Coming Up with a Research Question: our experiences
Students research state before they come to the Library
When students come to our library for orientation they tend
to have this outdated view of a librarian as "someone who shelves
books". Therefore, it is not surprising that when you start talking to
them they usually do not pay much attention to what you will be saying at first.
To them library visit is just one of THOSE things you just do, get over
and done with. They do not expect to get anything from it. However, we
"The librarians" have taken this visit as an opportunity to catch them
and get them into the research bug.
When students join nursing schools and even midwifery many
have no real exposure to research. A number will have gone through school being
spoon fed notes by the teacher. Other will have developed a habit of using just
the one recommended textbook. Many student nurses and midwives expect the same
learning environment to prevail as they train for a profession. Some just buy
one or two textbooks and expect the information from these two recommended
books to be enough. Within weeks of starting training for their professional
career, they soon realize that so much more information is needed. They may
continue to struggle along with what they have, until they have to undertake a
research. This is when many realize that they cannot do without the help of the
librarian and the library.
As they have
previously carried out studies in a culture of being spoon fed, the thought of
going alone or doing it yourself learning is very daunting and challenging for many. What
is considered a research is unknown to most
of our students. They come to the library expecting the librarian to “give”
them research topics and they have been given notes all the educational life. This scenario is to be expected, as Polgar
& Thomas (2008) assert the background of the researcher is an important
consideration in research.
Instead of giving them research topics, the library is
helping student to understand the concept of research, and how to come up with
research topics and research problems. Working together with the schools of
nursing and midwifery, we have come up with what we call research for life
lessons. Normally when a student approaches our librarians, they have no idea
how to come up with a research topic. Many assume that a research is just anything
you dream up, you just go and write about it. Many have no idea that what it
involves in trying to come up with what is called a research question.
What is a research?
The word research has nowadays been used in so many ways by
different people that its real meaning especially for the student has become
lost. Brink (1996) notes that research is often associated with any activities
around looking things up in reference library or any other means of information
collecting or checking. In its true sense research calls for more than just “looking up” things.
Research in its proper application is expected to involve an
exploration, discovery and careful study of unexplained phenomena according to Brink (1996). Furthermore, Brink(1996)
and Polgar and Thomas (2008) acknowledge
that research It is expected to be systematic, establish facts, reach new
conclusions, increase what is known, attempts to affirm and refine what is
known about a particular topic or issue. Bowlings in ( Moule and & Goodman 2009)
also augments that it is rigorous process of enquiry aimed to describe, develop phenomena, explanatory concepts and theories to contribute to scientific knowledge.
So from
these definitions it is clear that research must be includes some of the
following amongst other things: Systematic, Is an exploration, discovery, investigation, It
involves careful study, aims to establish facts, It is rigorous, Increases
knowledge
So for students, it
is not a matter of just going to your books and
writing what you want, anyhow, about any topic, then submitting it as a
research. So much more effort and skill must be used to produce what can truly
be termed a research. You need to come up with a valid research topic to
research on.
What is a research topic?
Research topics are concepts or broad problem areas that contain
numerous potential research problems, providing the basis for generating the
research question (Brink 1996; Grove, Burns, and Gray 2013). Brink (1996)
observes that research topics can cover practice, education, administration,
history, person or situation based factors. But abundance of research topics
and potential problems is not always so obvious. Many a time I have had student
nurses and midwives come to the library unable to come up with a research
topic. This has also been noted and alluded to by Grove, Burns and Gray (2013)
who pinpoint that most researchers struggle to identify their first research
study.
Where do ideas of research come from?
As students are not clear on where to get topic for
research, the common occurrence for us to see in our library, is of students taking
whatever topic comes to their head and deciding to do it as a research. After
their first meeting with their research supervisor, students usually come to
the library complaining that their topic has been rejected, is said to be not
researchable, not relevant to their field. Some are angry and do not
understanding why this other topic was
accepted and another rejected. Brink (1996) clarifies that research problems
are not pulled out of the air, they come from specific areas.
Despite the fact that research problems can be developed
from many sources, according to Grove, Burns, and Gray (2013) assessment,
researchers need to be imaginative,
curious to identify problems from sources . Rees (2011) suggests asking
yourself of situations “why,
what when and how “ as a means of cultivating
research questions. Brink (1996p.68)
sums it up simply “When you complain, question something, or hope, are puzzled,
frustrated, surprised, wish for something, you have the basis for the research
problem.
Rees (2011) argues that the most common sources of research
is in fact a known problem in the
field, that the researcher takes and produces a research question. Brink (1996)
expands that this could include situations in need of a solution, improvement,
change, discrepancy between how things are and how they should be done. Polgar & Thomas (2008) likewise suggest
looking at previous work done in the area of study and looking at the questions
that may have not been answered in the previous work.
We encourage our students to read journals to see what is
has been published and researched. We also encourage them to visit their wards
work places, classrooms and reassess the situation, with an inquisitive mind,
the “how,
what, who, when , why”. We also encourage them to discuss with
authorities key problem areas that they would like research on .This usually
works as many students return having managed to get a possible research topic
from such avenues.
Nonetheless, research carried out on sources of research
topics clearly indicates that nurses and midwives get most of the researches
came from clinical practice, literature, colleagues, other students and
established research priorities (Brink1996). Regardless of the source of research, Polgar
& Thomas (2008), contend that even the formulation of a simple research question, will require intensive observation in the
wards and environment, hours in the library reading on related research and
topic, discussing the issues and a number of surrounding issues before it can
be properly understood.
Is your topic research-able?
So after some time students do eventually come up with
research topic from the various sources mentioned above, they are frustrated
when they are told their topics cannot be researched. Why even after doing all
this ground work are some topics still not accepted?
Sometimes it is because the same research has been done
before. Many students are stuck trying to do the same research that has been
done again and again. For us we find that a large number of our students in
midwifery are always attempting to do the same topic HIV and breast feeding.
This topic has become oversubscribed and as such while it may be a known
problem area, already quite a lot has been already done on it. This is a high
chance that students presenting such a topic will have it rejected.
Students consequently need to find out which studies have
already been done, or are being done so as not to duplicate. Remember, the aim
of research is “new Knowledge” so repeating someone else’s study will not be
acceptable unless there is a high chance that some things have changed since
the last study was done.
The other common reason that some topics are not
researchable concerns data issues. Most of our students come up with topics but
rarely think about where the data for the research will come from. Many times
they can identify a symptom of a problem but lack the data to properly
illustrate the problem. As such, these topics end up not being researchable.
For example, some research requires access to data such as patient records,
registers, log books which students have no access to as some information
requires approval from relevant department heads may not be so forth coming. Other
data they need for their research is not captured anywhere.
Sometimes students have found out that while the topic may
be relevant, but there are just too few candidates to conduct the research on. Other times it has had to do with resources,
lack of equipment, lack of skills to carry out that type of research. Rees (2011) warns researchers to stay clear
of topics on ethical and philosophical questions as these are not suited to research
but are best for debates. So according to Brink (1996), if a common reaction to
results or the problem is “so what” then that may indicate that
it’s a minor problem not worth researching.
Key to any research however, is interest in the topic and
area of research. I have seen many students start a research and dump it
because it has bored them to death. Rees (2011) affirms that if you are
indifferent to the topic, it will usually lead to failure and not doing the research
well because it bores you.
Summary
Students need to think thoroughly when doing research,
considering a number of issues .these include, understanding what is termed a
research, where ideas for research come from, and evaluating the possible ideas
to see if they can be conducted as a research.
Ultimately, when students are formulating their research questions,
the need to remember that the type and
nature of the research topic/ question or aim will influence the rest of the
research as this can determine the data
collection, the sample, and method of analyzing the data.(Rees:2011).
Bibliography
1. MOULE, P. and GOODMAN, M.(2009) Nursing Research: An Introduction. London: Sage.
2. BRINK, H.(1996) Fundamentals
of research methodology for health care professionals. Cape Town: Junta and
Company.
3. POLGAR, S. and THOMAS, S A.(2008) Introduction to research in the health sciences. 5th ed. Edinburgh:
Churchill Livingstone.
4.REES, COLIN. (2011) An
introduction to research for midwives. Edinburgh. Churchill Livingstone.
5.GROVE, SK., BURNS, N. and GRAY,J. (2013)The practice of nursing research: appraisal,
synthesis and generation of evidence.
7th ed. St. Louis. Elsevier.
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