What are examples of research questions? This article lists 8 illustrative examples of research questions.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Well-written research questions determine how the entire research process will proceed.
To effectively write the statement of your thesis’s problem, you will need to remember certain principles that will guide you in framing those critical questions.
This article features some examples of research questions.
There are already many literature pieces written on how to write the research questions required to investigate a phenomenon. But how are the research questions framed in actual situations? How do you write the research questions?
The intention of the research activity should guide all research activities. Once this is clearly defined, the research has three primary outcomes.
The next sections discuss these three principles of framing research questions in more detail.
Intention of Writing Research Questions
You will need to remember specific rules and principles on how to go about writing the research questions. Before you write the research questions, discern what you intend to arrive at in your research.
What are your aims, and what are your expected research outcomes? Do you intend to describe something, determine differences, or explain the causes of a phenomenon?
Research has at least three essential research outcomes. These are described below, along with examples of research questions for each outcome.
Three Primary Research Outcomes
In quantitative research, there are at least three basic research outcomes that will arise in writing the research questions. These are
- come up with a description,
- determine differences between variables, and
- find out correlations between variables.
Research Outcome Number 1. Come up with a description.
The outcome of your research question may be as a description. The description contextualizes the situation, explains something about the subjects or respondents of the study. It also provides the reader with an overview of your research.
For instance, the school administrator might want to study a group of teachers in a school to help improve the school’s performance in the licensure examinations. The school has been lagging in their ranking and there is a need to identify training needs to make the teachers more effective.
Specifically, the administrator would like to find out the composition of teachers in that school, find out how much time they spend in preparing their lessons, and what teaching styles they use in managing the teaching-learning process.
Below are examples of research questions for Research Outcome Number 1 on research about this hypothetical study.
3 Examples of Research Questions That Entail Description
- What is the demographic profile of the teachers in terms of age, gender, educational attainment, civil status, and number of training attended?
- How much time do teachers devote to preparing their lessons?
- What teaching styles are used by teachers in managing their students?
The expected outcomes of the example research questions above will be a description of the teachers’ demographic profile, a range of time devoted to preparing their lessons, and a description of the teachers’ teaching styles.
These research outcomes show tables and graphs with accompanying highlights of the findings. Highlights are those interesting trends or dramatic results that need attention, such as very few training provided to teachers.
Armed with information derived from such research, the administrator can then undertake measures to enhance the teachers’ performance. A hit-and-miss approach is avoided. Thus, the intervention becomes more effective than issuing memos to correct the situation without systematic study.
Research Outcome Number 2. Determine differences between variables.
To write research questions that integrate the variables of the study, you should be able to define what is a variable. If this term is already quite familiar to you, and you are confident in your understanding, you may read the rest of this post.
Check this out: What are examples of variables in research?
For example, you might want to find out the differences between groups in a selected variable in your study. Say you would like to know if there is a significant difference in long quiz scores (the variable you are interested in) between students who study at night and students who study early in the morning.
You may frame your research questions thus:
2 Examples of Research Questions to Determine Difference
Non-directional
- Is there a significant difference in long quiz score between students who study early in the morning and students who study at night?
Directional
- Are the quiz scores of students who study early in the morning higher than those who study at night?
The first example research question intends to determine if a difference exists in long quiz scores between students who study at night and those who study early in the morning, hence are non-directional. The aim is just to find out if there is a significant difference. A two-tailed t-test will show if a difference exists.
The second research question aims to determine if students who study in the morning have better quiz scores than what the literature review suggests. Thus, the latter is directional.
Research Outcome Number 3. Find out correlations or relationships between variables.
The outcome of research questions in this category will be to explain correlations or causality. Below are examples of research questions that aim to determine correlations or relationships between variables using a combination of the variables mentioned in research outcome numbers 1 and 2.
3 Examples of Research Questions That Imply Correlation Analysis
- Is there a significant relationship between teaching style and the long quiz score of students?
- Is there a significant association between the student’s long quiz score and the teacher’s 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?
Note that in all the preceding examples of research questions, the conceptual framework integrates the study variables. Therefore, research questions must always incorporate the variables in them so that the researcher can describe, find differences, or correlate them with each other.
Be more familiar with the conceptual framework: Conceptual Framework: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Make One
If you find this helpful, take the time to share this with your peers to discover new and exciting things along with their fields of interest.
© 2012 October 22 P. A. Regoniel; Updated 01/11/24
Please can you start a research question with Do” example;- Do they purchase because of the celebrity?
Do they purchase because of the brand?
Omi, asking the question is just okay. However, the convention is to state in a way that will facilitate the formulation of the hypothesis. In your question, preference branded and non-branded products is the research focus. Hence, the question would ideally be: Is there a significant difference between sales of branded and non-branded products?
Dear Wilbroad,
I believe your topic is a good one. Just have measurable indicators for transparency and accountability as well as business enterprise performance.
Thank you for visiting simplyeducate.me
Hi
Am trying to start a research and my proposed topic is;;the effect of transparency and accountability on performance of medium and large enterprises.let me know would this be a good topic for my research sir?
Dear Santana, you need to define the term “collaboration.” How can you assess it? Are there indicators of collaboration? Reading the literature will help you.
Dear Athena, find a need and see how your knowledge in accounting could be put to good use.
Hello, I am having difficulty structuring my research question, I was wondering if you could give me some help. The question that I have been working with so far is ‘What are post-primary teachers’ perceptions of teacher collaboration’? The sub-questions to this question include; Are teachers collaborating in school. How are they collaborating? What factors support or inhibit collaboration among post-primary teachers? and How important is school leadership in supporting and facilitating a collaborative culture?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hallow Sir, I’m in South Africa, I wish to do a research on the so called , fees must fall, a calling made by South African University students which led to riots and unrests. How do I phrase my research question with good variables.
Dear Bhekizenzo, you need to write your objectives first. What outcome would you want out of your study.
You are doing a great job sir and your articles are quite helpful. Please help see to this dissertation topic : Influence of Teachers attitude, intellectual capacity and experience on students academic achievement. Also, help with theoretical and conceptual framework. Thanks in anticipation.
My topic is student school engagement and emotional engagement as a correlate of academic achievement: what will be the research question.
My topic is student school engagement and emotional engagement a correlate of academic achievement of a state
That seems alright Rut. Just review the literature to strengthen your framework.
hello sir!
i have my research regarding the facilitative learning style to raise the students’ academic performance and i want to know if there is a need for me to narrow down my topic ? Secondly, can you suggest research questions on this topic? thank you so much. 😉
Dear Nilanke, the way I see it, you need not study that question. Indeed if there is advertising, people will be aware about a product and there is a greater chance that people will buy that product. Find other questions that are not easily answered or require a systematic approach to obtain answers.
Hello , your article was an interesting read. thank you
We have to design a research question which is related to business.
e.g. does business investment on advertising actually contribute toward customer awarness and lead to business profitability . is this is a suitable one?
Dear Fritz, you are relating perception and length of education of women. What particular perception would your like to look into? Is it that they are in favor or not in favor? You need to be specific.
Hi sir I greatly appreciate your work to humanity.I Wish you help me came out with a good research topic Muslim indigenous communities and their perceptions toward girl child long stay in school.Futhering education to post secondary
Hello I nid help here cn u pliz hlp me to come up with a research problem in dis topic;engaging and empowering youth through government programs like;youth fund,national heritage,sports nd recreation and others also the literature review nd theories related to it…thanks
Dear Thato, your request needs considerable time. Use Google Scholar and look for information using keywords like youth empowerment. That keyword will show you some relevant studies you can read and understand.
Dear Rhonda, indeed homework improves academic achievement. I think your research topic is focused.
Hi
What a cool forum! I want to design a research study on the benefits of homework in increasing engagement and academic levels in primary schools..would this topic need refining or narrowing down further??
Thank you..
Hi!.. I am a teacher. Can you please help me to come up with topics that I can use for my research paper?.. It will be of great help if the topic is related to grade school pupils.
A heartfelt thank you!
Neri
Dear Neri, well you can start with the topics I have written for education researchers: https://simplyeducate.me/wordpress_Y/2013/07/30/four-examples-of-research-topics-on-education/