Formulation Of Research Questions Research Articles

KREIRANJE INOVATIVNIH ISTRAŽIVAČKIH PITANJA: PERSPEKTIVA PROBLEMATIZACIJE

Polazeći od ideje da su istraživanja u obrazovanju postala dominantno inkrementalno-konformistička, u radu se problematizacija afirmiše kao strategija generisanja inovativnih istraživačkih pitanja. Rad započinje debatovanjem o interakciji činilaca različitih nivoa koji, pored motiva za kreiranjem relevantnog znanja, mogu imati centralni značaj u formiranju habitata i habitusa istraživača u obrazovanju. Drugi, centralni deo rada posvećen je analiziranju konstitutivnih komponenata (faza) problematizacije koja se određuje kao metodološko sredstvo kritičkog i refleksivnog preispitivanja eksplicitnih i prećutnih pretpostavki prevalentnih teorija. Konačno, rad se zaključuje konstatacijom da uprkos sveprisutnoj tendenciji istraživača da realizuju standardizovane i izomorfne studije, moguće je istraživanja obrazovanja “vratiti na pravi put” koji podrazumeva kreiranje originalnog naučnog znanja koje je društveno i pedagoški relevantno.

Playing for Climate Change: The Design and Development of a Game Prototype to Promote Scientific Literacy

This design case describes the work involved in developing a digital game-based learning environment, work that was part of a PhD research project. The designer was involved in all aspects of the project: conducting research into content that was included in the game, exploring the gaming platform (Second Life), adapting scientific literature for use in the game, consulting with science instructors, building the gaming environment, and writing scripts for objects in the environment. The gaming environment was a fictional town site called Budworm. The game was designed to promote scientific literacy in first and second year science undergraduate students through collaborative work on an open-ended problem related to the management of water resources in a region of western Canada subject to extremes in water availability. One of the design goals was to model the kind of environment that scientists encounter while they formulate research questions, a complex environment that involves collaboration with colleagues, creativity and a willingness to explore. Instructional experts in three scientific fields (biology, chemistry, and geosciences) were consulted during the course of this design, as was an expert in instructional design. The final product was the game and a set of game design principles that were informed by the literature on educational gaming and consultations with the instructional experts.

The Mobile Agility Framework: An Exploratory Study of Mobile Technology Enhancing Organizational Agility

Organizational agility is a key factor for survival and success in today's global, interconnected and turbulent business environment. Mobile technology, due to its anywhere, anytime characteristics, can be a promising tool for enhancing organizational agility. Yet there are no studies that guide organizations in leveraging mobile technology for improving speed and responsiveness to market needs. This paper attempts to fill this gap by exploring the question of how mobile technology can be used to enhance organizational agility. We use an exploratory research approach that analyzes archival data of 89 case studies describing contemporary applications of mobile technology within organizations. After developing a mobile agility framework and using it as our analytical lens, we examine each case to identify specific ways in which mobile technology is used to improve operational, customer, and partnering agility. The main contribution of this study is identification of emergent clusters of agility-enhancing mechanisms based on the benefits of mobile technology. The discovered benefits and mechanisms can guide organizations on improving their agility with the help of mobile technology. We also formulate research questions that should be addressed by future studies in order to produce a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of how mobile technology improves organizational agility.

An evaluation of the link between subjects studied in hospitality courses in Cyprus and career success

Purpose– The purpose of this paper, unprecedented in Cyprus in its scope and approach, is to investigate the importance level of the courses currently taught in hospitality programs of the country, as perceived by industry professionals.Design/methodology/approach– The research population included individuals currently holding full-time managerial positions in hotel establishments of Cyprus. In total, 500 questionnaires were administered to individuals working in 158 hotel establishments currently operating in the country. The surveys were personalized and addressed to each hotel’s general manager and two departmental heads. Descriptive and inferential statistics, namely frequencies, one-way analysis of variance withpost-hocmultiple comparison test (Tukey honesty significant difference) and multiple regression analysis, were utilized to analyze the data and answer the formulated research questions.Findings– For the purposes of the study, modules offered by local tertiary institutions fall into four broad categories: general education, languages, professional modules and business modules. Findings revealed that professional modules were ranked first, followed by business modules, languages and general education modules. The respondents’ gender, age, years of employment and functional area are the demographic characteristics that most significantly influence their perception regarding the importance of required competencies. Moreover, findings suggest that professional modules and languages are perceived by industry professionals as very important elements for career success in the hotel industry.Originality/value– Findings of this study may assist industry stakeholders in re-structuring the hospitality management curriculum, in an attempt to provide a more realistic and pedagogically sound learning experience to students which reflects the modern realities of the profession. Moreover, new knowledge created may inspire academic scholars to further investigate this topic from an array of different perspectives.

Stress and cancer: Nordic pieces to the complex puzzle.

Using population and health registers to address critical research questions on determinants of health has become a unique contribution of the Nordic countries, largely thanks to the personal identification numbers (PINs) assigned to every inhabitant at birth or upon the time of immigration to the Nordic countries. Given the wide use by authorities, healthcare providers, and schools, the PINs enable unique record linkages between registers of the population and different health-related outcomes, resulting in a virtually complete and nationwide follow-up of all inhabitants in these countries. Since the registers are mainly set up for administrative or healthcare related purposes, the information collected is by definition prospective and independent of the later formulated research questions. Registerbased studies therefore usually possess notably reduced risks for selection and information biases. Provided with nationwide study samples and often long periods of registration history, register-based studies further have the privilege of sufficient statistical power to address research questions engaging rare exposures and rare outcomes. The most important challenge of register-based studies is however the lack of detailed information on potential confounders—usually behavioral factors, sometimes leading to the inability to disentangle real associations from unmeasured confounders. However, the growing number of registers and amount of information collected in these registers, together with the recent methodological developments (e.g., quasi-experimental and within-subject designs) has rapidly reduced concerns of residual confounding. Moreover, the increasingly focused efforts in pooling identical registers across the Nordic countries have rendered a powerful resource for studies otherwise largely impossible in individual Nordic countries or settings outside Scandinavia. Based on these unique registry resources, Gardus et al. [1] conclude that there is no association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—’’as a marker for prolonged clinical detected stress triggered by trauma’’—and the risk of cancer in a nationwide Danish cohort of 4131 PTSD patients reported in this issue of the European Journal of Epidemiology. Based on age-, sex-, and calendar period-specific cancer rates in the background population, a total of 154.4 incident cancers should have been expected if PTSD was not associated with the overall risk of cancer, compared to the 159 cases of cancer observed during the study, resulting in a standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of 1.0. This carefully conducted study is to our knowledge the first to specifically address PTSD, as an indicator of severe psychological stress, in relation to cancer risk [2]. While psychological stress has consistently been associated with a multitude of health-related outcomes [3], the evidence-base for its role in cancer development remains equivocal [2]. Several methodological challenges may potentially explain the observed diverging results. One pertains to the highly heterogeneous definitions and measurements of psychological stress used in the literature, & Fang Fang fang.fang@ki.se

A Complexity Approach Toward Mind–Brain–Education (MBE); Challenges and Opportunities in Educational Intervention and Research

ABSTRACTIn the context of an educational or clinical intervention, we often ask questions such as “How does this intervention influence the task behavior of autistic children?” or “How does working memory influence inhibition of immediate responses?” What do we mean by the word influence here? In this article, we introduce the framework of complex dynamic systems (CDS) to disentangle the meaning of words such as influence, and to discuss the issue of education and intervention as something that takes place in the form of complex, real‐time, situated processes. What are the applied implications of such a CDS framework? Can we use it to improve education? Five general principles—process laws—are introduced, which can be used to guide the way we formulate research questions and methods, and the way we use the results of such research. In addition, we briefly discuss a project in progress, in which we ourselves attempt to apply the process laws that govern educational activities. Finally, we report about a discussion about the usability of the process laws, both in educational research and in the classroom, as was held during our workshop at the Mind, Brain, and Education Conference, November 2014.

Perspectives on ageing, later life and ethnicity: ageing research in ethnic minority contexts.

This special issue focuses broadly upon questions and themes relating to the current conceptualisations, representations and use of 'ethnicity' (and ethnic minority experiences) within the field of social gerontology. An important aim of this special issue is to explore and address the issue of 'otherness' within the predominant existing frameworks for researching those who are ageing or considered aged, compounded by the particular constructions of their ethnicity and ethnic 'difference'. The range of theoretical, methodological and empirical papers included in this collection provide some critical insights into particular facets of the current research agendas, cultural understandings and empirical focus of ethnic minority ageing research. The main emphasis is on highlighting the ways in which ethnic cultural homogeneity and 'otherness' is often assumed in research involving older people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and how wider societal inequalities are concomitantly (re)produced, within (and through) research itself - for example, based on narrowly defined research agendas and questions; the assumed age and/or ethnic differences of researchers vis-à-vis their older research participants; the workings of the formalised ethical procedures and frameworks; and the conceptual and theoretical frameworks employed in the formulation of research questions and interpretation of data. We examine and challenge here the simplistic categorisations and distinctions often made in gerontological research based around research participants' ethnicity, age and ageing and assumed cultural differences. The papers presented in this collection reveal instead the actual complexity and fluidity of these concepts as well as the cultural dynamism and diversity of experiences within ethnic groups. Through an exploration of these issues, we address some of the gaps in existing knowledge and understandings as well as contribute to the newly emerging discussions surrounding the use of particular notions of ethnicity and ethnic minority ageing as these are being employed within the field of ageing studies.

Questions they ask: considering teacher-inquiry questions posed by pre-service English teachers

Our study of pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) inquiry projects includes two levels of practitioner-research: on one level, we examine the research questions PSTs pose about their classrooms; and on the second, the study is an action-research investigation of our own practice in teaching PSTs both pedagogical and inquiry practices. We study PSTs’ inquiry questions specifically in an attempt to understand their concerns about teaching and to improve the ways we instruct PSTs. The project considers three research questions: how do English PSTs pose their concerns about students in inquiry questions addressed to students during field-placement experiences; how do they express these concerns in questions posed about students; and what can we learn from the ways PSTs embed conceptualizations of students in questions? Findings reveal a possible mismatch, with PSTs asking students directly about personal interests but often formulating research questions about academic challenges. Such disparity suggests PSTs might be reluctant to broach difficult subjects with students – a reluctance that might deter PSTs from openly discussing challenges with students or from enlisting students as collaborators in inquiry. Additionally, PSTs expressed that their prior knowledge of students constituted ‘researcher bias.’ These findings indicate to us as action-researchers and teacher educators that we need to make changes in how we help PSTs involve students as collaborators in inquiry and that we need to help them understand that teacher-inquiry does not require an unrealistic ideal of researcher neutrality but instead requires teachers to examine their knowledge and to investigate questions systematically.

‘Lad’ research, the reproduction of stereotypes? Ethnographic dilemmas when researching boys from working-class backgrounds

Previous research presented in this journal and elsewhere has suggested that vocational education is highly gender segregated and it is the heavy industrial sectors such as industry, vehicle and construction programmes that mainly attract boys with an anti-school attitude who are not interested in academic school work. However, there are good reasons to also question the reproduction of these stereotypes and how they may operate in relation to youth in education. This article therefore discusses issues connected to carrying out research in settings with a majority of boys from working-class backgrounds. It focuses specifically on methodological questions and possibly hidden forms of methodological bias in ethnographic research as well as the formulation of research questions (turn of gaze) and how these may work in relation to the reproduction or rupture of standard gender stereotypes in education research. The article highlights interviewing individually or in groups, initial encounters and the turn of gaze in ethnography.

An approach for setting evidence-based and stakeholder-informed research priorities in low- and middle-income countries.

To derive evidence-based and stakeholder-informed research priorities for implementation in African settings, the international research consortium Collaboration for Evidence-Based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+) developed and applied a pragmatic approach. First, an online survey and face-to-face consultation between CEBHA+ partners and policy-makers generated priority research areas. Second, evidence maps for these priority research areas identified gaps and related priority research questions. Finally, study protocols were developed for inclusion within a grant proposal. Policy and practice representatives were involved throughout the process. Tuberculosis, diabetes, hypertension and road traffic injuries were selected as priority research areas. Evidence maps covered screening and models of care for diabetes and hypertension, population-level prevention of diabetes and hypertension and their risk factors, and prevention and management of road traffic injuries. Analysis of these maps yielded three priority research questions on hypertension and diabetes and one on road traffic injuries. The four resulting study protocols employ a broad range of primary and secondary research methods; a fifth promotes an integrated methodological approach across all research activities. The CEBHA+ approach, in particular evidence mapping, helped to formulate research questions and study protocols that would be owned by African partners, fill gaps in the evidence base, address policy and practice needs and be feasible given the existing research infrastructure and expertise. The consortium believes that the continuous involvement of decision-makers throughout the research process is an important means of ensuring that studies are relevant to the African context and that findings are rapidly implemented.

5W+1H pattern: A perspective of systematic mapping studies and a case study on cloud software testing

A common type of study used by researchers to map out the landscape of a research topic is known as mapping study. Such a study typically begins with an exploratory search on the possible ideas of the research topic, which is often done in an unsystematic manner. Hence, the activity of formulating research questions in mapping studies is ill-defined, rendering it difficult for researchers who are new to the topic. There is a need to guide them kicking off a mapping study of an unfamiliar domain. This paper proposes a 5W+1H pattern to help investigators systematically examine a generic set of dimensions in a mapping study toward the formulation of research questions before identifying, reading, and analyzing sufficient articles of the topic. We have validated the feasibility of our proposal by conducting a case study of a mapping study on cloud software testing, that is, software testing for and on cloud computing platforms. The case study reveals that the 5W+1H pattern can lead investigators to define a set of systematic, generic, and complementary research questions, enabling them to kick off and expedite the mapping study process in a well-defined manner. We also share our experiences and lessons learned from our case study on the use of the 5W+1H pattern in mapping studies.

Effect of selected social conditions on the health of Slovakians living in the Czech Republic

Current stateThis article focuses on the analysis of selected social conditions of Slovakian immigrants living in the Czech Republic. ObjectiveThe aim of the research was to describe the social situations of Slovakians living in the Czech Republic and to find links between their social situation and personal health. In accordance with the main objective of the research, we formulated research questions related to the concepts of social status, socioeconomic status, language skills and social support. MethodsStructured interviews were used for data collecting. Interviews were transcribed and then coded. The research sample consisted of 16 Slovakian immigrants, 11 women and 5 men. ResultsSlovakians living in the Czech Republic subjectively rated their health as good. Correlations between the subjective perception of health and the selected social conditions have been demonstrated by education and employment status. There was no correlation demonstrated between the subjective perception of health status and knowledge of the Czech language. In addition to this, no correlation has been demonstrated between the social status and the subjective perception of health status. Similarly, no correlation has been demonstrated between social support and one's subjective perception of personal health status. ConclusionResearch has shown that Slovakians living in the Czech Republic feel well and are accepted among the Czechs. They enjoy social support at all levels and are integrated into the Czech society. With respect to the results of this research, it would be useful when conducting further research, to pay attention to how Slovakians living in the Czech Republic perceive themselves, whether they feel themselves as being foreigners or not, and how they are perceived by the Czech citizens. It would be useful to focus further research on the confirmation of the possible correlations between the objective assessment of health status and selected social conditions.

How Does My Research Question Come About? The Impact of Funding Agencies in Formulating Research Questions

It is a widespread claim that the research question should primarily come from a careful literature analysis (Creswell, 2007). Actually, it is basically a good suggestion, mainly for novices, to avoid the mistake of choosing a research method only for ideological reasons, and far from the phenomenon that one is willing to explore. However, this idea does not take into account other complex phenomena involved in constructing a research question. First of all, the epistemological framework, which is never neutral and performs what I am supposed to investigate; second, the kind of funding agency, which has an indisputable impact not only on the ethical - political level, but also on the methodological choices. In this paper I will compare, in the light of the research that I have conducted thus far, the methodological impact of different types of funding agency, particularly on the formulation of the research question itself.

Branded Flash Mobs: Moving Toward a Deeper Understanding of Consumers’ Responses to Video Advertising

Ads are no longer unidirectional or one-dimensional but a blend of offline and online techniques designed to directly interact with the community. For many companies, advertising via online platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo has replaced commercials on television altogether. Recently, branded flash mobs have emerged as a popular form of viral advertising. While many branded flash mobs have experienced millions of YouTube views a metric such as view count does not fully indicate the effectiveness of the ad. This netnographic study evaluates viewers’ attitude toward the ad to better understand the effects of branded flash mobs. After examining 2,882 YouTube comments from three virally successful branded flash mob ads, a typology is developed, referred to as the archetype of consumer attitude matrix, to enable academics to formulate research questions regarding branded flash mobs. These archetypes of consumer attitudes to the online ad, in this case branded flash mobs, aid in the assessment of consumer response based on processing (cognitive versus emotive) and stance (supportive versus antagonistic). This typology also serves as a guide to marketing managers in the use of branded flash mobs in their viral campaigns. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.

A Challenge from Bennett Reimer

Bennett Reimer’s consistent, fifty-year argument for a feelingful aesthetic experience through various venues is at the heart of this review of his work. The experience is cognitive and holistic and can be advanced through better research in curriculum and assessment that supports musical knowing. To further all types of research Reimer established the Center for the Study of Education and Music Experience at Northwestern University. His students, like those of Elliott Eisner in visual arts education, learned to appreciate the difficulty of formulating research questions in aesthetic education. To further his agenda, Reimer used musical intelligences in his philosophy to support the advocacy efforts of the National Association for Music Education.

Induction, Deduction, and Cyclical Movement: A Review of Qualitative Research Methods

In Qualitative Research Methods, Hennink, Hutter, and Bailey (2011) offer readers an overview of every phase of qualitative research from formulating research questions, to participant recruitment, to writing and presenting results. In each of these phases, the authors push readers to continuously move between induction and deduction and embrace the cyclical nature of the qualitative research process.

Reference Desk Employees Need Both Research Knowledge and Technical Skills for Successful Reference Transactions

A Review of:
 Chan, E. K. (2014). Analyzing recorded transactions to extrapolate the required knowledge, skills, and abilities of reference desk providers at an urban, academic/public library. Journal of Library Administration, 54(1), 23-32. doi:10.1080/01920836.2014.893113
 
 Abstract 
 
 Objective – To determine the essential knowledge and skills required by reference positions serving academic and public library patrons.
 
 Design – Data analysis of recorded reference transactions using author-created categories.
 
 Setting – The reference desk of a joint academic and public library in downtown San José, California. 
 
 Subjects – A total of 9,683 in-person and phone reference transactions recorded between August 20 and December 29, 2012.
 
 Methods – All reference transactions recorded in the tracking software Gimlet during the fall 2012 semester were downloaded and analyzed in Excel using 17 author-created reference service categories. Of the original 13,827 transaction entries, 4,135 were eliminated because the actual reference questions, an optional entry in Gimlet, were not recorded. Thus these transactions could not be properly categorized for analysis. 
 Main Results – The most frequently occurred type of reference transaction (16.6%, or 1,607 out of 9,683) out of the 17 categories was assistance for printing, copying, scanning, and wireless network assistance. The next most regularly recorded categories were catalog searching for non-known items (15.0%) and general research (10.9%), which included formulating research questions and selecting the appropriate resources for searching.
 
 When clustering the 17 reference question categories into 4 broader thematic groups, “research-oriented assistance,” including question categories for catalog searching and general research, emerged as the most common question type (31.7%). Technical and equipment assistance (30.8%) was the second most popular category group, followed by facility and policy questions (19.2%), and quick search requests (18.3%). 
 
 Conclusion – The study findings suggest that successful reference desk transactions would require library employees to master research knowledge as well as technical computer and equipment skills.

Toward collaboration sensing

We describe preliminary applications of network analysis techniques to eye-tracking data collected during a collaborative learning activity. This paper makes three contributions: first, we visualize collaborative eye-tracking data as networks, where the nodes of the graph represent fixations and edges represent saccades. We found that those representations can serve as starting points for formulating research questions and hypotheses about collaborative processes. Second, network metrics can be computed to interpret the properties of the graph and find proxies for the quality of students’ collaboration. We found that different characteristics of our graphs correlated with different aspects of students’ collaboration (for instance, the extent to which students reached consensus was associated with the average size of the strongly connected components of the graphs). Third, we used those characteristics to predict the quality of students’ collaboration by feeding those features into a machine-learning algorithm. We found that among the eight dimensions of collaboration that we considered, we were able to roughly predict (using a median-split) students’ quality of collaboration with an accuracy between ~85 and 100 %. We conclude by discussing implications for developing “collaboration-sensing” tools, and comment on implementing this approach for formal learning environments.

Can Social Entrepreneurship Researchers Learn from Family Business Scholarship? A Theory-Based Future Research Agenda

Searching for a balance between social mission and financial viability is a distinguishing feature of social business ventures. This quest might lead to complex challenges and conundrums, similar to those that arise in family businesses composed of closely intertwined systems of ‘family’ and ‘business’. Therefore, we question whether drawing on family business scholarship can help social entrepreneurship researchers move the field forward. Relying on a systems model, we conceptually frame three organizational challenges of social business venture management that can be addressed by insights from the family business literature: aligning multiple stakeholders, achieving competitive advantages and enacting sustainable solutions. To analyse these, we turn to three main theories drawn from family business research – organizational identity theory, resource-based view and stewardship theory. As a result, we formulate research questions relevant for future social entrepreneurship research. By doing so, we hope to offer social entrepreneurship scholars some guiding principles that are grounded on the experience of researchers who have analysed similar circumstances and challenges in other contexts.

The Paradigm of Unity in Prenatal Education and Pedagogy

Abstract The traditional approach to the relation between parents and their prenatal child presents the child as a fetus, a mainly passive recipient of the mother’s vital biological resources. Contemporary prenatal psychology and pedagogy recognizes this relationship in a quite different perspective: the prenatal child is a member of the family and may be seen as an active member of the wider family as a community, extended to grandparents and other relatives. Between parents and their child in the womb exists a reciprocal relationship at a physiological (hormonal), psychological and spiritual level. The prenatal child communicates with the parents in different ways and reacts to their stimulation (acoustic, tactile, loco-motoric, chemo-receptive, thermo-receptive, and emotional). This dialogue of the parents and their prenatal child enriches each member of the family community. In this sense, the prenatal child is a gift and a challenge for the parents to develop their personality, social competences and spiritual life. The reflections presented in this paper fit the conception of the paradigm of unity applied into the area of prenatal education and prenatal pedagogy as a new pedagogical subdisciline. The concept of paradigm in the philosophy of science was introduced by T. Kuhn (1962). In his understanding, paradigm means a mental breakthrough in the way of ujmowaniu/describing/approaching the subject of study, and/or in the research methods used, but above all in the theoretical and systemic vision of reality, which is the basis for formulating research questions and hypotheses, operationalising the research procedure, analyzing the obtained research results and a theoretical interpretation of these results. To Kuhn, a paradigm may be understood in such way only in the natural sciences, when new visions of the studied natural reality appear. This is accompanied by a mental change in the cognitive schema itself of understanding reality not only for the creator of this vision, but also in its/his/her broader scientific environment. Kuhn considered the most eminent example of such appearing paradigm in the history of science to be the Copernican revolution, thanks to which the view on the world of nature surrounding the human being has completely changed and there was a mental breakthrough in the 15th and 16th century not only in the area of science, but also in the worldview of people of those times, for whom the world has become more open and broad. Kuhn, however, did not consider a paradigm to be a methodological concept in the humanities or social sciences. He was of the opinion that they must first mature more and make their methodological status more precise if one wishes to talk about a paradigm in these sciences. A scientific event that gave an occasion to reflect on the possibility of introducing the concept of paradigm into social sciences was the occasion of granting the title of doctor honoris causa in the field of social sciences by the Catholic University of Lublin to Chiara Lubich. The Focolare movement, also called The Movement of Unity, founded and led by her, introduced, a new approach to the area of human relations at every level (interpersonal, family, local society, economic relations, intra- and inter-denominational dialogue). The arguments for granting the title included the fact that the practical activity of Ch. Lubich in various areas of social integration may be described as a Copernican revolution in the cultural-religious relations, and even in social-economical ones, according to the new paradigm, understood practically, which may be called a paradigm of unity. It was stressed that these activities may play a serious/significant inspiring role in the methodological reflections on the paradigm of unity in the social sciences (Biela, 1996). Such reflections were actually brought up first generally in the social sciences (Biela, 2006), and then within the methodology of psychology (Biela, 2009) and education (Kozubek, 2009). At present, one may consider introducing this paradigm into prenatal education and pedagogy.