Research

Problems

What is a research problem?

A statement about an area of concern, a condition to

be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a

troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in
theory, or in practice that points to the need for
meaningful understanding and deliberate
investigation.

 It should enumerate the specific questions to be

answered by the research. The sub-problems or

questions should not overlap with one another.
It is aligned with the objectives of your research
paper.

1. Come up with a description.

The outcome of your research question may be in the

form of a description. The description is provided to
contextualize the situation, explain something about the
subjects or respondents of the study or provide the
reader an overview of your study.

Examples:
What is the demographic profile of the teachers in
terms of age, gender, educational attainment, civil
status, and number of training attended?
What teaching styles are used by teachers in
managing their students?

2. Determine differences between variables.

Variables are those simplified portions of the
complex phenomena that you intend to study.
The independent variables are just those
variables that may influence or affect the other
variable, which is the dependent variable.

Phenomenon : poor performance of students in college

entrance exams
Examples of variables related to poor academic
performance:
IV: educational attainment of teachers
DV: teaching styles
IV: student-teacher ratio
DV: number of students in the class

 Examples:
Is there a significant difference in long quiz score
between students who study early in the morning and
students who study at night?
Are the quiz scores of students who study early in the
morning higher than those who study at night?

3. Find out correlations or relationships between

variables.
Examples:
. Is there a significant relationship between teaching
style and long quiz score of students?
. Is there a significant association between the
students long quiz score and the teachers age,
gender, and training attended?
. Is there a relationship between the long quiz score
and the number of hours devoted by students in
studying their lessons?