U6D2-28 - Explore, Examine and Identify Hybrid Action Learning Data Tools (Model). ***PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AS OUTLINED BELOW*** See Attached Documents for Reference and Readings.

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HOW TO WRITE A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH QUESTION

This presentation discusses how to write a qualitative research question.

Research questions serve similar purposes in both quantitative and qualitative research. Because is not possible to study everything about a given topic or problem, research questions help narrow the scope of your study.

Qualitative research methodology indicates the purpose of the research and can be descriptive, exploratory, or explanatory.

If you get the right questions, then everything else follows pretty naturally. Therefore, it is really important to spend time on learning how to write good research questions. The research questions indicate the decisions that have been made about these four key elements:

What to examine.

Who will be studied.

What will be the setting of the research.

What concepts and variables will be used to understand the problem for study.

Research questions may be derived from three di�erent sources.

One source is from existing theory in your �eld, such as Transformational Leadership, Learning Styles, or Motivation Theory.

The second source is from unanswered questions from previous research that you discovered while reading research articles. For example:

What is the impact of recent immigrants on small, rural school districts?

How do large urban school districts decide which neighborhood schools to close?

How does a school really change when the minority population reaches 40%?

The third source is from your own professional reading and experience. For example, some learners have been interested in the glass ceiling for women becoming superintendents, and the di�culty these candidates face. Others have focused on issues in teaching technology, or the impact of new training programs for sta� members. Ask yourself, What are you curious about?

Research questions serve other purposes as well. The research question will help you decide which of the qualitative methodologies is most useful and what data collection strategies will be most e�ective. For example, if your question is “What is the impact of recent immigrants on small, rural school districts?” you might choose to do an ethnography using participant observation as your data collection method.

In sum, research questions indicate "what I really want to know.“

Qualitative research questions are open-ended questions that usually begin with how or what.

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When you ask a how question, you can gain insights into a particular process such as how events unfold or how people respond to a new program or critical incident.

When you ask a what question, you can develop a description of a setting, problem, group, or phenomenon about which little is currently known.

The questions re�ect the exploratory approach of quantitative studies, seeking in-depth information about a particular issue or problem to discover its most critical or important aspects.

As a result, qualitative research questions are more general than quantitative research questions and are designed to understand the topic or issue being studied from the perspective of the participants in the setting.

Because qualitative research questions are general, we rely on the participants in the setting to help us understand what is important, and help us identify additional and more speci�c questions to ask during the study itself.

Qualitative studies frequently start with a central question about the phenomenon being studied in a particular setting. For example, what is it like to be a participant in a particular activity, group, or organization?

More speci�c or sub-questions may also be generated, frequently to use in interviews. For example,

How are participants selected?

What are the norms and values that in�uence their interactions?

What are the rewards for participation?

Additional questions may also emerge during the study as the researcher seeks a more detailed understanding of the phenomenon.

Here are some examples.

How do principals divide their time between management and leadership roles and activities?

What sensitivity, awareness, and skills do teachers need when working with students from diverse backgrounds?

How is the experience of school di�erent for immigrant versus non-immigrant children?

More than one qualitative research question may be asked in your study to provide focus and guide your data collection. Here is an example of a central question with more speci�c questions or sub-questions.

Here is another example. These sub-questions address di�erent populations a�ected and the components of the school district itself.

It is important to avoid writing weak or biased questions in qualitative research. For example,

Value laden questions frequently indicate that the researcher is looking for evidence to support their already existing viewpoint.

In assumption questions, the researcher has already formed the conclusion. By stating the question this way, it would be impossible to arrive at any other conclusion.

In leading questions, the researcher does not want to investigate the possibility that there might be disadvantages to this leadership approach.

Then there are Yes or No questions. While the ultimate goal may be to answer this question, the question itself is too general to provide any guidance as to how we might begin in order to answer it.

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The key elements of a well-written qualitative research question are:

What to examine.

Who will be studied.

What will be the setting of the research.

What concepts and variables will be used to understand the problem for study.

L i c e n s e d u n d e r a C r e a t i v e C o m m o n s A t t r i b u t i o n 3 . 0 L i c e n s e .