Assignment:
For the this essay you will be asked to write an outline about your planned research project.
How to approach the task: Undertake a literature review for a topic that interests you in education. You should think about a main topic and something specific that you would like to find out. From this develop a question that you would like to answer. This will be your primary research question. You may wish to develop secondary questions that break this question up into smaller sub-sections. Start to design a research project. Here are some questions to think about: How would you go about researching your question? Which research design would you choose and why? What instruments or tools would you use and why? Who would be part of your sample and why? How would the data you collect help you answer your question? Can you see some advantages and disadvantages of your approach?
1. Topic Area.
What research area are you interested in? What would you like to find out?
What is the rationale for this research to be undertaken? Why is it important/significant? What are the implications for this research to be undertaken (e.g. influence public policy, develop a theory, change educational practice, etc.)
2. Literature Review
What is your search strategy? Where will you find literature exploring your topic (databases, peer-reviewed journals, books, etc.)? What search terms will you use to find relevant literature? Do you have an inclusion/exclusion criterion? (For inspiration you may wish to revisit lecture & seminar 3).
3. Research Question
Develop a question that you would like to answer (you may wish to develop secondary questions that break this question up into smaller sub-sections). What type of question are you answering (descriptive, correlation, causal, etc.)? Is your design appropriate to answer your chosen research question? Why?
4. Research Design
Now would you go about researching your question?
Which research design would you choose and why?
What instruments or tools would you use and why?
Who would be part of your sample and why?
How would the data you collect help you answer your question?
Can you see some advantages and disadvantages of your approach?
Are there any ethical considerations for your chosen design/sample/etc? (This question looks ahead to next weeks lecture).