Research Questions Flashcards
Research questions
Driving force of an investigation
Provides purpose to the study
Orients the researcher
What do we want to solve?
4 types of questions
Descriptive, explanatory, exploratory, evaluative
Descriptive
Creates description
identify/outline patterns, events, characteristics
Distributions a lot
Categories
Quantitative
Explanatory
Derived from theory
Deductive research
Test if understanding is correct
Statements about relationships
Exploratory
Based on inductive inquiry,
Investigation to find a working understanding
Pilot studies
Qualitative Or mixed methods
Not descriptive
Tries to end up with a theory
Evaluative
Can be any other types in native
Is the program/ change working?
Research Q checklist
Pass “so what” test
Narrow focus
Answer to question is not obvious
Q is clear
No inadequacies
Researchable
Background to conduct research
Topic to Qs
Broad topic > working knowledge of topic > working Q > research Q
Hypotheses
Testable statement of a relationship between 2 or more variables
Testability
Use terminology that describes the measure, not the overall descriptor
Independent variable
Factor being manipulated
Dependent
Changes based on that manipulation
Direction
Direct /positive
Indirect/negative
Strength
Strongest is - 1 and +1
Alpha
How confident you want to be that outcome is not by chance
