Research Proposal (CLO 1) – Task Sheet
Value: 15 percent
Due date:
The research proposal will set the foundations for your research project. This assignment will involve a mind map where you outline what is relevant to the topic you want to investigate. By way of the questions for background research, you will state what you want to learn from your background research. From here, you will complete a background report of approximately 1000 words about your topic. This will include information from sources on the internet or the library database. The report will be referenced according to APA format. Using the background report as a guide, you will construct research questions for your primary research.
Phase 1 – Mind map (15%)
Phase 2 – Primary research questions (15%)
Phase 3 – Background research report and justification (70%)
Phase 1 – Mind Map
A mind map is a way to expand and develop ideas about a topic. In the case of this assignment, you will use a mind map to consider what aspects of the topic you may want to investigate.
Mind Map Sample 1
· What topic is the researcher mind mapping for?
· What were the first two ideas (or subtopics) after the main topic?
· Which subtopic is most developed?
Watch Video 1:
Watch Video 2:
· Which software application was used to make the mind map?
· What is the main topic the researcher is mapping?
· What are the main subtopics the researcher is likely interested in?
· Is the mind map finished?
Graded Task: Research Project Topics
Decide on a topic for your research project. Possible topics for you to conduct research on include the following:
- Student Health
- Student Success
o Achievement
o Effective learning
o Good motivation
- Recreation and leisure
o Preferred leisure activities (social versus individual; active versus sedentary)
o Balancing leisure, work, and study
- Career planning
o Needed knowledge and action
- Environmental awareness
o Knowledge
o Personal environmental protection activities
o Social environment protection activities
- Driving habits
o Safety
o Economy
o the environment
- Social media
o Behavior and issues
- E-learning
- Saving and spending
- Work satisfaction
Create a mind map that develops the topic in a comprehensive way (You do not have to use every part of the mind map in your research question). When you have finished the mind map, provide a copy for your teacher for assessment. Also, maintain your own copy to include in your final research report.
Study the following software for mind mapping:
Phase 2 - Research Questions
You will engage in primary and secondary research on your research topic during the research project. Primary research is when you gather information directly from other people about their beliefs, habits, plans, desires, etc. Secondary research is when you collect information from the library or the internet on the topic to provide background information.
A research question says what you want to learn from your research. Put another way, it is the question your research wants to answer. The research question can also include many sub-questions.
Examples
Main research question:
· Do students at the college have effective approaches to e-learning?
Secondary research question:
· How can students make the best use of e-learning?
Primary sub-questions:
· Do the students at the college have the necessary technological knowledge?
· Do they regularly access e-content as part of their college learning?
· How do they use e-content in their college learning?
Which questions can be answered best using the library or the internet?
Which question(s) will likely involve primary research?
Main research questions (questions for primary research)
Using your mind map as a guide, follow the format above for your own research topic.
· Main question
· Questions for secondary research.
· Primary sub-questions.
Phase 3 – Background research report and justification
Complete a written report of about 1000 words on the topic you have chosen to do your research assignment on. Work that is not your own writing will receive 0.
Including the following:
· Introduction
1 State why you think the topic is important in general
2 Include an overview of the topics you will report on the background report
3 State that the report will conclude with a proposal for research at ADMC
· Background report
1 Organize your body under three to five subtopics (driver attitude, strategies for safe driving, maintenance and repair, driving in the UAE)
· Proposal for research
1 State why you think this topic is essential for the UAE
2 Discuss what you would like to know in terms of the UAE
3 Describe how your own research at the college may help you learn more in terms of the UAE
· References
1 Include at least 4 APA referenced sources.
2 Information presented as factual must be cited in APA format (i.e., statistics).
3 Ideas, opinions or descriptions found during your research should also be cited.
Background information identifies and describes the history and nature of a well-defined research problem regarding the existing literature. The background information should indicate the root of the problem being studied, the appropriate context of the problem about theory, research, and/or practice, its scope, and the extent to which previous studies have successfully investigated the problem, noting, in particular, where gaps exist that your study attempts to address. Click here to read more...
Finding Background Information
After choosing a topic, you must locate introductory sources that give basic background information about the subject (history or 'root'). Finding background information at the beginning of your research is significant if you are unfamiliar with the subject area or need help with what angle to approach your topic. The background discusses existing data on your topic. Some of the information that a background search can provide includes:
- A broad overview of the subject
- Definitions of the topic
- Introduction to key issues
- Names of people who are authorities in the subject field
- Major dates and events
- Keywords and subject-specific vocabulary terms that can be used for database searches
- Bibliographies that lead to additional resources. Click here to read more...
the researcher sets the stage for investigating the problem. The background makes a reader understand the reasons of conducting a study and the incidents leading up to the study.
Purpose of Research
Once you have identified a researchable problem, the next step is to describe the research's purpose— how you will go about addressing the problem.
The problem, purpose, and research questions are the building blocks—the very core—of your study; they are intrinsically tied together and the basis from which everything else develops.
Research Methodologies
Qualitative
The word 'qualitative' emphasizes the qualities of entities, processes, and meanings that are not experimentally examined or measured [if measured at all] in quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry. Such researchers emphasize the value-laden nature of the investigation. They seek answers to questions that stress how social experience is created and given meaning. In contrast, quantitative studies emphasize the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables, not processes. Qualitative forms of inquiry are considered by many social and behavioral scientists to be as much a perspective on investigating a research problem as a method. Click here to read more...
Quantitative
Quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or explaining a particular phenomenon. Click here to read more...
Learn more about how to start a research...
