Study Design Proposal
- Develop a problem statement and a research question that you would like to answer through mixed methods research.
- State the problem to be solved: Use personal thoughts and observations, readings from your other courses, or stories from media sources that you follow regularly.
- State your research question: Look for inconsistencies and gaps in existing knowledge and prior research; analyze personal experiences and ask how they can be improved.
- Explain the rationale for your research question.
- Specifically, discuss the state of the art (i.e. previous work) and explain why, despite/because of the literature and /or current knowledge, there remains: confusion, misunderstanding, errors, or some unresolved problem. Therefore, answer, why is it an important question?
- What types of data would you need to answer the question? (Primary data)
- List all of the data collection methods you plan to use to answer the question.
- Provide the rationale for choosing each data collection method. Then, explain how these methods will help you obtain necessary evidence to answer the question.
- What data are available? (Secondary data)
- Identify the secondary sources of data for addressing your research question.
- Provides samples of secondary data (attach them as an appendix as the end of the paper). If no secondary data are available, (1) describe your effort to find any available data and (2) provide justification why currently available datasets do not provide the kind of answers you are looking for.
- State the essence of your contribution.
- What would be the implication/ significance/ benefits of the study that would try to address the question? Provide some confidence to the reader that she will learn something if the reader reads the findings of the study you are proposing.
- Considerations.
- State the ethical considerations that would influence this study. Additionally, state the administrative, financial, political, or any other considerations that would shape or influence this study.
- For citations, use APA style, at least 750 words.
- You should be able to apply the 5 ‘W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why) to the problem statement.
- A problem statement can be refined as you start to further investigate root cause.
- Finally, review your new problem statement against the following criteria:
- It should focus on only the problem.
- It should be one or two sentences long.
- It should not suggest a solution.
Study Design Proposal