Practical

Research 1

Accessible Teachers Materials

TEACHERS REFERENCE GUIDE

STUDENT LEARNING GUIDE

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

APPLIED SUBJECTS

Headwaters College – Elizabeth Campus

Academic Department

FEBRUARY 2021

Prepared by: Ms. Ella Mae Casimiro & Mr. Jhul Mhel V. Sonio
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 HEADWATERS COLLEGE INC.
PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
(STUDENT LEARNING GUIDE)

WEEK 5 - 6

TOPIC CHAPTER 3: IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

SCOPE  The Range of Research Topics in the Area of Inquiry
 The Value of Research in the Area of Interest
 The Specificity and Feasibility of the Problem
Introduction

Inquiry or research drives you to a thorough or an in-depth analysis of a certain subject matter. This kind of study involves
several stages that require much time and effort. You need to spend some time in finalizing your mind about a particular topic to
research on or in determining the appropriateness of such topic, in obtaining background knowledge about it, and in raising some
specific questions that you want your research work to answer. Focusing seriously on these aspects of your study is laying a good
foundation or beginning of your research work.

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.
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 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 jobs, OJT (on-the-job training) experience,
fieldwork, etc.

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 antiflood 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.

A research 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

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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 Question

1. Establish a clear relation between the research questions and the problem or topic.
2. Based 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.

REFERENC PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1 FOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

E: ESTHER L. BARACEROS
REX BOOK STORE, INC.

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