Research questions

At the proposal stage: arriving at research questions

At the proposal stage being able to identify some good, unambiguous, well-focussed questions will help make it obvious to the reviewers of your proposal what it is that you really want to know, and therefore, whether your chosen research design will help to provide you with answers.

The usual way of describing how research students arrive at their research questions is that they start with a general research focus or concern - something they want to know more about.

How can we best promote critical thinking skills in our pupils?

Are our services for children with learning disability effective?

With further discussion and reflection this broad focus is distilled into a few specific research questions. However, there is some evidence that the actual process of arriving at research questions is a good deal more complex, intuitive and creative than this two step sequence would suggest. Drawing on evidence from studies of successful research Robson (1993, p.27) offers the follow advice:

Know the area- it helps to focus on an area in which you have a working knowledge and where you understand the main debates and issues.

Widen the base of your experience - don't limit your study to the field you are researching look for work undertaken in parallel domains that may offer fresh ideas and approaches.

Consider using techniques for enhancing creativity - techniques such as brainstorming, nominal group technique and the Delphi technique may help to promote lateral thinking and the generation of new questions.

Avoid the pitfalls of:

Allowing an interest in a particular method to determine the questions asked;

Asking research questions that cannot be answered

Asking questions that have already been answered satisfactorily.

Research questions and research design

Reviewers of your research proposal will also be considering the relationship between your research questions and your research design. For example, if you want to:

Discover the views of users of a family support service.

A reviewer may want to know why are you proposing to interview the social workers who provide the service?

Or if one of your questions is to:

Gauge the effect of a learning support service on pupils.

A reviewer may wonder how your proposed documentary analysis of policy statements on learning support will help to answer this question, or if is there another question you need to make explicit?

If your research questions are clear it should be relatively obvious whether your sampling strategy and methodology will enable you to answer the questions, if not then either the questions or the design will need to change.

In the real world

Although reviewers will be expecting to find a relationship in your proposal between your questions, sampling strategy and methodology, we wouldn't want to give the impression that carrying out the study necessarily follows this logical sequential process. Many commentators have observed that real world research is far messier than research proposals, or research reports, would suggest. The process is usually an iterative one and you may discover that having asked some initial questions you may later return to modify, sharpen, or change them as the result of methodological difficulties; sampling problems; or as new and unanticipated issues emerge from the data collection.

Indeed, on this last point, some researchers from within the interpretative tradition argue that, particularly in an exploratory study where the questions are descriptive, you should expect the questions or hypotheses to emerge from the study, rather than define them in detail at the start. On this view the research ought to start with broad themes and issues rather than specific questions. If this best describes your approach, make it clear at the proposal stage and provide a rationale.

Additional resources

Trochim, B. (2002). Types of Questions. Retrieved 13th November, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/resques.htm

Robson, C. (1993). Real World Research: a Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers. Oxford: Blackwell.