IDENTIFYING THE

RESEARCH PROBLEM

A/Professor Denis McLaughlin

School of Educational Leadership

DEFINITION
Research problems are educational

issues or concerns studied by

researchers
In education, a problem is a concern to

educators that exists in educational

settings

Ask yourself
To help locate your research problem for your thesis, ask

yourself such questions as:

What was the issue/problem you want to study?
What is the concern being addressed behind this study?
Why do you want to undertake this study?
Why is this study important to the scholarly community?

DEFINING TERMS
Research Problem: Educational issue/problem in a

study
Research Topic: Broad subject matter being

addressed in a study
Purpose: Major intent or object of study
Research Questions: Questions to answer or address

in a study

OVERVIEW

General
Topic

Research
Problem
Research
Statement
Research
Questions
Specific

PROBLEM RESEARCHABILITY
1.

Will your research contribute to knowledge and practice?

It fills a void or extends existing research

It replicates a study with new participants or a new site
Problem has not be studied or understudied
It gives voice to people not heard, silenced, or rejected in
society
It informs practice

2.

Accessed to people & sites

3.

Time, Resources and skills

4.

Therapy

5.

To prove what your already know

DESIGNING & WRITING THE

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.

The research problem within this study

2.

Justification for the problem (based on past research and

practice)

3.

Shortcoming of past research or practice

4.

The importance / significance of the problem

GETTING STARTED
Write down the purpose statement of your study
Embedded in this purpose statement are key terms

that will help you to start your literature review

This part of the literature review searches for core
literature and it should focus almost exclusively on
empirical studies
Look for studies similar to your problem statement in
Australia.
Look for studies similar to your problem statement in
other countries.

LITERATURE PRIORITY

PARENT
RELATIONAL

CORE

WHERE TO START
1.

Encyclopedia of educational research (Alkin, 1992)

The
appendix Doing library research in education is brilliant

2.

Handbooks
International Handbooks of Educational Administration,
Educational Leadership, Lifelong Learning etc quickly
introduce you to the major players and research issues in
your study

3.

Theses
Overseas Dissertation abstracts, US computer disks
British Dissertation abstracts
Australia Cunningham library, ACER, www.acer.edu.au

4.

Databases
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre)
www.accesseric.org. (worlds largest source of information one
million abstracts)
Australian Education Index (AUSINET)

5.

Current index to journals in education and resources in education:

locate through ERIC

6.

Social Science Citation Index: CDROM

7.

Online Journals (anbar)

8.

Google (search engine)

INITIAL ORGANISING THE

LITERATURE
Print out your research problem and research

purpose statement in font size 20pt & bold & adhere

to a place near your computer where your regularly
see. Do not be a dilettante . You need to get a
reasonably solid grasp of your proposed topic
relatively quickly in order to focus or flick.
Read, categorise, file
Construct a literature map (different from but a pre-

requisite to a conceptual framework)

From Creswell (2002).