Faculty Development

Translating your initial ideas into a feasible educational research project is an iterative process. Consideration of ethical issues is essential and we will look at these in the next section. Here, we look briefly at some of the other activities that need to be carried out before the actual research begins.

Bordage and Dawson (2003) emphasise that ‘the single most important component of a study is the research question. It is the keystone of the entire exercise’ (p. 378). Defining the aims of your study clearly will determine all other aspects of the design. This involves selecting an appropriate topic and defining a timely and appropriate research question. In the same way that clearly defining learning outcomes or objectives helps us to plan learning and teaching activities, defining your research question or project aims  provides a clear focus for the whole research process.

Bordage and Dawson pose nine questions that should be asked during  this stage.

1. What topic (idea) of study are you interested in?
2. What has already been done in this area (the literature)?
3. What major outcome(s) (dependent variable) are you interested in?
4. What intervention (independent variable) are you interested in?
5. Are you looking for differences or a relationship (association)?
6. To what group (population) do you wish to apply your results?
7. What is your specific research question?
8. What answer to your question do you expect to find (the research hypothesis)?
9. Why is this question important today (relevance)?

Getting the research question right for what we want to do is the most important step in research. There is no magic way to achieve this, but the following is one way to tackle it.

• Use different ways of generating ideas, such as brainstorming, mind mapping, discussions, reading around the topic and asking different levels of question that might be addressed. Consider the answers these questions may elicit, and after each one ask: ‘Does it matter?’
• When you have a question you are happy with and that will produce answers you want to know, ask what it would take in terms of resources (time, money, skills, etc.) to answer the question and whether it is feasible.
• If it’s not, move down to the next level and develop an appropriate question there.
• When you feel there is a research question that will produce answers that matter and which it will be possible to achieve within resources, the researchers need to obtain feedback on the question from other people involved.

You need to make sure that your research contributes to educational knowledge, even if this is in a small way or for local/organisational consumption only, rather than replicating work that has already been done. Huth (1982), cited in Parsell and Bligh (1999), suggests this means that you need to create new ideas with a new message, a message new to a particular audience or a message that expands on a previous idea. Unless you are very familiar with the literature relevant to your research, you will need to carry out a background search before writing the research proposal, especially if you are applying for funding. This will indicate to the reader that you are familiar with the research area; it will also help you to clarify exactly where your research fits into the broader scheme of things and give you ideas about the focus of the research.