EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROCESS

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROCESS

1. STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

   • Summarize the various activities to be carried out during each step of educational research
     • Describe the importance of carefully posing the research question
       • Identify various issues to be addressed when developing a research plan

2. MAIN STEPS FOR CONDUCTING A RESEARCH STUDY

   • Identify an existing problem
     • Clarifying and specify the problem
       • Ask research questions about the central problem
         • Review of related literature
           • Identify and implement procedures for data collection and analysis
             • Expose findings determined through analysis

3. IDENTIFYING AND LIMITING A RESEARCH TOPIC OR PROBLEM

   • The topics of educational research studies should be of great personal interest to the researcher
     • Personal interest is a huge factor in deciding an initial topic for research
       • If an existing need is identified there will be an interested audience in the results of a research study
         • The researcher is responsible for providing a justification that this particular issue or problem deserves to be studied
           • The basic objective of having all research studies is to find answers, questions- help- explain and understand some educational phenomenon

4. WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW

   • It involves examining previous studies related to the research topic
     • Example: Books, journals and reports
     • Helps contextualize the current study
       • Identifies gaps in previous research, establishes the relevance and justification of the new study

5. DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH PLAN

   • After conducting an in-depth review of the existing reading, researchers have background and support to focus their proposed study
     • Involves identification of possible study designs, sample determination and data collection
       • It is important that the research plan is aligned with the objectives of the study and that the most appropriate methods to answer the research questions are chosen

6. ANALYSING THE DATA

   • Research process where collected data are examined and interpreted to answer research questions
     • Depending on the methodological approach of the study, qualitative, quantitative or mixed techniques can be used to analyze data
       • In quantitative data analysis, statistical tools are used to examine patterns and relationships
         • In the analysis of qualitative data, topics, patterns and meanings can be identified in the collected textual data