Chapter 2 • Overview of the Educational Research Process 

• The main steps in the process of conducting educational research are as follows:
  
  • Identifying and limiting a research topic or problem
  • Formally stating and refining research questions
  • Reviewing existing literature related to the problem
  • Writing a literature review
  • Developing a research plan
  • Implementing the plan and collecting data
  • Analyzing the collected data
  • Stating findings, conclusions, and recommendations
• Identification of the focus of the study is one of the most critical decisions in the process of conducting educational research.
  
  • The topic should be of personal interest to you and should be manageable.
• Care must be taken in formally stating research questions, as they will guide the remainder of the study.
• Reviewing existing literature and writing a literature review can provide a great deal of guidance to a research study.
  
  • Related literature can inform specification of the problem, development of research questions, and determination of research designs and analyses.
• How the research study will actually be conducted is known as the research method.
  
  • Many critical decisions about the research method must be made, including those related to data, participants, instrumentation, timeframe, research ethics, and data analysis.
• Methods used to collect data can be quite diverse.
  
  • Categories of techniques include observational techniques, interviews, existing data, and data collected through standard educational processes.
• Quantitative data analysis involves statistical techniques and is typically accomplished using statistical analysis software.
• Qualitative data analysis is an inductive process that must be facilitated in the mind of the researcher.
• Analysis of data collected in mixed-methods studies involves both kinds of data analysis and essentially merges the results.
• Findings, conclusions, and recommendations should be stated so they follow logically from all that has preceded in the study.
• The purpose behind stating conclusions and recommendations is to take the answers to the research questions and contextualize them with respect to the broader field of education.
• Extreme caution must be used so that conclusions and recommendations are not stated so globally that they extend beyond the parameters of the study.
• It is important to keep in mind that there is not a single way to research any given topic. Different approaches, methodologies, and data can be used to investigate the same or similar research topics.