Week 2

This week, your task is to create a presentation to graduate students in which you walk them through how to develop a focused researchable problem.

The problem statement articulates a concise and focused research problem that is situated within your topic area. Your problem must come from a critical issue that must be addressed; otherwise, negative consequences will occur or continue. The problem statement also must be supported with current (published within the last five years) and relevant scholarly research that documents the existence of a problem worthy of doctoral-level research. Note that this is a first round of developing a research problem, and you will receive feedback from your professor for purposes of revision and improvement. You will eventually need to take that refined problem statement from this presentation and incorporate it into the final prospectus that you submit in Week 8.

Your presentation should follow this format:

● Title slide ○ This title should accurately and appropriately capture your

proposed study's keywords and give the reader a good clue as to the topic of the study.

● Overview slide ○ Present the general issue, supported by relevant research

citations, that builds a case for further research. ● Problem information

○ Identify the specific problem you wish to address. The documented problem may be a practical problem or issue in the profession or study context without an acceptable solution.

○ Make sure to include relevant citations. In your speaker notes, ensure to make clear how the proposed problem will inform educational practice.

● Research gap

○ In defining the problem, a clear discrepancy must be drawn between what knowledge exists currently and the way/s in which new knowledge may contribute to better understanding the problem. Research-worthy problems for a Ph.D. must carry the possibility to be documented beyond any particular study site. You can expand on this in your speaker notes.

● Problem statement ○ For this slide, create the single sentence statement by

completing the following sentence: The problem the proposed study seeks to address is …

○ The statement is no more than 250-300 words. This indicates the need for the study and describes the issue or problem to be studied.

○ In your speaker notes, explain your process of arriving at this problem statement and what factors informed your choices.

● Significance of study ○ To identify and articulate a problem, you will also need to

consider the potential new knowledge that can be gained by conducting this study. This contributes to the study's theoretical significance. Note that theoretical significance is not the same as statistical significance which is a key aspect of quantitative research.

○ For this slide, state clearly and concisely explain how this study might contribute to the current knowledge base. In your speaker notes, you can expand on this.

Length: Minimum 5 slides, not including title and reference slides. Speaker notes must be a minimum of 150 words per slide

References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources; you may include those from Week 1 assignment as well as additional scholarly resources as relevant