Defining the Research Problem

Criteria for Research Problem Statements:

1. The statement of the problem should clearly indicate what is to be investigated.

2. The actual statement may be in a declarative or in a question form.

3. The statement should indicate the variables of interest and the specific relationship between the variables that are to be studied.

Research problem

1. A research problem is a question or a statement about the relationship between variables.

2. It is the first task facing researchers and is one of the most important aspects of doing research in any field.

Sources of research problems

1. Personal experience and interests as educational practitioners.

2. Various educational and behavioral theories.

3. Related Literature- Literature from one’s own area of interest.

4. A reproduction of past research studies.

What are variables?1. In many quantitative research studies, there

are two major types of variables that should be defined.

2. These are independent variables and dependent variables.

3. Sometimes, depending on the type of qualitative research method that is being utilized, it is helpful to frame the study in terms of variables.

4. Variables must be well defined and the explanations of variables should be clear.

Independent Variables

1. This is a variable that is antecedent to the dependent variable; it is also called the experimental or treatment variable. The program or intervention is often an independent variable that is manipulated by the investigator.

Independent Variables

Some independent variables are attributes that cannot be controlled by the investigator. Sometimes these are called assigned variables.

They are attributes such as gender, socio-economic class, cognitive level (IQ), and ethnicity. Some investigators will study the effects of certain attributes. For instance, investigators have studied the effect of gender on certain types of verbal tasks.

Dependent Variables

This is a variable that is consequence of or dependent on an antecedent variable (usually the independent variable). It is also called the outcome or effect variable. In general, this is the variable that is measured to determine the effect of an antecedent independent variable.