Choosing an interesting research topic is your first challenge. Choosing the right research topic is quite often a daunting task, especially for PhD/M.Phil students. However, developing a good research question has a positive impact on students’ research careers.
You are expected to select your research project topic by yourself, but occasionally you may consult your supervisor for suggestion of a topic. Both the student and the supervisor must agree on the problem to work on before proceeding.
In this post, you will learn proven ways to select your research project topic without stress, but before I proceed further, it will be helpful to remind you about the nature and sources of educational research problems.
A viable researchable topic may be one or at least related to one of the following:
a. An unanswered question-in the field of education, there are many unanswered questions that constitute problems such as; why students perform poorly in science?
b. Problems confronted in the classroom, the school or the community.
c. A missing link in the educational system. For instance, lack of science process skills among science students in public schools. If not corrected could lead to producing half-baked science students after the completion of the secondary education.
d. A felt need in education that has not be addressed could spring up a research topic.
Important factors that guide the identification of are search topic/problem that you must take cognizant of are;
· The topic should be interesting to you as the researcher
· It should be significant to education either practically or theoretically as evidenced from other researchers and experts from relevant literature.
· Ensure the topic is researchable
· Lastly, the topic should be feasible in terms of time, money & energy resources.
Some of the sources or origin of educational research topic include;
i. Current technological changes & curricula development could be a source of educational research topic.
ii. Seminar reports and out of class exchange of ideas
iii. Theories may give rise to some deductions/problem which needs to be investigated. However, the process may not be an easy one for a beginning research scholar.
iv. Personal experiences that one had in life can birth a research topic
v. Reading assignment on current journals, research report, term paper or thesis in your area of interest. Many research reports suggest areas for further studies which may be research worthy. A critical evaluation of a research report may reveal from inconsistencies that may warrant the need for further investigation.
vi. Project supervisor and/or academic adviser can help you clarify your thought and get a sense focus so that you can develop a manageable topic that is not too broad or vague.
Selecting a research topic in education is done in two main steps, namely;selecting a broad problem area and then narrowing it down to a specific problem.
a) Selecting a broad area of study
This is the step where by you choose a broad area of research that pertain to different sections in educational or social system like gender issues, teaching & learning methods, instructional materials, teacher effectiveness, learning styles e.t.c. At this point, you only have a shallow idea of the problem and has to do more in order to bring the broad area into a focused and manageable topic
b) Narrowing it down to a specific topic
You are to read as much as you can on the selected broad area. In this step, you need to consult a lot of literature such as journals, project reports, books and encyclopedia in order to be updated on the current status of research in the broad area you selected. As you continue to purposively read, you will be notice specific problems that can be investigated. For instance, some specific problems that can be selected from a broad problem area like teaching methods are:
I. Effect of Problem-Solving Method on students’ achievement in Physics
II. Comparative study of two instructional strategies on students’ academic achievement
III. Factors affecting computer assisted teaching method on learning outcome in Chemistry.
You must note that aside the three examples given, many specific research topics can be coined from the broad area-Teaching Methods.
Some of the common mistakes in selecting and formulating a research problem as outlined by Singh (2013) include;
1) Naming a broad field or area of study instead of a specific problem.An individual may want to carry out an investigation on “The development of higher education System in Nigeria”
2) Narrowing a topic to an extent that it becomes too small and insignificant from a research point of view. For example, somebody may try to investigate: “A critical study of a village school”.
3) Stating the research problem such that it is impossible to conduct. Embarking on a study such as: “The effect of working mothers on the academic achievement of their offspring”.
4) Including in the problem terms that are unscientific, emotional or biased in nature. For instance, someone may want to work on “The blessings of teaching profession” or “Teaching as a rewarding enterprise”
Thank you and
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