C

Chhaapptteerr 22:: S
STTA
ATTIIN
NG
G TTH
HE
ER
RE
ES
SE
EA
AR
RC
CH
HP
PR
RO
OB
BLLE
EM
M

LEARNING OUTCOMES
When you have completed this module you will be able to:
Identify a research problem
List the criteria of a good research problem
Design a study to test selected hypotheses
Explain the different types of variables

It is already the third semester and I still do not have a

research problem
The problem is finding a research problem
My supervisor tells me that my research problem is too broad and I
have to narrow it down
I think I am going to change my research problem
"You do not need to do a research as everyone already knows the
answer"

The above statements are common dilemmas faced by graduate students.

When asked, some students do not even know the meaning of a "research problem".
This is understandable given the numerous definitions of the term :"research problem"
which further confuses the beginning researcher. Some supervisors fail to appreciate
that for many students, it is the first time they are conducting a 'research' (as defined
in Module 1). Learning the intricacies of research is a long and winding process. To
make matters worse, the most difficult phase of the research process is the
identification of the research problem.
Identification of the research problem is the MOST IMPORTANT step of the
research process. It for this reason that a whole module has been devoted to this step.
Not only must you be clear about the research problem, you must also have a passion
for it! "I am already struggling trying to understand my research problem and now I
need to have passion!". Let's see whether you will be able to explain your research
problem clearly as well as be passionate about it, after having completed this module.
1

WHAT IS A RESEARCH PROBLEM?

WordNet Princeton defines a problem as a state of difficulty that needs to be

resolved.
Wikitionary defines a problem as a question to be answered
According to Robert Gerber, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, "a
research problem is the situation that causes the researcher to feel
apprehensive, confused and ill at ease". Do you feel the same way about your
research problem?

Hence, a "research problem" is something that bothers you which needs to be resolved
by research. It is the beginning of the research process and ends with the solution to
the problem. So the next time, you are asked what is your research problem, would
you be able to state it orally or put it in writing.
But I don't have a research problem! Not to worry as there are several sources of
research problems:
1. You own experience or the experience of others may be a source of problem
supply.
2. Scientific literature; you may read about certain findings and notice that a
certain field was not covered. This could lead to a research problem.
3. Theories could be another source. Shortcomings in theories could be
researched.
I have a problem, but it is TOO BROAD. What do I do?

IDENTIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Perhaps the most difficult phase of research is 'identification of the problem'.

In other words, the inability of students to state precisely and clearly what is it they
intend to investigate. Here we will try to help you with this difficult phase. Hopefully,
you have at least a broad area that that you want to study. Not too broad though! The
broader the problem, the more difficult is it to zero in.

BROAD AREA

NARROW RESEARCH
PROBLEM

State Purpose

RESEARCH
QUESTION #2

RESEARCH
QUESTION #3

You start with a broad area. For example,

you are concerned by the poor critical
thinking skills of university graduates.

You narrow down the broad area into

a Research Problem that:
has a rationale and is of
interest to you is researchable
(measureable and sample is
accessible)
is manageable in size (given
your time & resources)
is within your range of
competencies & skills
is worth investigating and
makes a contribution to
knowledge
has a theoretical basis

THREE SCENARIOS OF THE SAME BROAD AREA =

POOR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF UNDERGRADUATES
Scenario 1. EXPLORATORY - SURVEY METHOD
You are concerned about the poor critical thinking skills of undergraduates and you
narrow down the problem into a Research Problem that meets the above criteria.
You conduct a SURVEY to find out the factors influencing critical thinking skills
among undergraduates. You administer a Critical Thinking Test to a sample of
undergraduates and ask the following Research Questions:
Are female undergraduate better critical thinkers than male undergraduates?
Is there a relationship between CGPA and critical thinking?
Is there a difference in critical thinking between science and social science
students?
Is there a relationship between critical thinking and age of students?

Scenario 2. CONFIRMATORY - EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

You are concerned about the poor critical thinking skills of undergraduates and you
narrow down the problem into a Research Problem that meets the above criteria.
You conduct an EXPERIMENT to test whether the critical thinking skills of
undergraduates can be
enhanced. You may ask the following Research Questions:
Is there a difference in critical thinking between the experimental group and
the control group?
Is there a difference between high CGPA and low CGPA subjects?

Is there an interaction between treatment and academic ability?

Scenario 3. INDEPTH UNDERSTANDING - QUALITATIVE APPROACH

You are concerned about the poor critical thinking skills of undergraduates and you
narrow down the problem into a Research Problem that meets the above criteria.
You conduct a QUALITATIVE INQUIRY to find out why the critical thinking skills
of undergraduates
is poor.
You may ask the following Research Questions:
To what extent do university teachers encourage critical thinking in the
classroom?
Are students presented with problems that lead to the development of critical
thinking skills?
To what extent does teacher behaviour encourage the enhancement of critical
thinking?

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

A) STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
For some students this is the most difficult phase of the research process. Quite often
the Research Problem is vague. It is either too scanty or too lengthy but not precise.
Despite having written so many paragraphs, the student is unable to state clearly and
convincingly:
what is the problem?
why it is important?
what should be done?
Perhaps, the following guidelines on the right may help you with this task.
i) What is the Problem?
You begin by first stating the problem. It is some aspect that your are worried about,
think about and want to find a solution for. e.g. Graduate are poor critical thinkers.
ii) Why is it important that the problem be investigated? i.e give a rationale for
why it is of concern.
For Example:
Employers are complaining about the poor critical thinking skills of graduates they
employ
Questions about this problem has not been answered convincingly or are inconclusive
or answers have not been found up to the present - e.g. Very few studies have
addressed the critical thinking ability of university students as most studies continue
to focus on primary and secondary school students.
ii) What should be done? i.e. the Purpose
Your purpose is to solve the problem; i.e. find answers to questions put forward.

State what should be done clearly and grammatically correct. Avoid meaningless
words.
There should be no doubt in your mind what are your intentions.
It is good practice to divide you problem into sub-problems which are called research
questions.
Research Questions guide the solution of the problem
Example: "Specifically, this study aims to answer the following research
questions:
a) Is there a difference in critical thinking male and female students?
b) Is there a relationship between academic performance and critical
thinking?
B) RESEARCH QUESTION
The word "research" means 'finding out' or 'discovery' using a systematic method.
You "research" by asking questions and searching for answers to the questions. You
cannot "research" if you do not want to know anything, that is, you must have
something you would like to know more about before you can do "research".
You begin with QUESTIONS. If you have none, you will find no answers or will not
know when you have found one. Your task is to conduct RESEARCH. A study
without a
question in mind will NOT be a RESEARCH study. You should
MAKE SURE that:
a) The Research Question is clear, straightforward and easily understood by
others
b) The Research Question states the relationship between two or more
variables.
c) The variables mentioned in the Research Question should be measurable.
d) The answer to the Research Question is not immediately obvious.
e) The Research Question indicates the method that is to be adopted, i.e.
the data collection techniques
f) The Research Question can be answered in the time available to you.
g) The Research Question can be answered with the resources available to
you.
TYPES OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
Generally there are three basic types of questions that research projects can address:
1. Descriptive Research Questions
Here you describe what is going on or what exists. For example, you may want to find
the proportion of teachers who support the teaching of sex education in secondary
school. You are simply interested in describing something.
Statistical Tools:
- Mean, median and mode
- Frequency tables
- Histograms, Line graphs
2. Relational Research Questions
Here you want to know the relationships between two or more variables. For example,
you want to know the proportion of males and females who support the teaching of

sex education in secondary school. In other words, you are interested in studying the
relationship between gender and preference for teaching of sex education.
Statistical Tools:
- Simple correlation
- Linear regression
- Multiple regression
3. Causal Research Questions
Here, you want to know whether one or more variables (e.g., a programme or
treatment variable) causes or affects one or more outcome variables. For example, you
conduct a workshop to the group of teachers to determine whether their opinion about
teaching sex education to secondary school students has changed.
Statistical Tools:
- t-test
- Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
- Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)

NULL HYPOTHESIS
The null hypothesis is a hypothesis (or hunch) about the population. It represents a
theory that has been put forward because it is believed to be true. The word "null"
means nothing or zero. So, a null hypothesis states that 'nothing happened'. For
example, there is no difference between males and females in critical thinking skills
or there is no relationship between socio-economic status and academic performance.
Such a hypothesis is denoted with the symbol "Ho:". In other words you are saying,
You do not expect the groups to be different
You do not expect the variables to be related

Ho: 1 = 2
OR
Ho: 1 2 = 0

In other words, you are saying that:

The science mean scores for the discovery method
group (1) is EQUAL to the mean scores for the
lecture method group (2).
The science mean scores for the discovery method
group (1) MINUS the mean scores for the lecture
method group (2) is equal to ZERO.
The null hypothesis is often the reverse of what the researcher
actually believes in and it is put forward to allow the data to
contradict it [You may find it strange but that's the way it is!]

ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS
The Alternative Hypothesis (H1) is the opposite of the Null Hypothesis. For example,
the alternative hypothesis for the study discussed earlier is that there is a difference in
science scores between the discovery method group and the lecture method group
represented by the following notation:
The Alternative Hypothesis (H1) is the opposite of the Null Hypothesis. For example,
the alternative hypothesis for the study discussed earlier is that there is a difference in
science scores between the discovery method group and the lecture method group
represented by the following notation:
Ha: 1 2
Ha: The Alternative Hypothesis might be that the science mean scores between
discovery method group and lecture method group are DIFFERENT.
Ha: 1 > 2
Ha: The Alternative Hypothesis might be that the science mean scores of the
discovery method group is HIGHER than the mean scores of the lecture method
group.
Ha: 1 < 2
Ha: The Alternative Hypothesis might be that the science mean scores of the
discovery method group is LOWER than the mean scores of the lecture method
group.

CONCLUSION:
Based on the findings of the experiment, you found that there was a significant
difference in science scores between the discovery method group and the
lecture method group.
In fact, the mean score of subjects in the discovery method group was higher
than the mean of subjects in the lecture method group. What do you do?
You REJECT the null hypothesis because earlier you had said they would be
equal.
You reject the null hypothesis in favour of the ALTERNATIVE HYPOTESIS
(i.e. 1 2).

CONSTRUCTS AND VARIABLES

A construct is deliberately and consciously invented or adopted for a special
scientific purpose. "Intelligence" is construct based on observation of presumably
intelligent and less intelligent behaviours or having a value of more or less. Constructs
are used in theoretical schemes and is related in various ways to other constructs. e.g.
school achievement is in part a function of intelligence. Intelligence is so defined and

specified that it can be observed and measured. e.g. administering intelligence tests,
interview teachers about their students.
Researchers somewhat loosely call constructs or properties they study as
variables. eg. gender, social class. A variable is something that varies. A variable is
a symbol to which numerals of values are assigned. For example, the symbol
"intelligence" is assigned a set of numerical values which may be IQ scores ranging
from 50 to 150. In the case of the variable "gender" there are only 2 values and they
are called dichotomous variables, i.e. male (1) and female (0). Other examples of
two-value variables are: graduate-nongraduate, low income-high income, citizennoncitizen. Besides dichotomous variables, some variables are polytomies, eg.
religion - Islam, Christianity, Buddhism. Hinduism, etc
TYPES OF VARIABLES

There are many ways of classifying variables but in educational research, the
two most common methods of classification are as follows:
Independent and Dependent Variables
Continuous and Categorical Variables
a) Independent and Dependent Variables
An independent variable (IV) is the variable that is presumed cause a change
in the dependent variable (DV). The independent variables is the antecedent while the
dependent variable is the consequent. See Figure 3 which describes a study to
determine which teaching method (independent variable) is effective in enhancing the
academic performance (dependent variable) of students.

The independent variable (teaching method) can be manipulated

Manipulated means the variable can manoeuvred, and in this case it is
divided into discussion method and lecture method. Other examples of
independent variables are gender (male-female), race (Malay, Chinese,
Indian), socioeconomic status (high, middle, low). Other names for the
independent variable are treatment, factor and predictor variable.
The dependent variable in this study is academic performance which cannot
be manipulated by the researcher. Academic performance is a score and other
examples of dependent variables IQ (score from IQ tests), attitude (score on an
attitude scale), self-esteem (score from a self-esteem test) and so forth. Other
names for the dependent variable are outcome variable, results variable and
criterion variable.

Put it another way, the DV is the variable predicted to, whereas the
independent variable is predicted from. The DV is the presumed effect, which varies
with changes or variation in the independent variable.

INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE (IV)

DEPENDENT
VARIABLE (DV)
Discussion
Academic
Performance

Teaching
Method
Lecture
Figure 3

Independent and Dependent Variable

b) Continuous and Categorical Variables

A continuous variable (also called ordinal variable) is capable of taking on an
ordered set of values within a certain range. For example, an attitude scale towards
smoking may have values ranging from 5 to 20 which expresses differing amounts of
attitude towards smoking. A categorical variable (also called nominal variables) may
be made up of two or more subsets or categories. Each subset or category possess
certain characteristics and individuals are categorised by their possession of those
characteristics that defines a subset. For example, the variable socio-economic class
(SES) may consist of 3 values such as high SES, middle SES and low SES.
c) Operational Definition of Variables
If you lead a good life, you will not suffer. This is a specific prediction of
the future, but it cannot be scientifically tested. Such a prediction is not scientifically
tested because we cannot define it operationally. How do you define good life and
how do you define suffer. According to Bridgman, 1927, operational definition
means that variables used in the study must be defined as it is used in the context of
the study and publicly observable. This is done to facilitate measurement and to
eliminate confusion. For example, when you state in your study that you are studying
'excellent principals, you should be able to explain what 'excellent' means. Once the
behaviours of an excellent principal have been identified the operational definition
will be unique to your study (see Figure 4).
However, it should be borne in mind that in education not all variables are
directly observable. For example, we cannot really observe learning, memory,
reasoning, and so forth. Though they cannot be observed they can be measured to see
their traces. With enough indirect evidence, researchers can make a convincing case
for the existence of these invisible variables (Mitchell and Jolley, 1988). For example,
though we cannot observe learning directly, we can see its effect on performance, i.e.
we can operationally define learning as an increase in performance. Thus, if we see
students improve their performance after practicing a task, we conclude that learning
has occurred. Similarly, we can provide operational definitions for such intangible
variables such as self-esteem, racial stereotype, attitudes and so forth.

Excellent
Principal

Operational Definition
The person:
listens to teachers
looks after the welfare of teachers
acknowledges effort
consults teachers
motivates teachers

Figure 4: Example of an Operational Definition of an Excellent Principal

LEARNING ACTIVITY
1. What is a variable?
2. What is the difference between an Independent Variable and
Dependent Variable? Give specific examples.
3. Why do you need to define variables operationally?
4. Make up operational definition for the following variables:
Underachievement
Parental bonding
Aspirations [of teenagers]
Autocratic Leader [principal or headmaster]
Teacher Burnout
Socioeconomic status
Leadership
Reading ability
Delinquency
Interests

10