6. • A CROSS-NATIONAL COMPARISON OF SEX-TYPING
AND SELECTED PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
AMERICAN COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL PLAYERS AND
ENGLISH SOCCER PLAYERS
• A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOR
OF GRADUATE STUDENTS FROM THE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION,
FOLLOWING THE RECENT INGESTION OF LARGE
QUANTITIES OF ALCOHOL BETWEEN THE HOURS
OF 9:00 PM AND 10:00 PM ON TUESDAY EVENINGS
DURING WINTER QUARTER
7. • Guides your purpose
• Each research question give clear idea of your research
Quantitative or qualitative?
Experimental? Survey?
Should you interview people, or would the data from a survey
answer it?
• With RQs, easier to identify the assumptions underlying
the question, and the “theories” behind it
8. • Basically
o Re-formulate your topic as a research question - one that ends
with “…?”
o Ask preliminary questions about this title
• Ask as many
• Generate several questions
o Formulate a direct question - be precise
9. • Questions you can ask
o What are the characteristics of this thing?
o What happens?
o And in what order do things happen?
o When does it happen? To whom?
o When does it NOT happen?
o For whom is it a problem? Why is it a problem for them?
o How can one tell it is a problem?
• Keep those you can answer
10. Topic Preliminary questions
Disruptive
behaviour
among Pre-
TESL
Students
What are the “ disruptive
behaviours”?
What happens? When does it
happen? To whom?
When does it NOT happen?
For whom is it a problem? Why is
it a problem for them?
How can one tell it’s a problem?
11. • Shortlist the questions
o What exactly IS the research problem here?
o Why is it important?
o Why does it need to be solved?
o How could I go about solving it?
o What exactly would I have to do, to solve it?
o If I did that, what would my data look like?
o What would my findings look like?
• Answer the last three as precise as you can
12. • What or who will form my sample?
• Why those/that, rather than others?
• How will I select them?
• How will I gain access to them?
• What exactly will I use?
• Why that/those, rather than other
equipment/instruments/analytical methods?
13. • What are the factors that contribute towards the
disruptive behaviours of Pre-TESL students?
• What are the Pre-TESL students’ (with disruptive
behaviours) attitudes towards authority?
• Is there a relationship between disruptive behaviour and
previous schooling of Pre-TESL students ?
14. • A research topic is the broad subject matter
being addressed in a study.
• A research problem is an educational issue or
problem in the study
• A purpose is the major intent or objective of the
study.
• Research questions are questions the
researcher would like answered or addressed in
the study.
o These are not survey questions
20. • Strategy to unpack the question
o highlight some of its different aspects
o make it easier to identify an angle from which the research
question can be answered
• Deriving a statement that can be true or false
21. Topic Questions Hypotheses
Disruptive
behaviour in
religious high
schools
Is there a
relationship
between parents’
educational level
and disruptive
behaviours of
religious high
school students?
There is a
relationship
between parents’
educational level
and the religious
high school
student’s display
of disruptive
behaviour
22. • How does group discussion facilitate concept formation?
• To what extent does family structure influence academic
self efficacy?
• How do international students perceive the local
community’s acceptance of their culture ?
23. • There is a relationship between self efficacy and
cognitive learning outcomes
o Null hypothesis
o Alternate hypothesis
25. • Statement of Problem
• Distance education students generally tend of be adults
who have a fully time or part time job, with
predetermined financial and family commitments. They
will have preset social obligations to fulfil. Entry
requirements into distance education programs differ
somewhat from those of full time students on campus
students. In addition the mode of instructional delivery is
different to their on campus cohorts. These factors in
isolation or in combination have a bearing on student
retention rates for distance education students.
26. • Statement of Problem
• It is also estimated that dropout rates from online courses were higher than their
counterparts in traditional classes, with as many as 25-40% students in online
courses dropping compared to 10-20% of students in on-campus courses
dropping these courses (Parker, 1999). However, attrition has been reported to
be as high as 70% to 80% (Dagger & Wade, 2004; Flood, 2002). Additional
publications cite online attrition to be 10% to 20% higher than traditional on-
campus programs (Angelino, Williams & Natvig, 2007; Carr, 2000).
Notwithstanding, the extant research on retention and online programs have
been sparse (Roach, 2002). Roach suggested that research studies for online
programs were limited due to the “newness of online education” (Roach, 2002).
Extant research has indicated that a better understanding of student dropout
would enable educators and administrators to design courses which promote
student progress (Kember, 1995; and Sweet, 1986). Garrison (1987) posits
there is no area of research in distance education that has received more
attention than the study of dropout.
• The purpose of this research is to study the issues surrounding retention of
adult learners in distance education in Malaysia. The setting will be in a
Malaysian Public University’s Distance Education arm.