Research Methodology

Lecture 3: The Research Problem

Introduction

     It has been said that a good piece of research starts as a questions that needs to be answered, or a situations that confronts people, at work or at school, and requires an immediate remedy. However, a few novice researchers, however, are unaware of the word "problem". "Problem" means many things for many practitioners: teachers and students.

3.1 What is a Research Problem?

     A research problem is a difficulty in a situation whereby an individual or a group that attempts to solve or remedy. In most cases, there must also be causes and effects; i.e. dependent and independent variables in two different courses of action, with an urgent need for some satisfaction (Kothari, 1990, p.24). According to Walliman (2001, pp. 22-23), researchers need to be warned at this very important stage of selecting a problem about four (04) mistakes, so that they can understand it well and can deal with it. These mistakes are summarized as follows:

1. The choice of a problem should not be only personal, but one of a wider interest. Researchers may learn for themselves, but are, at the same time, supposed to contribute to the public knowledge.

2. The formulation of a problem should not only involve mere comparisons of data from here

and there, without revealing new ideas or giving insights into new aspects. The problem should state the objectives in a clear manner.

3. Setting the problem to find out the degree of correlation between variables is not enough, which may result in a number could not explain the cause or causes leading to that degree of the correlation. What is also needed is the nature of the link between variables.

4. The problem should not be devised so as the answer can be "yes" or "no". Research should

provide us with knowledge of why things are found the way we find them and how these things work. We do not only need answers, but implications.

3.2 Selecting and /identifying the Problem

     Because the identification of a problem is of paramount importance, the researcher should know how to recognize and define his problem, a preliminary action that can proceeded through the following steps (Singh, 2006, p. 23):

1. Determining the field of research in which a researcher is keen to do the research work.

2. The researcher should develop the mastery on the area or it should be the field of his specialization.

3. He should review the researches conducted in area to know the recent trends and studies in

the area.

4. On the basis of review, he should consider the priority field of the study.

5. He should draw an analogy and insight in identifying a problem or employ his personal experience of the field in locating the problem. He may take help of a supervisor or an expert

of the field.

6. He should pin-point specific aspect of the problem which is to be investigated. Sometimes, at this stage, researchers are faced with other requirements. They need to find "a problem whose solution makes all of us see the world in new way" (Booth, Colomb & Williams., 2003, p. 68). This is what characterizes experienced teachers, but novice researchers may also find "a good research problem" or try to clarify "an old one" to make a big contribution to their field of study. That is, consumed or already defined problems are less tackled than new ones.

3.3 Necessity of Defining the Problem

     Defining the problem can be synonymous, or rather imitative of refining the topic at the very beginning of the research. This can be done through the first readings on the part of the researcher and his discussions with the advisor in order to frame the major questions and the approach (Lipson, 2005, 70-71). It then begins by understanding whether or not the topic is researchable and manageable, which will help the researcher to come up with a more sharpened thesis topic and analyze it within the limits of the time allotted (ibid, p. 71). Once the thesis topic has been sharpened and the questions have been clearly settled down, the novice research must start thinking through the aims, methods and possible analyses (Norton, 2009, p. 87) to avoid any attendant pitfalls.

     In describing the content and form of the research proposal, which is a document that candidates must develop at the onset of their research, Davis (2005, p. 53) invites researchers

to solidify their "hypothesis and objectives", and to clarify what they "want this research to achieve". This indicates once again that the hypothesis or the suggested answer to the main

question, which in a way or another reflects the main problem, must be put forward and illuminated earlier. The identification of the problem is then a pre-requisite which entails all

the aforementioned researcher's actions.

3.4 Techniques Involved in Defining a Problem

     Booth, Colomb and Williams (2003, pp. 68-70) suggested some ways for researchers which aim at formulating the problem at the outset of research as follows:

1. Ask for help: Talk to teachers, classmates, relatives, friends…or anyone who is interested

in your topic.

2. Look for problems as you read: The researcher may find a research problem when he detects a contradiction, an incomplete explanation, or some inconsistency.

3. Claim for the problem that your claim solves: When researchers read critically, they may discover a good research problem; the last few pages of a draft are sometimes the space where almost all writers formulate a final claim which might give rise to other important questions that the researcher can rely on.

     If the above suggestions are taken into consideration by the researcher, then he will be able to formulate a question that is worth answering and find or create a problem that is worth solving. In many fields such as politics and international diplomacy "no skill is valued more highly than the ability to recognize a problem that others should take seriously, then to articulate that problem in a way that convinces them to care"(ibid, pp. 70-71).

Conclusion

     Researchers, whether novice or experienced, are supposed to discover problems in their workplace or elsewhere through careful observation or critical reading. Their task is to figure out the nature of the problem and not only report facts about it; their real task is to formulate a question that is worth answering or put forward a problem that really requires a solution.