WRITING RESEARCH QUESTIONS
As you all continue to work on your demos, it is important to note that beginning with a strong, focused research question will really aid you in your research, planning, and presentation. As you continue to work on developing your demo, I encourage you to revisit your research question. Consider the following:
- What do you really want to focus on? What is the key element of your focus?
- Is your focus too broad to present in 60 to 90 minutes? Is your focus too narrow to present in 60 to 90 minutes?
- Does your question/focus have any terms (i.e., learning community) that you need to define for your audience so that they will better understand your context and message?
- What have you done that works in your classroom? Are you focusing on this and then discussing possible changes, extensions, etc.? Or are you focusing more on the new possibilities than the core of what already works? In other words, are you clearly establishing the teaching strategy that is already working for you or that you want to use before you move into changes, extensions, etc.?
How to Write a Research Proposal
Here is a resource to help you continue to think about your research question. Please note that it refers to graduate-level research in general, not specifically to the teacher demonstrations done in Summer Institutes under the NWP framework. Not everything on this page will pertain to your demo; however, the following excerpt from this page may help you some as you consider your focus:
. . .try to place your research question in the context of either a current “hot” area, or an older area that remains viable. Secondly, you need to provide a brief but appropriate historical backdrop. Thirdly, provide the contemporary context in which your proposed research question occupies the central stage. Finally, identify “key players” and refer to the most relevant and representative publications. In short, try to paint your research question in broad brushes and at the same time bring out its significance.
The introduction typically begins with a general statement of the problem area, with a focus on a specific research problem, to be followed by the rational or justification for the proposed study. The introduction generally covers the following elements:
- State the research problem, which is often referred to as the purpose of the study.
- Provide the context and set the stage for your research question in such a way as to show its necessity and importance.
- Present the rationale of your proposed study and clearly indicate why it is worth doing.
- Briefly describe the major issues and sub-problems to be addressed by your research.
- Identify the key independent and dependent variables of your experiment. Alternatively, specify the phenomenon you want to study.
- State your hypothesis or theory, if any. For exploratory or phenomenological research, you may not have any hypotheses. (Please do not confuse the hypothesis with the statistical null hypothesis.)
- Set the delimitation or boundaries of your proposed research in order to provide a clear focus.
- Provide definitions of key concepts. (This is optional.)
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) you have or will use for researching a topic. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.). Each bibliographic citation is followed by a brief note or “annotation.” An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.
Annotations do one or more of the following:
- describe the content and focus of the book or article
- identify the particular audience for whom the work will be useful
- suggest the source’s usefulness to your research
- evaluate its method, conclusions, or reliability
- record your reactions to the source
The purposes of an annotated bibliography include:
- to learn about your topic
- to help you formulate a thesis
- to help other researchers
Points to remember in building your annotated bibliography:
- Citations should be in MLA style.
- The annotation begin on a new line, two lines below the publication information. Do NOT separate the annotation from the publication information.
- You may view explanations of different types of annotations and examples of each. Note, these are generic examples — not from teacher demos from past Summer Institutes.
- The most important thing to understand is that entries should be brief.
- Only directly significant details will be mentioned and any information apparent in the title can be omitted from the annotation.
- In addition, background materials and references to previous work by the same author usually are not included.
- Paraphrase! Do not directly quote the source!
