How you will approach the research process

Once you have chosen your research topic or problem, you will need to decide how you will approach the research process – by formulating a hypothesis or developing a research question.

You might be asking.What are research questions and research hypotheses? Research questions/hypotheses are the foundation for carrying out any research study.

Research Questions are concise,focused and debatable questions that produced a clear path for research.

They are used to analyze and investigate a topic.

It is written as a question and is inquisitive in nature.

A properly written question will be clear and concise. It should contain the topic being studied (purpose), the variable(s), and the population.

Three main types of questions:

Causal Questions – Compares two or more phenomena and determines if a relationship exists. Often called relationship research questions.

Example: * What is the effect of tutoring on student's GPA?

Descriptive Questions – Seek to describe a phenomena and often study “how much”, “how often”, or “what is the change”.

Example: * How often do college-aged students use Twitter?

Comparative Questions – Aim to examine the difference between two or more groups in relation to one or more variables. The questions often begin with “What is the difference in...”. 

Example: What is the difference in caloric intake of  secondary school girls and boys?

The type of research question will influence the research design.

So,research questions should:

*relate to the research literature and a problem/issue to be solved.
*Serves to provide an overall focus the study - it is the study's goal.
*Leads into specific, testable hypotheses.

Hypotheses are formal statements that predicts the relationship between two or more variables.

If hypotheses are used, there are two basic forms:

A null hypothesis, which makes a prediction that in the general population, no relationship or no difference exists between groups on a variable.

Examples of null hypotheses:

*There is no significant difference between the effects of motivation  and  academic achievement of  senior secondary school  students in Mathematics.

The alternative hypothesis. The investigator makes a prediction about the expected result for the population of the study. These predictions comes from relevant literature and may be: directional (e.g., ‘higher’, ‘lower’, ‘more’, or ‘less’) and non-directional (“There is a difference” between)

Examples of alternative hypotheses:
* Time spent studying is positively correlated with students' grades(directional).

*The more time a student spends studying for a test  and the grade the student will receive does not relate(non-directional)

Which should you use then?

Let's examined some of the debate on the use of research questions & hypotheses

*Certain scholars said, It's better to use both.

*Some scholars said it redundant using both.

*Some scholars are of the opinion that it really depend on your level of certainty and the amount of research available on your topic.

* Use a hypothesis when a body of research has been established and you have a high degree of certainty about the relationship between variables.

*Use a research for exploratory research into novel areas,when little research exists,or when the relationship between variables is ambiguous.

Still some suggest you  frame null hypotheses if you will checking them statistically or your research is quantitative in nature.

According to Muhammad Waleed Darawad, "We have this debate very often... The final conclusion was to use research questions in descriptive studies, and research hypothesis in experimental studies".

The above assertions are further supported by Prasad,Rao and Rehani(2001).
*In qualitative research design,The use of research questions is used more often.

*In quantitative research design.
For survey,research question & objectives are more often, while

For experimental  studies,the use of hypotheses is more common.

In  Summary,

*In your qualitative study, develop research questions, not hypotheses (i.e., predictions to be tested).

*In your quantitative study, use research questions and(or) hypotheses to shape and specifically focus the purpose of the study. Research hypotheses are numeric estimates of population values based on data collected from samples. Hypotheses are tested through statistical procedures in which inferences are drawn about the population from the study sample.

Thanks.