Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES

University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines
Web: http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UEP Senior High Laboratory School

Senior High School – Grade 11 HUMSS

PRACTICAL
RESEARCH
Module 3: Week 4
(February 26-March 1, 2024)
1
Prepared by: REIZA MAE L. MORALLOS
Subject Teacher

Approved by: MARLO D. ALVAREZ, PhD.

UEPLHS Principal
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines Web:

http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Unit IDENTIFYING THE
UEP Senior High
INQUIRY
Laboratory School
III AND STATING THE
PROBLEM

Lesson 1. SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

After this lesson, you should be able to:

1. widen your vocabulary;

2. communicate with one another using newly learned words;
3. distinguish a good research topic from a bad one;
4. characterize a researchable topic;
5. narrow down a general topic into a smaller one; and
6. choose a good research topic

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 push 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.
 RESEARCH TOPICS AND THEIR
SOURCES

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)

SOURCES OF RESEARCH TOPICS ARE:

1. Pressing Issues on an individual, organizational or societal level, or success stories.

An example of a research topic on an individual level is the problem of low self-esteem. On
an organizational level, a campus organization can investigate the seeming apathy of the
majority of students towards Student Council elections. Success stories of groups or
organizations in business, livelihood programs and entrepreneurship are rich sources of
research topics. Another is the deteriorating art of conversation, even among families, who,
even when together, are busy with their respective gadgets, absorbed in their own virtual
worlds. Still another could be the underlying reasons of the Pokemon search craze.

2. Wide Reading/Critical Film Viewing

Varied reading materials- books, journals, magazines, newspapers, monographs can help
crystalize topics of interest. Films, as well as videos and documentaries, can spark off a
research inquiry or problem.

3. Social Networking
The role of netizens in present-day society cannot be overemphasized. Netizens voice their
observations, opinions, even condemnation of current happenings, no-holds-barred. Giant
networks even denote a segment of their news broadcasts on what netizens say about recent
events or issues, as in the case of the first State of the Nation Address of the newly-elected
president, the deteriorating light trail transportation system, the horrific traffic situation, and a
host of others.

4. Replication
Theses and dissertations are good sources of topics. A theory used in a previous study can
still be further investigated. The thesis page “Recommendations for Further Study” is a must
read as well as the critical literature review. (Who is the father of qualitative research? The
first to send the correct answer to our GC will no longer need to submit the activities included
in this module and will automatically get a final score on all the activities except for the
group activity..) For example, in 2002, Dr. Liza Daoanis of Centro Escolar University made a
study of the surviving cultural heritage of the Kankaneys (a group collectively called Igorots)
of Dalipay, Batangan, Benguet. In 2024, Mr. Lee Boy Villegas replicated said study by
studying the cultural beliefs and practices of another group of Kankaneys, this time, those
who inhabit Talingguroy, Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet.
5. Lectures, Talks, Seminars
These are breeding grounds of ideas. Many researchers have claimed that their research
topics were offshoots of ideas heard in lectures or even during open forum.

6. Gray Areas
There are points of interest but very little is known about them. Examples of these are:

“Is female circumcision still practiced among specific groups of people?”

“What is life like after the rescue of trafficked women or rape victims? “

Did any of those topics interest you? If your answer is yes, you will surely come up with a
research project useful to daily life. Your interest will bring you to wider reading, pursuit of
relevant materials like pictures, videos, and the like, and equally important, to people who
have knowledge or interest in your topic.
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines Web:

http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

UEP Senior High Laboratory School

ACTIVITY NO. 1

NAME:
STRAND/GRADE/SEC.:
DATE SUBMITTED:
SUBJECT TEACHER:

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Put a check () under the column of the right descriptive
word for each number.
KEEP YOUR MODULES NEAT. STRICTLY NO ERASURES AND ALTERATIONS.
NO USING OF CORRECTION TAPE.

Research Topics Controversial Vague Narrow Highly Broad Hard-to-

Technical Investigate
1. Filipinos’ Admiration for
the Current First Lady of
the Philippines.
2. Some Excessively Priced
Imported Vehicles.
3. The Rise and Fall of All
Kings and Queens.
4. Labor Unions before the
Coming of Jesus Christ.
5. Pluses and Minuses of all
English 2 Textbooks.
6. Definition of Research.
7. The Extent of Filipinos’
Faith in God.
8. The Structure of a
Nuclear Weapon.
9. Comma as a Punctuation
Mark.
10. Spaceship Building.

Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines Web:

http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UEP Senior High Laboratory School

ACTIVITY NO. 2

NAME:
STRAND/GRADE/SEC.:
DATE SUBMITTED:
SUBJECT TEACHER:

Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Check the title that appears to be the best in terms of
narrowing down a broad topic.

1. _______ Symptoms of AIDS

_______ Physical Symptoms of AIDS
_______ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS

2. _______ History of Traditional Grammar

_______ History of American Traditional Grammar
_______ Traditional Grammar

3. _______ The Psychology of Reading

_______ A Study of Human Behavior
_______ Sensory Experience in Reading

4. _______ World Ideologies

_______ Feminism in the Digital Era
_______ Feminism in Nick Joaquin’s Latest Novel

5. _______ Communication Skills

_______ The Writing Process
_______ Pre-writing Strategies
6. _______ War Among Nations _______ World War II
_______ Japan’s Role in World War II

7. _______ Hotel and Restaurant Management

_______ Food Serving Techniques
_______ Russian-Plate Service

8. _______ The University of Eastern Philippines

_______ The History of the University of Eastern Philippines
_______ The University of Eastern Philippines in the 1960s

9. _______ Philippine Transportation System

_______ Metro Manila’s Transportation System
_______ Manila’s LRT/MRT Systems

10. _______ The Enactment of Laws in Congress

_______ The Governing Bodies of the Philippines
_______ The Congress of the Philippines
 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines Web:

http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UEP Senior High Laboratory School

ACTIVITY NO. 3

NAME: 1.
2.
STRAND/GRADE/SEC.:
DATE SUBMITTED:
SUBJECT TEACHER:

Directions: PAIR ACTIVITY. Use numbers 1 to 5 to show the order of these topics if you
narrow them down from general to the most limited topic. Submit only one paper for each
pair.

1. _______ Man’s Personality

_______ The Right Lobe of the Brain
_______ The Five Aspects of Personality
_______ The Intellectual Aspect of a Person
_______ Brain Components

2. _______ Prose and Poetry

_______ Fiction
_______ The Legend of Mayon Volcano
_______ Philippine Literature
_______ Legends

3. _______ Pluses and Minuses of Teenage Marriage

_______ Teenage Marriage
_______ The Advantages of Early Marriage
_______ Marriage
 _______ Human Relationships

Republic of the Philippines

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES
University Town, Catarman, Northern Samar, Philippines Web:

http://uep.edu.ph; Email: uepnsofficial@gmail.com

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
UEP Senior High Laboratory School
ACTIVITY NO. 4

GROUP MEMBERS:
1Jhe
liam
e 2.
3. 4.
5.
6.

STRAND/GRADE/SEC.:
DATE SUBMITTED:
SUBJECT TEACHER:

Directions: GROUP WORK. As you work with your research members, narrow down each of
the following general subjects to make it a good research topic.

1. General subject: Communications

NARROWED _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________

2. General subject: The Philippine Government

NARROWED _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further _________________________
Narrowed further ________________________