Identifying a Research Problem

In doing research, the first thing a researcher does identify and clearly define the problem to be
studied. If the researcher cannot pinpoint a problem, he/she cannot expect others to understand what
problem he wants to solve.

Initially, a research problem is stated in a form of a question, which serves as the focus of
investigation.

Listed below are some examples of possible research questions.

1. What problems do children of separated parents encounter and how do the children cope with
these problems?
2. What goes on in a government office in a typical week? Or How do government employees
spend typical day in office?
3. Do mothers who have attended health education classes have better health care management
practices that those who are not?
4. Does TV viewing affect child’s school performance?
5. Will training managers of cooperatives in financial management improve the financial control
system of cooperatives?
6. Have there changes in the portrayal of men and women in commercial advertisements in the
last five years?
7. What are the perceptions of college students regarding the granting of emergency powers to
the president in times of crisis?
8. To what extent do the students use the internet?
9. Does the students’ use the internet affect their performance in school?

While a problem is initiating force of research, not all problems require research. A potential
researchable problem exists when the following conditions are present (Fisher, et, al., 1991):

a) There is a perceived discrepancy between what is and what should be.

b) There are two or more plausible reasons for the discrepancy.
These may be an existing difficult or disturbing situation, but if this condition is expected to happen,
because of known circumstances, then the problem is not researchable. Even if there is discrepancy
between what is and what should be, because the causes of the discrepancy are known at this
particular time, there is no need to conduct research anymore.

Example of a Non-researchable Problem

Situation: Despite of free tuition, many high school students in a public high school in
Province X have dropped out. Records shown that more than 50% of the
students are already dropped out before the middle of the school year (What is)

What should be: Students are expected to finish high school because it is free. They should not
drop out (What should be). On the contrary, a big number of students drop out
(Discrepancy)

Research Question: why do students drop out? What factors contribute to the high drop out rate?

Possible Answer: Fear of being caught in crossfire between military and rebel groups.

Comment: There have been violent encounters between the military and rebel groups and
many civilians have been caught in the cross fire. It seems clear that the
dropping out of the students is due to the armed encounters in the area. If they
go to school, they might die, so parents keep them out of school until the peace
and order situation in area returns to normal.