How to choose a research topic for postgraduate study?

When you think of starting a postgraduate study by research, either for a master's or a doctorate degree, the first thing you need to think about is your research scope and topic. 

A lot of students asked me, "what can I study for postgraduate research programme? My answer is normally a question: do you have constraints imposed by third parties? What I actually mean is, do you have the freedom to choose your scope and topic of research?

Some of my students do not have the freedom to set the scope of their research topic because they are funded by governmental or private research grant scheme(s) to conduct a designated study. The scope of research has been set, and in certain situations, their research topics were determined by their supervisor when applying for a specific grant scheme. In a word, the students actually do not have the option to choose what to study. In this case, you need to fit into the scope and /or topic.

For those who do not receive any fund to further study, they do have to decide what to research. There are at least five things you need to consider when choosing a research topic:

1. Your undergraduate  / master's degree results
- what courses you scored A or A+?
- what courses you like most? (because of the contents, not because of the lecturer or tutor)
2. Your interests in academia
- If you are going to be a lecturer after completion of the postgraduate study, what courses would you like to teach?
- If you are working, which expertise would you like to master in?
3. Your supervisor's interest
- If you have specific choices of potential supervisor(s) in mind, what is his or her current area of expertise?
- If you are still looking for a supervisor, you can refer to the area of expertise of a role model or ideal supervisor of your choice.
4. Your budget
- How much money have you prepared for the tuition fee and the postgraduate research study?
- How much time (in terms of semester) have you planned for the postgraduate study?
- How many working man-day you actually have per semester to do your research work?
5. Your choice of university and faculty or department
- Which area your choice of university is famous for?
- Which area your choice of faculty is famous for?

How to write Methodology Chapter?

Herewith a reply I wrote to a student, which I have modified for reference of other postgraduate students:

3.1 should be Introduction, in which you inform the outline of Chapter 3.

Next, you need to write your epistemological stance in 3.2 Research Design. Here, you explain how you believe new knowledge can be generated through your empirical study. Then you describe why you choose observation (participative or not? Why? Must be as specific as possible) and questionnaire survey to answer your research questions. Why not other research design? How each of these observation or survey related to each other, and how the findings may answer each research questions.

After that,  write 3.3 Instrumentation to depict how you developed or adapted and then planned to apply each of the instruments in your research. What are the pros and cons of each instrument and how you overcome the shortcomings of the instruments. For every instrument, you need to explain its validity and reliability, particularly what have you done to assure their validity (internal, external and ecological) and reliability (Cronbach Alpha)

Next, in 3.4 Data Collection, you explain how you sample or plan to sample your data. For PhD level, this is very important and you need to be as detailed as possible to justify your choice of samples are not purposive nor by chance. Results of Chi Square test or pattern of normal distribution should be shown. Then, write the data collection protocol and attach the details (consent form,  cover letter and information sheet of your research should be attached as Appendices). It would be better if you have letter of approval from an authority to study children. If so,  include it as appendix. Remember to show your timeline of data collection and justify your plan of timing.

In 3.5 Data Analysis Methods, you need to show a constructive alignment table between data collection methods, data analysis methods against which research questions and objectives you would answer or achieve. Since you plan to use survey, you need to explain whether you are using parametric or nonparametric statistical analysis methods, and justify your choice. Please specify the type of statistical tests you plan to run on the data.

If your research involve using multiple methods, either in data collection or in data analysis, you need to explain how the findings of each method complement or integrate with other findings. This could be a standalone sub topic as Triangulation.

For research that involves living things, you need to explain how you resolved or plan to resolve ethical issues in a sub topic titled Ethical Issues.

How to measure learning

I had a discussion with a PhD student, in which he intends to examine the level of knowledge acquisition among players through a gaming competition. He plans to use questionnaire to conduct the examination but the questions asked are limited to learners' satisfaction. This incident reminds me of Kirkpatrick's book I bought (published by ASTD) on E-learning Evaluation. He introduced four levels of evaluation on training.

Herewith some tips on how we can integrate Kirkpatrick's methods with research methods:

1. Level of learner satisfaction
- use questionnaire survey to check whether learners are happy with the learning events or not

2. Level of knowledge / skill acquisition
- use quiz or test to check whether learners have achieved the intended learning outcomes or not

3. Level of application of new knowledge / skills
- use observation checklist to check whether learners have applied what they have acquired in other contexts

4. Level of ROI
- use balance sheet to measure total cost spent on the competition plus research expenses and compare it with the return on investment to see whether it is economical to teach the subject matter through competition or not.

How to write Chapter 1

Herewith the guide I prepared for my postgraduate students to write their Chapter 1

1.1 Overview

[what your Chapter 1 is about]

1.2 Research Background

[When and where did YOU get the idea of pursuing this master / doctoral study?]

[Who did you deal with when identifying issues related to your study?]  

1.3 Problem statement

[What is the issue you discover the field you would like to study?]

[What factors which you believe are the causes of the issue? Why?]

[Why do you believe that the issue should be resolved by YOU?]

1.4 Significance of the study

[What changes would you made if you managed to resolve the issue? Why?] 

[What would be the ideal research outcomes at the end of your master / doctoral study? Why?]

[Who will be benefited by the solution you offer through your research outcomes? Why do you believe so?] 

1.5 Research aim and objectives

[What is your one indispensable result that you want to achieve in your doctoral study? See Chapter 2 of Richardson, 2005]

[What are the enabling objectives you need to achieve in the course of attaining the research aim?]

1.6 Research questions and hypotheses

[Based on the issues, operationalise them to form the research questions you would like to answer through your findings]

[Based on the research questions, develop hypotheses which you would like to test using your data]

1.7 Scope and limitations of the study

[Define the scope of your research, particularly spell out what you DO NOT study]

[List down the limitations of your study, which cover technical, social and economical limitations]

1.8 Operational definitions

[List down all key concepts in your research]

[Based on analytical propositions (meanings from dictionary), develop the definition of those key concepts for use in your study] 

From ideas to conceptual framework

When we have an idea on something, we are in the state of ideation. During the ideation, we imagine and think to develop the idea.

To explain or express the idea to others, we can either conceptualize the idea in words or visualize the idea in images.

In the conceptualization process, we choose words or phrases to construct sentences which explain the idea. Alternatively, we can connect words or phrases using lines and shapes, i.e. in a form of diagram. A diagram that consists of all key concepts associating with the idea and depicts the relationship between all those concepts is called a conceptual framework.

Writing Literature Review in doctoral study

In doctoral journey, the writing for literature review (LR) has to be split into two phases: the proposal defence phase and the final thesis phase.

LR for the proposal defence is meant for clarifying the key concepts and major issues you have presented in Chapter 1: Introduction. The clarification of key concepts associated to your research study is important for panel examiners to comprehend nature and contexts of your study, while evaluating the grasp and depth of your understanding upon what you are interested to study. Next, you should juxtapose what other researchers and academics had studied upon the issues you highlighted in your research proposal. You need to justify why it is importance for you to further study the issues and to explore potential solutions or findings, despite knowing most if not all important findings discovered or revealed for other researchers.

LR for the final thesis is meant for setting the scene and context for writing the Discussion chapter. At this stage of your doctoral journey, you should have collected and analysed all the data, and also revealed all the results relevant to your doctoral study. In this sense, your discussion chapter is where you compare your findings with others’ (presented in Chapter 2: Literature Review). Cross-chapter referencing is common and necessary to remind panel examiners what you have written in LR.

Normally LR written for the above mentioned two phases of research journey are different. However, the key concepts in LR for the proposal defence can either be converted into “Glossary” of your final thesis, or be condensed into a list of “operational definitions” in Chapter 1: Introduction.

The Spirit of Craftsmanship

I read an article this morning and I found it suitable for researchers' reference:

The characteristics shift of Japanese craftsmen

In the 20th Century	In the 21st Century
-          They insist on their own styles -          They were hard to approach or engage -          They thought they were great	-          They should concern about other people -          They should be considerate of others’ needs -          They should be thankful when given assignments -          They should keep saying “yes, understood, please let me handle it.”

Types of Quasi-experimental Designs

Notes taken from Jackson, S.L. (2006). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth

1. Single-Group Posttest-Only Design

• A single group of participants is given a treatment and then tested. 
• Problem: We cannot claim a method (treatment) is better when we cannot compare the results for the group who participated with the results for any other group or standard. 
• Cannot be used to draw conclusions about how an experience has affected the individuals involved.

2. Single-Group Pretest/Posttest Design

• A single group of participants takes a pretest, then receives some treatment, and then takes a posttest measure. 
• Any differences in the measures are assumed to be the result of the treatment.
• Problem: The lack of a comparison group, i.e. we do not know whether any observed change is due to the treatment or something else that may have happened during the time of the study.  

3. Single-Group Time-Series Design

• A single group of participants is measured repeatedly before and after a treatment. 
• Advantage: the multiple measures allow us to see whether the behavior is stable before treatment and how, or if, it changes at the multiple points in time at which measures are taken after treatment. 

4. Nonequivalent Control Group Posttest-Only Design

• At least two nonequivalent groups are given a treatment and then a posttest measure.
• The control group is nonequivalent, meaning that participants are not assigned to either the experimental or the control group in a random manner. Instead, they are members of each group because of something that they chose or did--they come to the study already a member of one of the groups. 
• There is no assurance that the two groups are at all equivalent on any variable prior to the study. 
• Thus, we cannot say definitely that the treatment is responsible for any observed changes in the groups. It could be that the groups were not equivalent at the beginning of the study; hence, the differences observed between the two groups on the dependent variable may be due to the non-equivalence of the groups and not to the treatment.

5. Nonequivalent Control Group Pretest/Posttest Design

• At least two nonequivalent groups are given a pretest, then a treatment, and then a posttest measure. 
• A pretest allows us to assess whether the groups are equivalent on the dependent measure before the treatment is given to the experimental group. 
• We can assess any changes that may have occured in each group after treatment by comparing the pretest measures for each group with their posttest measures.
• So, we can compare performance within each group from the pretest to the posttest. 
• If the treatment had some effect, then there should be a greater change from pretest to posttest for the experimental group than for the control group. 

6. Multiple-Group Time-Series Design
A series of measures are taken on two or more groups both before and after a treatment.