Developing Problem, Purpose, Questions, and Framework Alignment in a Dissertatio - Paperback

by Paula Dawidowicz (Author)

One of the hardest things for faculty to teach aspiring researchers is the basic concepts involved in research conceptualization and design. In this volume, Dawidowicz discusses the relationship between social problems and research problems and the nature of research problems. She covers in depth the relationship between research problems and research purposes, including how to handle research problems that appear too small or too large to be easily evaluated through research studies. She tackles in detail how research purposes relate to research questions and frameworks, as well as how to identify frameworks and the impact they have on deciding how frameworks will guide study choices. Then she describes how research studies conceptualized as quantitative or qualitative can be reconceptualized as using the opposite method. Her thorough descriptions and use of real time examples allow students to internalize both concepts and how those concepts look as they are actually applied. Through this process, instructors can help students understand more clearly each component and its interaction with each of the others. This can make the instructional process faster and more effective, saving instructors time and effort and making students' outcomes stronger in a shorter time and with less effort than instructors might normally need to invest.

Author Biography

Dr. Paula Dawidowicz has been conducting research for over 30 years-conducting numerous qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies during the last 20 years and analyzing research data for 10 years more than that. She's been instructing students on original research conceptualization and methods development for over 10 years. Currently, she helps students understand how to develop and construct the chapters of their dissertations, as well as how to construct strong methodologies and designs. She's been instructing teachers and providing teaching resources for instructors working with students on research conceptualization and development. She's developed a series of presentations and documents that assist instructors with teaching their students critical and systems thinking, argumentation, research argument construction, and research design. She has degrees in international affairs, business and health administration, education and online instructional design, and psychology from George Washington University, Central Michigan University, and Walden University. She has experience with the government, military, technical editing, health care management, and high school and college teaching. As a result, she develops her materials to be flexible enough for use with any discipline or specialization on which a student might focus. She's begun a blog on research challenge points at https: //paulaspearlsblog.wordpress.com/ and has begun offering a series of online seminars to assist students with development of critical and systems thinking and with dissertation development. She is available for consultations and seminars. She can be reached at pauladawidowicz@att.net