RESEARCH

INTEGRATED PROCESS SKILLS:

FORMULATING RESEARCH PROBLEM
for Special Science High School
Grade 7
Quarter 2 / Week 1
 FOREWORD

This self-learning kit is a ready to use material for the

learners to develop and enhance their skills in research. This will
serve as a guide in designing a relevant experiment using
integrated process skillls.

In this learning kit, the students will gain knowledge in

formulating research problem.

This learning kit is composed of three parts:

I. What Happened. This section provides activities that will

prepare learners to the discussion of the topic provided in this
material.

II. What I Need To Know. This is the discussion section of the SLK.
Exercises after the discussion are also provided to further enrich
student’s learning of the topic.

III. What Have I Learned. This portion will gauge student’s

learning and will determine how much the learner has learned .

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LEARNING COMPETENCIES:

1. The learner should be able to identify a research

problem.
2. Explain the important components of an appropriate
research question.

OBJECTIVES:
K: Identify and formulate a research problem.
S: Explain the important components of an appropriate research
question.
A: Develop perseverance in formulating research problem through
answering the activities correctly.

I. WHAT HAPPENED
PRE-ACTIVITIES/PRE-TEST:

Instructions: The table below illustrates how a research question

develops from a broad topic to a focused question. Using
the phrases and questions in the box bellow the table, fill in
with phrases and questions in the table correctly.

Topic Subtopic Issue or Problem Research Problem

Environment Global Global warming in What can the

warming the Philippines Philippines do to
identify and prevent
global warming?
William
Shakespeare

Censorship

Whales

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⚫ What factors have contributed to Minke whale depopulation?
⚫ How could the character of King Lear change the outcome of betrayal
in the play?
⚫ How will China’s effort to censor the Internet affects its citizens?
⚫ Internet
⚫ King Lear and the theme of betrayal
⚫ Minke whales
⚫ King Lear internet and China
⚫ Minke whales and extinction
⚫ King Lear

II. WHAT I NEED TO KNOW (DISCUSSION)

Formulating A Research Problem

Before you start any form of study, get a clear

understanding of what a research problem is and learn to
formulate it properly. After defining it, you can start
writing your paper. It means that research problems or
questions are the fuel driving the entire scientific process
and they serve as the foundation of any experimental
design or method, from real experiments.
Why does it matter to researchers? It’s an important
problem that you state in your research paper to define
your specific study area and provide a brief synopsis of
how you develop a hypothesis. The quality of a
research problem defines your success.
According to Kerlinger: “If one wants to solve a
problem, one must generally know what the problem is. It
can be said that a large part of the problem lies in
knowing what one is trying to do.”

https://prothesiswriter.com/blog/how-to-formulate-research-problem

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What is a research problem?
It is a clear and definite statement or expression
about your chosen area of concern, a difficulty to
eliminate, a condition to improve, or a troubling problem
that exists in theory, literature, and practice. A research
problem indicates a need for its meaningful investigation.
It does not state how to do something, and a researcher
shouldn’t present a value question or offer a
broad research proposal. (Kumar, 2018)
The purpose of a problem statement is to:

1. Introduce the reader to the importance of the topic

being studied. The reader is oriented to the
significance of the study and the research questions
or hypotheses to follow.
2. Places the problem into a particular context that
defines the parameters of what is to be
investigated.
3. Provides the framework for reporting the results and
indicates what is probably necessary to conduct
the study and explain how the findings will present
this information.

Basic characteristics of research problem

For your research problem to be effective, make

sure that it has these basic characteristics:

• Reflecting on important issues or needs;

• Basing on factual evidence (it’s non-hypothetical);
• Being manageable and relevant;
• Suggesting a testable and meaningful hypothesis
(avoiding useless answers).

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Steps in Formulating a Research Problem (Kumar, 2018)

Step 1: Identify a broad field or subject area of interest to

you. It is a good idea to think about the field in which
we would like to work. This will help us to find an
interesting topic, and one which may be of use to us in
the future.

Step 2: Dissect the broad areas into subareas. In

preparing this list of subareas we should also consult
others who have some knowledge of the area and the
literature in our subject area. Once we have developed
an exhaustive list of the subareas from various sources,
we proceed to the next stage where we select what will
become the basis of your enquiry.

Step 3: Select what is of most interest to you. One way to

decide what interests us most is to start with the process
of elimination. We should go through our list and delete
all those subareas in which we are not very interested.
We need to continue until we are left with something
that is manageable considering the time available to us,
our level of expertise and other resources needed to
undertake the study. Once we are confident that we
have selected an issue we are passionate about and
can manage, we are ready to go to the next step.

Step 4: Raise research questions. At this step we ask

ourselves, “What is it that I want to find out about in this
subarea?” We should make a list of whatever questions
come to our mind relating to our chosen subarea and if
we think there are too many to be manageable, go
through the process of elimination, as we did in Step 3.

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Step 5: Formulate objectives. Both our main objectives
and our sub-objectives now need to be formulated,
which grow out of our research questions. The main
difference between objectives and research questions is
the way in which they are written.

Step 6: Assess your objectives. Now, we examine our

objectives to ascertain the feasibility of achieving them
through our research endeavor. Consider them in the
light of the time, resources (financial and human) and
technical expertise at your disposal.

Step 7: Double-check. We should go back and give final

consideration to whether or not we are sufficiently
interested in the study and have adequate resources to
undertake it. We should ask ourselves, “Am I really
enthusiastic about this study?” and “Do I really have
enough resources to undertake it?” Answer these
questions thoughtfully and realistically. If we answer to
one of them is “no”, reassess your objectives.

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APPLICATION

Directions: Using the question words of WHAT, WHY or HOW,

develop at least three different questions that you would like to
find answers to in regards to your topic.

STATE YOUR GENERAL TOPIC: ____________________________________

NARROWED TOPIC: _____________________________________________
RESEARCH QUESTIONS: (complete three research questions in the
boxes below.)
1. What?

2. Why?

3. How?

REFLECTION
Instructions: complete the phrases found inside the banner.
Write your answers in your notebook.

I have learned that___________________________________

__________________________________________________

I realized that _______________________________________

__________________________________________________

I will apply _________________________________________

___________________________________________________

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III. WHAT HAVE I LEARNED

POST TEST:

Instructions: Use the blank form to develop your own

research question.

Topic Subtopic Issue or Problem Research Problem

Covid-19

Environment

Education

Global
Warming

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 REFERENCES

Kumar, G. (2018) Formulating your Research Problem. Published on

October 30, 2018. Retrieved from
https://prothesiswriter.com/blog/how-to-formulate-
research-problem.

MacDonald & Rathemacher’s Teaching Information Literacy.

Creating a Research Question. Retrieved from
https://library.wlu.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/tutorials/res
earch-question-worksheet-new.pdf

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SYNOPSIS

After going through this self- learning kit, you should

be able to identify and formulate a research problem.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANSWER KEY
RUEL T. FABURADA is a
Pre-Activities/Pre-test
Grade 7 Math and Research
teacher of Zamboanguita
Science High School (ZSHS). He
obtained his Bachelor of
Secondary Education major in
Mathematics at Negros Oriental
State University (NORSU) year
2014 and completed his Application
Answers may vary
academic requirements with his
Post test
Master of Arts in Mathematics Answers may vary
Teaching of the same university.

MARY CRIS B. TRUPA is a Grade 8 English teacher of

Zamboanguita Science High School (ZSHS). She obtained
her Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English at
Northern Bukidnon Community College year 2014.

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 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF NEGROS ORIENTAL

SENEN PRISCILLO P. PAULIN, CESO V

Schools Division Superintendent

FAY C. LUAREZ, TM, Ed.D., Ph.D.

OIC - Assistant Schools Division Superintendent
Acting CID Chief

ADOLF P. AGUILAR
OIC - Assistant Schools Division Superintendent

NILITA L. RAGAY, Ed.D.

OIC - Assistant Schools Division Superintendent

ROSELA R. ABIERA
Education Program Supervisor – (LRDMS)

ARNOLD R. JUNGCO
Education Program Supervisor – (SCIENCE & MATH)

MARICEL S. RASID
Librarian II (LRMDS)

ELMAR L. CABRERA
PDO II (LRMDS)

RUEL T. FABURADA
MARY CRIS B. TRUPA
Writer

GERALD T. UBAG
Lay-out Artist
_________________________________
ALPHA AND BETA QA
Ana Melissa T. Venido

DISCLAIMER

The information, activities and assessments used in this material are designed to provide to provide
accessible learning modality to the teachers and learners of the Division of Negros Oriental. The contents of this
module are carefully researched, chosen, and evaluated to comply with the set of learning competencies. The
writers and evaluator were clearly instructed to give credits to information and illustrations used to substantiate
this material. All content is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any form without expressed
written consent from the division.

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