PR 1 HANDOUTS

UNIT 1

LESSON 1 - NATURE OF INQUIRY

Inquiry and Research are two terms that are almost the same in
meaning. Both involve investigative work in which you seek information
about something by searching or examining the object of your search.
Inquiry is to look for information by asking various questions about the
thing you are curious about while research is to discover truths by
investigating on your chosen topic scientifically; meaning, by going
through a systematic way of doing things wherein you are to begin from
the simplest to the most complex modes or patterns of thinking.

INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING

Meaning of Inquiry
Inquiry is a learning process that motivates you to obtain knowledge
or information about people, things, places, or events. You do this by
investigating or asking questions about something you are inquisitive
about. It requires you to collect data, meaning, facts, and information
about the object of your inquiry, and examine such data carefully. In your
analysis, you execute varied thinking strategies that range from lower-
order to higher-order thinking skills such as inferential, critical,
integrative, and creative thinking. These are top-level thinking strategies
that you ought to perform in discovering and understanding the object of
your inquiry. Engaging yourself in many ways of thinking, you come to
conclude that inquiry is an active learning process.
Putting you in a situation where you need to probe, investigate, or
ask questions to find answers or solutions to what you are worried or
doubtful about, inquiry is a problem-solving technique. Solving a problem
by being inquisitive, you tend to act like scientists who are inclined to
think logically or systematically in seeking evidence to support their
conclusions about something. Beginning with whatever experience or
background knowledge you have, you proceed like scientists with your
inquiry by imagining, speculating, interpreting, criticizing, and creating
something out of what you discovered
Inquiry elevates your thinking power. It makes you think in different ways,
enabling you to arrive at a particular idea or understanding that will
motivate you to create something unique, new, or innovative for your
personal growth as well as for the world. Inquisitive thinking allows you to
shift from one level of thought to another. It does not go in a linear
fashion; rather, it operates in an interactive manner.
Solving a problem, especially social issues, does not only involve
yourself but other members of the society too. Hence, inquiry, as a
problem-solving technique, includes cooperative learning because any
knowledge from members of the society can help to make the solution.
Whatever knowledge you have about your world bears the influence of
your cultural, sociological, institutional, or ideological understanding of
the world. (Badke 2012)

Governing Principles or Foundation of Inquiry

Inquiry-based Learning gets its support from these three educational
theories serving as its foundation: John Dewey’s theory of connected
experiences for exploratory and reflective thinking; Lev Vygotsky’s Zone
of Proximal Development (ZPD) that stresses the essence of provocation
and scaffolding in learning; and Jerome Bruner’s theory on learners’
varied world perceptions for their own interpretative thinking of people
and things around them. Backed up by all these theories, inquiry, as a
way of learning, concerns itself with these elements: changing
knowledge, creativity, subjectivity, socio-cultural factors, sensory
experience, and higher-order thinking strategies. All of these are
achievable through the inquiry methods of fieldwork, case studies,
investigations, individual group project, and research work. (Small 2012)

Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning

ADVANTAGES OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING
1. Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills
2. Improves student learning abilities
3. Widens learners’ vocabulary
4. Facilitates problem-solving acts
5. Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge
6. Encourages cooperative learning
7. Provides mastery of procedural knowledge
8. Encourages higher-order thinking strategies
9. Hastens conceptual understanding
Educators, businessmen, and other professionals consider all these
benefits of Inquiry-based Learning in various fields of knowledge to be
crucial to the success of anyone in the 21st Century.
Therefore, knowing the ins and outs of Inquiry-based Learning will
greatly guide you in deciding which learning method will guarantee
successful learning in the present world, which is tagged by many as the
Era of Globalization, Age of Knowledge Explosion, Age of Consumerism,
Digital Age, Age of Instant World, etc.

LESSON 2 - NATURE OF RESEARCH

Meaning of Research
Research is a process of executing various mental acts for
discovering and examining facts and information to prove the accuracy or
truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about the topic of your
research. Research requires you to inquire or investigate about your
chosen research topic by asking questions that will make you engage
yourself in top-level thinking strategies of interpreting, analyzing,
synthesizing, criticizing, appreciating, or creating to enable you to
discover truths about the many things you tend to wonder about the topic
of your research work. (Litchman 2013)
Research is analogous to inquiry, in that, both involve investigation
of something through questioning. However, the meaning of research is
more complicated than inquiry because it does not center mainly on
raising questions about the topic, but also on carrying out a particular
order of research stages. Each stage of the research process is not an
individual task because the knowledge you obtain through each stage
comes not only from yourself but other people as well. Thus, similar to
inquiry, research involves cooperative learning.

Central to research is your way of discovering new knowledge,

applying knowledge in various ways as well as seeing relationships of
ideas, events, and situations. Research then puts you in a context
where a problem exists. You have to collect facts or information, study
such data, and come up with a solution to the problem based on the
results of your analysis. It is a process requiring you to work logically or
systematically and collaboratively with others.
To sum up your concepts about the nature of research, the following
will give you the characteristics, purposes, classification, types of, and
approaches to research. (Badke 2012; Silverman 2013; De Mey 201
Characteristics of Research
1. Accuracy. It must give correct or accurate data, which the
footnotes, notes, and bibliographical entries should honestly and
appropriately documented or acknowledged.
2. Objectiveness. It must deal with facts, not with mere opinions
arising from assumptions, generalizations, predictions, or
conclusions.
3. Timeliness. It must work on a topic that is fresh, new, and
interesting to the
present society.
4. Relevance. Its topic must be instrumental in improving society or
in solving
problems affecting the lives of people in a community.
5. Clarity. It must succeed in expressing its central point or
discoveries by using
simple, direct, concise, and correct language.
6. Systematic. It must take place in an organized or orderly manner.

Purposes of Research
1. To learn how to work independently
2. To learn how to work scientifically or systematically
3. To have an in-depth knowledge of something
4. To elevate your mental abilities by letting you think in higher-
order thinking strategies (HOTS) of inferring, evaluating,
synthesizing, appreciating, applying, and creating
5. To improve your reading and writing skills
6. To be familiar with the basic tools of research and the various
techniques of
gathering data and of presenting research findings
7. To free yourself, to a certain extent, from the domination or
strong influence of a single textbook or of the professor’s lone
viewpoint or spoon feeding

Types of Research
1. Based on Application of Research Method
Is the research applied to theoretical or practical issues? If
it deals with concepts, principles, or abstract things, it is a pure
research. This type of re- search aims to increase your
knowledge about something. However, if your intention is to
apply your chosen research to societal problems or issues,
finding ways to make positive changes in society, you call your
research, applied research.
2. Based on Purpose of the Research
Depending on your objective or goal in conducting
research, you do any of these types of research: descriptive,
correlational, explanatory, exploratory, or action.
 Descriptive Research – This type of research aims at
defining or giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a person,
thing, event, group, situation, etc. This is liable to repeated
research because its topic relates itself only to a certain period
or a limited number of years. Based on the results of your
descriptive studies about a subject, you develop the inclination
of conducting further studies on such topic.
Correlational Research – A correlational research shows
relationships or connectedness of two factors, circumstances, or
agents called variables that affect the research. It is only
concerned in indicating the existence of a relationship, not the
causes and ways of the development of such relationship.
Explanatory Research – This type of research elaborates
or explains not just the reasons behind the relationship of two
factors, but also the ways by which such relationship exists.
Exploratory Research – An exploratory research’s purpose
is to find out how reasonable or possible it is to conduct a
research study on a certain topic. Here, you will discover ideas
on topics that could trigger your interest in conducting research
studies.
Action Research – This type of research studies an ongoing
practice of a school, organization, community, or institution for
the purpose of obtaining results that will bring improvements in
the system.
3. Based on Types of Data Needed
The kind of data you want to work on reflects whether you wish
to do
a quantitative or a qualitative research.
Qualitative research requires non-numerical data, which
means that the research uses words rather than numbers to
express the results, the inquiry, or investigation about people’s
thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views, and lifestyles regarding the
object of the study. These opinionated answers from people are
not measurable; so, verbal language is the right way to express
your findings in a qualitative research.
Meanwhile, quantitative research involves measurement of
data. Thus, it presents research findings referring to the
number or frequency of something in numerical forms (i.e.,
using percentages, fractions, numbers).
The data you deal with in research are either primary or
secondary data. Primary data are obtained through direct
observation or contact with people, objects, artifacts, paintings,
etc. Primary data are new and original information resulting
from your sensory experience. However, if such data have
already been written about or reported on and are available for
reading purposes, they exist as secondary data.
Approaches to Research
The first is the scientific or positive approach, in which you discover
and measure information as well as observe and control variables in an
impersonal manner. It allows control of variables. Therefore, the data
gathering techniques appropriate for this approach are structured
interviews, questionnaires, and observational checklists. Data given by
these techniques are expressed through numbers, which means that this
method is suitable for quantitative research.
The second approach is the naturalistic approach. In contrast to the
scientific approach that uses numbers to express data, the naturalistic
approach uses words. This research approach directs you to deal with
qualitative data that speak of how people behave toward their
surroundings. These are non-numerical data that express truths about
the way people perceive or understand the world. Since people look at
their world in a subjective or personal basis in an uncontrolled or
unstructured manner, a naturalistic approach happens in a natural
setting.
Is it possible to plan your research activities based on these two
approaches? Combining these two approaches in designing your research
leads you to the third one, called triangulation approach. In this case, you
are free to gather and analyze data using multiple methods, allowing you
to combine or mix up research approaches, research types, data
gathering, and data analysis techniques. Triangulation approach gives
you the opportunity to view every angle of the research from different
perspectives. (Badke 2012; Silverman 2013)
UNIT 2

LESSON 3 - QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Definition of Qualitative Research

As a curious student, you want to know so many things about your
surroundings as well as the people, places, and things you find
interesting, intriguing, mysterious, or unique. Try looking at the people
around you. Perhaps, you are interested in knowing these people’s ideas,
views, feelings, attitudes, or lifestyle. The information these people give
you reflect their mental, spiritual, emotional, or social upbringing, which
in turn, show how they view the world.
Resulting from internal aspects, people cannot measure worldviews
but can know them through numbers. Obtaining world knowledge in this
manner directs you to do a research called Qualitative Research. This is a
research type that puts premium or high value on people’s thinking or
point of view conditioned by their personal traits. As such, it usually
takes place in soft sciences like social sciences, politics, economics,
humanities, education, psychology, nursing, and all business-related
subjects.
Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an individual or a
group under study, but also for you, the researcher, because of your
personal involvement in every stage of your research. For instance, during
interviews, you tend to admire or appreciate people’s ideas based on their
answers or your observations and analysis of certain objects. By carefully
looking at or listening to the subject or object in a natural setting, you
become affected by their expressions of what they think and feel about a
topic. (Coghan 2014)
In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society and
people’s intentions are involved in explaining cause-effect relationships.
Things are studied in their natural setting, enough for you to conclude
that qualitative research is an act of inquiry or investigation of real-life
events. Giving you more concepts about a qualitative research are the
following paragraphs that comprehensively present the elements or
characteristics, types, and advantages of this kind of research (Silverman
2013; Litchman 2013; Walliman 2014; Suter 2012):

Characteristics of a Qualitative Research

1. Human understanding and interpretation
Data analysis results show an individual’s mental, social, and
spiritual understanding of the world. Hence, through their
worldviews, you come to know what kind of human being he or
she is, including his or her values, beliefs, likes, and dislikes.
2. Active, powerful, and forceful
A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of a
qualitative research. As you go through the research process,
you find the need to amend or rephrase interview questions and
consider varied ways of getting answers, like shifting from mere
speculating to traveling to places for data gathering. You are not
fixated to a certain plan. Rather, you are inclined to discover
 your qualitative research design as your study gradually unfolds
or reveals itself in accordance with your research objectives.
3. Multiple research approaches and methods
Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your
study in varied ways. You are free to combine this with
quantitative research and use all gathered data and analysis
techniques. Being a multi-method research, a qualitative study
applies to all research types: descriptive, exploratory,
explanatory, case study, etc.

4. Specificity to generalization
Specific ideas in a qualitative research are directed to a
general understanding of something. It follows an inductive or
scientific method of thinking, where you start thinking of
particular or specific concept that will eventually lead you to
more complex ideas such as generalizations or conclusions.
5. Contextualization
A quantitative research involves all variables, factors, or
conditions affecting the study. Your goal here is to understand
human behavior. Thus, it is crucial for you to examine the
context or situation of an individual’s life—the who, what, why,
how, and other circumstances—affecting his or her way of life.
6. Diversified data in real-life situations
A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural
setting like observing people as they live and work, analyzing
photographs or videos as they genuinely appear to people, and
looking at classrooms unchanged or adjusted to people’s
intentional observations.
7. Abounds with words and visuals
Words, words, and more words come in big quantity in this
kind of research. Data gathering through interviews or library
reading, as well as the presentation of data analysis results, is
done verbally. In some cases, it resorts to quoting some
respondents’ answers. Likewise, presenting people’s world views
through visual presentation (i.e., pictures, videos, drawings, and
graphs) are significantly used in a qualitative research.
8. Internal analysis
Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of
the subject individuals (i.e., emotional, mental, spiritual
characteristics). You study people’s perception or views about your
topic, not the effects of their physical existence on your study. In
case of objects (e.g., books and artworks) that are subjected to a
qualitative research, the investigation centers on underlying
theories or principles that govern these materials and their
usefulness to people.
Types of Qualitative Research
1. Case Study
This type of qualitative research usually takes place in the
field of social care, nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers,
education, etc. This involves a long-time study of a person,
group, organization, or situation. It seeks to find answers to why
such thing occurs to the subject. Finding the reason/s behind
such occurrence drives you to also delve into relationships of
people related to the case under study. Varieties of data
collection methods such as interviews, questionnaires,
observations, and documentary analysis are used in a case study.
2. Ethnography
Falling in the field of anthropology, ethnography is the study
of a particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its
organizational set-up, internal operation, and lifestyle. A particular
group reveals the nature or characteristics of their own culture
through the world perceptions of the cultural group’s members.
3. Phenomenology
Coming from the word “phenomenon,” which means
something known through sensory experience, phenomenology
refers to the study of how people find their experiences
meaningful. Its primary goal is to make people understand their
experiences about death of loved ones, care for handicapped
persons, friendliness of people, etc. In doing so, other people will
likewise understand the meanings attached to their experiences.
Those engaged in assisting people to manage their own lives
properly often do this qualitative kind of research.
4. Content and Discourse Analysis
Content analysis is a method of quantitative research that
requires an analysis or examination of the substance or content
of the mode of communication (letters, books, journals, photos,
video recordings, SMS, online messages, emails, audio-visual
materials, etc.) used by a person, group, organization, or any
institution in communicating. A study of language structures
used in the medium of communication to discover the effects of
sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the
content makes it a discourse analysis. In studying the content or
structures of the material, you need a question or a set of
questions to guide you in your analysis.
5. Historical Analysis
Central to this qualitative research method is the
examination of primary documents to make you understand the
connection of past events to the present time. The results of your
content analysis will help you specify phenomenological changes
in unchanged aspects of society through the years.

6. Grounded Theory
Grounded theory takes place when you discover a new
theory to underlie your study at the time of data collection and
analysis. Through your observation on your subjects, you will
 happen to find a theory that applies to your current study.
Interview, observation, and documentary analysis are the data
gathering techniques for this type of qualitative research.

Advantages or Strengths of Qualitative Research

1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which
means that those involve in the research understand things
based on what they find meaningful.
2. It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or
personality traits in their natural setting.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality as it demands the
researcher’s careful and attentive stand toward people’s world
views.
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
6. It increases the researcher’s interest in the study as it includes the
researcher’s experience or background knowledge in interpreting
verbal and visual data.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge
about something.

Disadvantages or Weaknesses of Qualitative Research

1. It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis.
2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
3. Its open-ended questions yield “data overload” that requires
long-time analysis.
4. It is time-consuming.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the
researcher’s views or interpretations.
LESSON 4 - QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF
KNOWLEDGE
RESEARCH IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE

Subject Area Research Approaches

Research studies happen in any field of knowledge. Anthropology,
Business, Communication, Education, Engineering, Law, and Nursing,
among others, turn in a big number of research studies that reflect
varied interests of people. Don’t you wonder how people in these areas
conduct their research studies?
Belonging to a certain area of discipline, you have the option to
choose one from these three basic research approaches: positive or
scientific, naturalistic, and triangulation or mixed method. The scientific
approach gives stress to measurable and observable facts instead of
personal views, feelings, or attitudes. It can be used in researches under
the hard sciences or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine)
and natural sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry). The positive or
scientific approach allows control of variables or factors affecting the
study. (Laursen 2010)
To become positivist or scientific in conducting your research study,
you must collect data in controlled ways through questionnaires or
structured interviews. For instance, in the field of medicine, to produce a
new medicine, a medical researcher subjects the data to a controlled
laboratory experiment. These factual data collected are recorded in
numerical or statistical forms using numbers, percentages, fractions, and
the like. Expressed in measurable ways, these types of data are called
quantitative data.
The naturalistic approach, on the other hand, is people-oriented.
Data collected, in this case, represent personal views, attitudes,
thoughts, emotions, and other subjective traits of people in a natural
setting. Collecting data is done in family homes, playground, workplaces,
or schools. In these places, people’s personal traits or qualities naturally
surface in the way they manage themselves or interact with one

another. The naturalistic approach focuses on discovering the real

concept or meaning behind people’s lifestyles and social relations.
Unlike the scientific approach that makes you express and record
your findings quantitatively, which means in numerical forms, the
naturalistic approach lets you present things qualitatively through verbal
language. Using words rather than numbers as the unit of analysis, this
second research approach concerns itself with qualitative data—one type
of data that exists in abundance in social sciences, which to others exists
as soft sciences. Considered as soft sciences are Anthropology, Business,
Education, Economics, Law, Politics, and all subjects aligned with
business and all those focused on helping professions such as, Nursing,
Counseling, Physical Therapy, and the like. (Babbie 2013)
Having the intention to collect data from people situated in a natural
setting, social researchers use unstructured interviews and participant
observations. These two data gathering techniques yield opinionated data
through the use of open-ended questions and actual participation of the
researcher in the subjects’ activities. Collecting data through these
subjective-prone research methods indispensably results in the gathering
of qualitative data.
 All in all, from a social science researcher’s viewpoint, these
qualitative data resulting from naturalistic approach of research serves
as the basis for determining universal social values to define ethical or
unethical behavior that society ought to know, not only for the benefit of
every individual and community but also for the satisfaction of man’s
quest for knowledge. (Sarantakos 2013; Ransome 2013)
In the field of Humanities, man’s social life is also subjected to
research studies. However, researchers in this area give emphasis not to
man’s social life, but to the study of the meanings, significance, and
visualizations of human experiences in the fields of Fine Arts, Literature,
Music, Drama, Dance, and other artistically inclined subjects. Researches
in these subjects happen in any of the following humanistic categories:

1. Literature and Art Criticism where the researchers, using well-

chosen language and appropriate organizational pattern, depend
greatly on their interpretative and reflective thinking in
evaluating the object of their study critically.
2. Philosophical Research where the focus of inquiry is on knowledge
and principles of being and on the manner human beings conduct
themselves on earth.
3. Historical Research where the investigation centers on events
and ideas that took place in man’s life at a particular period.

Hard Sciences vs. Soft Sciences

Just like in other subjects under soft sciences such as marketing,
man’s thoughts and feelings still take center stage in any research
studies. The purposes of any researches in any of these two areas in
business are to increase man’s understanding of the truths in line with
markets and marketing activities, making him more intelligent in arriving
at decisions about these aspects of his life. Research types that are useful
for these areas are the basic and applied research. (Feinberg 2013)

A quantitative or qualitative kind of research is not exclusive to hard

sciences or soft sciences. These two research methods can go together
in a research approach called triangulation or mixed method approach.
This is the third approach to research that allows a combination or a
mixture of research designs, data collection and data analysis techniques.
Thus, there is no such thing as a clear dichotomy between qualitative
and quantitative research methods because some authorities on
research claim that a symbiotic relationship, in which they reinforce or
strengthen each other, exists between these two research methods.
Moreover, any form of knowledge, factual or opinionated, and any
statistical or verbal expression of this knowledge are deduced from
human experience that by nature is subjective. (Hollway 2013; Letherby
2013)
UNIT 3

LESSON 5 - SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

You begin your research work with a problem; that is, having a
problem or topic to work on. Mulling over a topic for your research work
drives you to perform HOTS or higher-order thinking strategies of
inferential, critical, integrative, and creative thinking in finalizing your
mind on one topic among several choices. A topic is researchable if the
knowledge and information about it are supported by evidence that is
observable, factual, and logical. Here are some pointers you have to keep
in mind in selecting a research topic (Babbie 2013):

Guidelines in Choosing a Research Topic

1. Interest in the subject matter
Your interest in a topic may be caused by your rich
background knowledge about it and by its novelty; meaning, its
unfamiliarity to you. Being curious about a subject, like a
conundrum or a puzzle, makes you determined to unravel the
mystery or intriguing thing behind it. Your real interest in a
subject pushes you to research, investigate, or inquire about it
with full motivation, enthusiasm, and energy.
2. Availability of information
Collecting a lot of information as evidence to support your
claims about your subject matter from varied forms of literature
like books, journals, and newspapers, among others, is a part
and parcel of any research work. Hence, in choosing a research
topic, visit your library to check the availability of reading
materials on your chosen topic. Included in your investigation of
the availability of reading materials are questions on how
updated and authoritative the materials are. Let these questions
linger as you tour the library: What are the copyright dates of
the materials? How old or new are they? How expert or qualified
the writers are in coming out with such kind of reading materials
about your topic?
3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic
The topic is relevant if it yields results that are instrumental
in societal improvement. It is timely if it is related to the
present. For instance, unless it is a pure or historical research,
a research on the ins and outs of people’s revolutionary acts will
prosper more if it tackles the contemporary revolutionary
actions rather than those in the ancient time.
 4. Limitations on the subject
This makes you link your choosing with course
requirements. For example, to make you complete the
requirements, your teacher instructs you to submit a paper that
will apply the key principles you learned in business, psychology,
education, and so on. In this case, you have no freedom to
choose your topic based on your interest, but has to decide on
one topic to finish your course.
5. Personal resources
Before sticking fully to your final choice, assess your
research abilities in terms of your financial standing, health
condition, mental capacity, needed facilities, and time allotment
to enable you to complete your research. Imagine yourself
pouring much time and effort into its initial stage, only to find
out later that you are unable to complete it because of your
failure to raise the amount needed for questionnaire printing and
interview trips. (Barbour 2014)

Research Topics to be Avoided

1. Controversial topics. These are topics that depend greatly on
the writer’s opinion, which may tend to be biased or prejudicial.
Facts cannot support topics like these.
2. Highly technical subjects. For a beginner, researching on
topics that require an advanced study, technical knowledge, and
vast experience is a very difficult task.
3. Hard-to-investigate subjects. A subject is hard to investigate
if there are no available reading materials about it and if such
materials are not up-to-date.
4. Too broad subjects. Topics that are too broad will prevent you
from giving a concentrated or an in-depth analysis of the subject
matter of the paper. The remedy to this is to narrow or limit the
topic to a smaller one.
5. Too narrow subjects. These subjects are so limited or specific
that an extensive or thorough searching or reading for
information about these is necessary.
6. Vague subjects. Choosing topics like these will prevent you
from having a clear focus on your paper. For instance, titles
beginning with indefinite adjectives such as several, many, some,
etc., as in “Some Remarkable Traits of a Filipino” or “ Several
People’s Comments on the RH Law,” are vague enough to
decrease the readers’ interests and curiosity.

Sources of Research Topics

This time, you already have ideas on some factors that affect your
process of choosing a researchable topic. It is also necessary for you to
know where a good research topic may come from. Knowing some
sources of probable research topics could hasten your choosing; thereby,
freeing you from a prolonged time of pondering over a problem of
knowing which problem is good for you to research on. The following can
help you generate ideas about a good research topic. (Silverman 2013)
1. Mass media communication – press (newspapers, ads, TV, radio,
films, etc.)
2. Books, Internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publications
3. Professional periodicals like College English Language Teaching
Forum, English Forum, The Economist, Academia, Business
Circle, Law Review, etc.

4. General periodicals such as Readers’ Digest, Women’s

Magazine, Panorama Magazine, Time Magazine, World
Mission Magazine, etc.
5. Previous reading assignments in your other subjects
6. Work experience – clues to a researchable topic from full-time or
part-time
7. jobs, OJT (on-the-job training) experience, fieldwork, etc.
LESSON 6 - RESEARCH PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTION

RESEARCH PROBLEM VS. RESEARCH QUESTION

Meaning of Research Problem

The ultimate goal of the research is not only to propose ways of
studying things, people, places, and events, but also to discover and
introduce new practices, strategies, or techniques in solving a problem.
The word “problem” makes you worry and pushes you to exert
considerable effort in finding a solution for it. When you feel perplexed or
anxious about what to do about something you are doubtful of or about a
question you are incapable of answering, you then come to think of
conducting research, an investigation, or inquiry. You consider research
as the remedy for getting over any problem.
When you decide to do research, you begin with a problem that will
lead you to a specific topic to focus on. For instance, you are beset by a
problem of year-by-year flash floods in your community. This problem
drives you to think of one topic you can investigate or focus on for the
solution to your community’s flood problem. Perhaps, you can research
only one aspect of the flood problem, like examining only the
neighborhood lifestyle in relation to floods in the area, the need to
construct anti- flood structures, or the practicability of more footbridges
in the area. (Gray 2013)

Background of the Problem

You must not rush into gathering ideas and information about your
topic. First, spend time getting background knowledge about the problem
that triggered off your research topic to discover its relation to what the
world, particularly the experts, professionals, and learned people know
about your topic. Also, reading for rich background ideas about the
problem is also another way to discover some theories or principles to
support your study. (Braun 2014; Woodwell 2014)

Research Questions
The research problem enables you to generate a set of research
questions. However, your ability to identify your research problem and to
formulate the questions depends on the background knowledge you have
about the topic. To get a good idea of the problem, you must have a rich
background knowledge about the topic through the RRL (Review of
Related Literature), which requires intensive reading about your topic. Apart
from having a clearer picture of the topic, it will also help you in adopting
an appropriate research method and have a thorough understanding of
the knowledge area of your research.
Aresearch problem serving as an impetus behind your desire to carry out a
research study comes from many sources. Difficulties in life are arising from
social relationships, governmental affairs, institutional practices, cultural
patterns, environmental issues,
 marketing strategies, etc. are problematic situations that will lead
you to identify one topic to research on. Centering your mind on the
problem, you can formulate one general or mother problem of your
research work. (Punch 2014)
To give your study a clear direction, you have to break this big,
overreaching, general question into several smaller or specific
research questions. The specific questions, also called sub-
problems, identify or direct you to the exact aspect of the problem
that your study has to focus on. Beset by many factors, the general
question or research problem is prone to reducing itself to several
specific questions, seeking conclusive answers to the problem.
The following shows you the link among the following: research
problem, research topic, research question, and the construction of
one general question and specific questions in a research paper.
Research Problem: The need to have a safer, comfortable, and
healthful walk or transfer of students from place to place in the UST
campus
Research Topic: The Construction of a Covered Pathway in the UST
Campus
General Question: What kind of covered path should UST construct in its campus?

Specific Questions:
1. What materials are needed for the construction of the
covered pathway in the UST campus?
2. What roofing material is appropriate for the covered path?
3. In what way can the covered pathway link all buildings in the
campus?
4. What is the width and height of the covered path?
5. How can the covered path realize green architecture?
Research questions aim at investigating specific aspects of the
research problem. Though deduced from the general or mother
question, one specific question may lead to another sub-problem or
sub-question, requiring a different data-gathering technique and
directing the research to a triangulation or mixed method approach.
Referring to varied aspects of the general problem, a set of
research questions plays a crucial part in the entire research work.
They lay the foundation for the research study. Therefore, they
determine the research design or plan of the research. Through
sub-questions, you can precisely determine the type of data and the
method of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data.
Any method or technique of collecting, collating, and analyzing
data specified by the research design depends greatly on the
research questions. The correct formulation of research questions
warrants not only excellent collection, analysis, and presentation of
data, but a credible conclusion as well. (Layder 2013)
Hence, the following are things you have to remember in research question formulation. (Barbie
2013; Litchman 2013; Silverman 2013)

Guidelines in Formulating Research Questions

1. Establish a clear relation between the research questions
and the problem or topic.
2. Base your research questions on your RRL or Review of
Related Literature because existing published works help
you get good background knowledge of the research
problem and help you gauge the people’s current
understanding or unfamiliarity about the topic, as well as
the extent of their knowledge and interest in it.
Convincing solutions to research problems or answers to
research questions stem from their alignment with what
the world already knows or what previous research studies
have already discovered about the research problem or
topic.
3. Formulate research questions that can arouse your
curiosity and surprise you with your discoveries or findings.
This is true for research questions asked about a problem
that was never investigated upon.
4. State your research questions in such a way that they
include all dependent and independent variables referred to
by the theories, principles, or concepts underlying your
research work.
5. Let the set of research questions or sub-problems be
preceded by one question expressing the main problem of
the research.
6. Avoid asking research questions that are answerable with
“yes” or “no” and use the “how” questions only in a
quantitative research.
7. Be guided by the acronym SMART (specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic, time-bound) in formulating the research
questions. Applying SMART, you must deal with exact
answers and observable things, determine the extent or
limit of the data collected, be aware of the timeframe and
completion period of the study, and endeavor to have your
research study arrive at a particular conclusion that is
indicative of what are objective, factual, or real in this
world.