Designing an internationally
publishable research study
Richard Watson Todd
KMUTT
What is research?
• Research is an attempt to understand
something better through the systematic
and formal collection and analysis of
empirical data.
– Shanahan (2002)
What is research?
• Research is an attempt to understand
something better through the systematic
and formal collection and analysis of
empirical data.
– Shanahan (2002)
Research does not try to prove
something
For internationally publishable research,
the audience should be motivated to
want to understand the “something”
What is research?
• Research is an attempt to understand
something better through the systematic
and formal collection and analysis of
empirical data.
– Shanahan (2002)
The collection and analysis needs to be
grounded in theory
What is research?
• Research is an attempt to understand
something better through the systematic
and formal collection and analysis of
empirical data.
– Shanahan (2002)
The research needs to be rigorous
What are your research ideas?
Key issues
• You want to investigate how assigning roles in
groupwork promotes meaningful interaction between
students
• You cannot make a prediction if you don’t know why
something happens
• You cannot know why something happens if you don’t
know what is happening
• Description
• Explanation
• Prediction
Key issues
• You want to investigate the extent to which
there is meaningful interaction between
students in groupwork
• What terms need defining and
operationalising?
Key issues
• You want to investigate the extent to which
there is meaningful interaction between
students in groupwork
• What terms need defining and
operationalising?
What is meant by ‘interaction’? Should non-verbal
interaction be included?
Key issues
• You want to investigate the extent to which
there is meaningful interaction between
students in groupwork
• What terms need defining and
operationalising?
How can “meaningful interaction” be
identified? What makes interaction
meaningful?
http://arts.kmutt.ac.th/books/main.asp
Key issues
• You want to investigate the extent to which
there is meaningful interaction between
students in groupwork
• What framework to use?
– Previous research into groupwork
– Previous research using video recordings
– Previous research into interaction
http://arts.kmutt.ac.th/crs/rmd/home.php
Groupwork
http://arts.kmutt.ac.th/crs/rmd/home.php
Video recordings
http://arts.kmutt.ac.th/crs/rmd/home.php
Interaction
Key issues
• What theoretical framework to use?
– Previous research into groupwork:
• Coded interaction analysis
• Discourse function analysis
– Previous research using video recordings
• Conversation analysis
• Categorical function analysis
– Previous research into interaction
• LRE (language-related episode) analysis
• Conversation analysis
Strengthening research ideas
• Building on traditional research
approaches to provide insights or rigour
• 3 cases
Case 1: Teaching method
evaluation
• Traditional: Pre- and post-test on a
teaching method
• Problems
– How does this lead to understanding?
– Why should others be interested?
– Where’s the explanation?
Case 1: Teaching method
evaluation
• Investigation of effectiveness of data-Driven
Learning (DDL): use of concordances to improve
writing
• For a word in their writing, students generate
concordance lines, identify patterns of use, apply
these to their writing
• What types of words is DDL effective for?
– Parts of speech
– Polysemy
– Variation in possible patterns
Case 2: Interviews on attitudes and
beliefs
• Traditional: conduct interviews, group
responses into themes intuitively
• Problems
– Themes reflect interview questions
– Lack of rigour
Case 2: Interviews on attitudes and
beliefs
• Investigation of long-term changes after
curriculum innovation
• Teachers interviewed with course outlines
(changes over 4 years) as stimulus
• Interviews conducted using active listening
• Themes identified from frequency
list/keyword analysis
Case 3: Attitude survey
• Traditional: distribute rating-scale
questionnaires, calculate means for
questions
• Problems
– Validity of the responses
– Perceptions, not behaviours
Case 3: Attitude survey
• Survey of Thai students’ attitudes to
native-English-speaking teachers (NESTs)
and non-NESTs
• 2 surveys focusing on different issues:
– Stated preference
– Level of comfort
• Implicit Association Test for unconscious
attitudes
Summary
• Internationally publishable research needs to
–
–
–
–
–
Improve understanding of an issue
Be relevant to the audience
Be grounded in theory
Be rigorous
Consider the Description – Explanation – Prediction
sequence
– Have clearly and thoughtfully operationalised
variables