Moving from research question to research design: understanding

which methods are most appropriate

Dorothy Faulkner and Cindy Kerawalla 1

Your probationary reviewers will:

Review your research project and plans. Review your research project and plans. Assess your skills development against a Assess your skills development against a set of appropriate benchmarks.set of appropriate benchmarks.Make a recommendation about whether Make a recommendation about whether registration should continue and be registration should continue and be confirmed for a PhD. confirmed for a PhD.

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You will need to complete

A probation report

A mini-viva

An oral presentation

A summary of PhD skills development

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The‘What’ the‘Why’& the‘How’

Your probation reviewers will be looking for clear answers to these questions:

1. What is the main research question, focus of interest or central thesis and why is this interesting?

2. What are we going to learn as the result of the proposed project that we do not know now?

3. Why is this worth knowing (theoretical, methodological, applied contribution)?

4. How will we know that the arguments and conclusions are valid?

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This session will ask you to think about:

Your disciplinary and theoretical perspective The implications of this for your research question,

argument or central thesis How you can unpack your research question/argument Your research design, method of enquiry and preliminary

analytical perspective What types of evidence you need and why you need it Where you will get it from When you will collect it Who you will collect it from Research ethics

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Different disciplinary perspectives:Examples of PhD research questions/theses

What is the role of consumption in the everyday life of young mothers? How might young mother’s consumption be regulated by poverty? How might young women be/feel excluded from consumer practices by poverty? How might the pressures of consumption be felt as oppressive? The fall of communism altered the population structure of the Czech Republic and led to profound social and economic change.Climate change stipulates capital flows and migration: How does this affect regional economies?The cultural dominance of Freudian theory has obscured the pre-history of child psychiatry in Britain as it emerged from literary sources in the second half of the nineteenth century.

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Unpacking a research question from the perspective of technology enhanced learning

How are digital technologies appropriated as tools for learning and how does the conduct and experience of scripted inquiry learning mediate and change the activities of learning?

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Signalling the theoretical/disciplinary focus

How are digital technologies appropriated as tools for learning and how does the conduct and experience of scripted inquiry learning mediate and change the activities of learning?

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Research question: theoretical focus

Appropriation Tools for learning Mediation

are terms for key theoretical concepts. Use of these terms locates this question within the sociocultural tradition and signals the researchers theoretical stance.

You will need to justify WHY your research is located within a particular theoretical framework, WHAT its key concepts are, WHAT alternative frameworks there are and WHY you have rejected them.

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Getting more specific: identifying key areas of enquiry

In what ways do scripted inquiry learningactivities develop children's learning skills?

In this project, learning skills were identified as: Working collaboratively The ability to argue and debate from evidence Judge the veracity of source information Deal with noise in data Construct appropriate visualisations

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Workshop activity 1: Your research question/thesis

• Identify your main research question, central thesis or area of enquiry on the card

• Identify a possible specific area of investigation• Swap cards with the person sitting next to you• Explain how what you have written signals your

disciplinary and theoretical perspective• Discuss what you expect to learn from your

research and how it will contribute to your area

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Situated Inquiry learning study:Research design

Comparative case study design – two schools - main comparison Socio-economic status and educational achievement

A series of quasi-experimental intervention studies with pre and post test measures over three years with 12 – 15 year-old pupils

In classes where teachers were using scripted inquiry learning software

Videos of classroom interactions, interviews, standardised tests, attitude questionnaires

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Some sources of quantitative evidence

Large Government data sets (e.g. household survey, census, school league tables) i.e. population/demographic data

Research data archives (e.g. ESRC) – previous researchers’ data sets

Linguistic corpora Standardised test data (e.g. IQ tests, personality tests,

mental health, job satisfaction indices, happiness indices)

Bespoke questionnaire & survey data from instruments you have designed

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Some sources of qualitative evidence

Transcripts of conversation & dialogue Documents and texts (letters, diaries, household

accounts, draft manuscripts, annotated scores) Archives (film, newspapers, public records, Hansard) Activity protocols and log files of software use, Research diaries and field notes Transcripts of interviews and focus groups Children’s school work Photographs and/or audio visual records

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Workshop activity 2

Jot down a couple of sources of evidence that you might use

Share these with your table

Feedback to group

5 minutes

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Workshop activity 3: Research design

Make brief notes about a possible research design

What types of evidence will you need?How will you know if it is reliable?

Swap notes - explain to your partner how this will allow you to answer your research question or how you expect this to support your argument or central thesis

Discuss with others at your table

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Workshop exercise 3Reminders

WHAT have previous researchers doneWHAT are you going to doHOW are you going to do itWHEN will you do itWHERE will you do itWHO or WHAT will be your sources of evidenceWHAT form will your data takeHOW will this help answer your research question/support your central thesis?

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Who, how, what, when, where Ethics

When you have worked out your research design, you will need to submit an ethics pro forma to the OU HREC https://intranet-gw.open.ac.uk/strategy-unit/committees/HREC/index.shtml

You must adhere to OU & professional ethics guidelines Example issues: permissions, use of images online,

anonymity, children and parent consent mismatches, mixed levels of consent within a group or class, data protection, copyright, disclosure of sensitive data, conflicts of interest etc.

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Make a note of an ethics issue you anticipate arising in your research

With your group, share and discuss how you might deal with this

10 mins

(HREC pro forma as resource)

Workshop Activity 4

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How – the practicalities?Who, what, when, where, why

• Sample and location• Expenses• Travel• Procedure: equipment• Time span• Access• Your skills: Training in camera use? Interviewing skills?• Building up working relationships (cake!)• Keeping participants on board (benefits to them?)• Transcribing (who, time, money)

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Resources - websites

http://www.phdtips.com/http://www.phd2published.com/http://thethesiswhisperer.wordpress.com/http://researchproposalguide.com/http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1220/

Managing-your-research-project.html

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Resources - Books

Dunleavy, P. (2003) Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation (Palgrave Study Guides), Palgrave Macmillan

Marshall, S. & Green, N. (2010) Your PhD Companion: The Insider Guide to Mastering the Practical Realities, How to Books Ltd

Petre, M. & Rugg, G. (2010) The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Open Up Study Skills), Open University Press

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Q & A session

• CARDS

• PHOTOCOPYING:

• ETHICS PROFORMA

• Last two slides

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