs that

may include fieldwork, instrument

preparation, translation (if needed) and

pretesting, data entry, transcription, coding

and analysis, thesis writing and processing.

References

5/12/201138

yResearchers could use the Publication

Manual of the American

Psychological Association (A

format when citing sources of

information in text and when preparing

reference lists at the end of theirresearch proposals.

References Continued

y There must be consistency between sources cited

in the text of the proposal and sources of

information indicated in reference lists.This

means that unused sources of information shouldnot be included in the list of references.

y Educational Researchers should not use the

Wikipedia as a valid academic source of information as the information presented in it is

not verifiable.

5/12/201139

Guidelines on Writing Research Proposals.2

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