Strategies to help students conceptualise their research projects

A typical research trajectory involves five interrelated stages: conceptualisation, design, implementation, analysis and communication. The seed of every research project, conceptualisation, helps with its originality, rigour and significance. Without proper conceptualisation, research could lack a solid foundation and students may struggle to navigate the subsequent stages effectively. Worse still, poor conceptualisation means students may end up working on boring, dogmatic, formalistic and unsurprising topics.

However, this stage is also one of the most challenging parts to teach those who are new to research. Here are several useful strategies that I have been using to help my undergraduate and postgraduate students kick-start their very first projects in my “introduction to research methodology” course.

Exploring interests and passions

I always invite my students to start by reflecting on their interests and hobbies. This allows them to consider topics that genuinely intrigue them and that they feel curious about and motivated to explore further. A good exercise involves coming up with a list of keywords and phrases that capture the essence of each topic. For each topic, they can delve a bit deeper to identify some specific aspects that they find fascinating. The purpose of this is to have students generate a wide range of possibilities for enquiry.

Reading extensively and deeply for inspiration

The more students read, the more insights they can acquire for their research. Given their limited amount of time, a good starting point is to skim through the introduction and conclusion of selected research articles and book chapters, which can offer a sense of the scope and contribution of the study as well as gaps and limitations. 

Another useful exercise is for students to consider some recently published meta-analyses and systematic and scoping reviews, which provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge in the field. Students could also review their theoretical readings and course content from throughout their studies, which can reveal some burning questions to address.

• Resource collection: Research excellence: what is it and how can universities achieve it?
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• How to successfully develop and run interdisciplinary research teams

Problematising and disrupting taken-for-granted matters

Students need to wrestle with theories, explanations, assumptions and variables that people have begun to treat as “common sense”. They need to problematise the assumptions or findings emerging from the status quo. To help them, ask them to share the big theories and concepts that they have learned in class. Ask them to recall the underlying assumptions of these theories and concepts, or consider the research findings that build on these theories and concepts. Then ask them to think critically and reflectively about flaws and limitations in design and results, the biases and assumptions embedded in the research and the real-life observations that differ from these theoretical or empirical findings.

It’s also a good idea to encourage students to consider how other disciplines might fit into their research. For example, if they are doing political science, they can consider research from fields such as the arts, business, law or science, to enrich their ideas.

Thinking of the potential research impacts

My view is that any good piece of research should always reach beyond academia into the real world, so I always invite my students to frame their research’s impact on multiple dimensions. One of the frameworks I have introduced to them is the one proposed by Professor Mark Reed, which captures 10 types of impacts, namely understanding and awareness; attitudinal; economic; environmental; health and well-being policy; policy; decision-making and behaviour; cultural; social impacts and capacity or preparedness. To use this framework, I go through each of the impacts one by one, highlighting what each of them means and offering some guiding questions for each of them. Then I give some real-life examples and research studies that show the links between these impacts. After that, I ask them to think about their proposed questions and write several bullet points based on these.

Proposing a list of sample discussion topics

From time to time, I like to share a list of “bad” sample research topics for class discussion.  I label them as such because they are poorly articulated, broadly framed, technically unarguable and socially insignificant. My intention is to use authentic examples to initiate a discussion on how to better improve and refine these research topics. Students can actively share their perspectives, offer suggestions and, most crucially, learn from each other. I can also offer them timely feedback and constructive comments during the class.

Thinking about framing questions

In general, an ideal research question should remain balanced in focus and include a problem aspect shaped by what you want to know, a conceptual aspect of the theoretical notions that are addressed, a contextual aspect that specifies the participants and contexts of concern and a methodological aspect related to the research approach. I encourage students to break down their thinking into these four aspects when planning their research.

Exploring criteria for strong research questions

Although the following criteria sound general, they are still crucial for students to self-evaluate their questions when they are brainstorming and planning: 

• Focused on a single problem or issue 
• Researchable using relevant and credible sources
• Feasible to answer within practical constraints
• Specific and well-defined to answer thoroughly
• Complex and arguable for a sophisticated analysis
• Relevant and original with contribution.

Students can use the criteria to cross-check their research questions and justify and refine them accordingly. 

Challenging student thinking with critiques

To push students to think more deeply and critically about their research questions, I often use question words such as “how”, “why”, “what if” and “so what”. For “how”, students need to articulate the intricate and practical processes, mechanisms and methods. For “why”, students need to uncover the reasons and causes. For “what if”, students must engage in hypothetical thinking and consider alternative possibilities. For “so what”, students must consider the significance, relevance or implications. All these can allow them to delve deeper into their research questions.

Poorly conceived or constructed research questions can easily lead to problems that affect all subsequent stages of a study. Therefore, it is important to employ strategies to help students learn how to conceptualise their research projects well.

Adrian Man-Ho Lam is a course tutor in the department of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.

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