Quality social work research is born from relevant and important questions. It is our curiosity that moves our profession forward. Whether we are trying to answer big questions about human behavior or simply trying to tweak a specific program at our agency, it is our desire to know more and do more that propels us into action.
The Research Questions Exercise is designed to get you thinking about the questions you have and the insights you want to discover. After reviewing the powerpoint entitled,” Developing Research Questions,” take a few minutes to look over the provided worksheet. This worksheet will help guide you through the process of developing workable and meaningful research questions.
In each of the spaces provided, type or write in your answers to the questions. As you move down the worksheet, you should move from broad and general, to more targeted and specific ideas as to what you want to know. I certainly understand that this may be your first time developing research questions, so just give it your best shot. We’ll actually be revisiting these over the course of the term as we cover additional material. So, the more effort you put into these on the front end, the better positioned you’ll be for future assignments. Again, just do your best.
For this assignment, you’ll compose three distinct research questions (meaning you’ll complete and submit three separate worksheets-one for each question). If you have broad interests, you may choose to have three very different research questions. If you are extremely passionate about one particular topic, you could develop three questions on that topic, but be sure that the questions are different enough from each other that you are not just asking the same question in three different ways. Once you have completed the three worksheets and have developed your three research questions, you’ll submit them via Canvas. You can submit them as a Word document that you have typed into or you can submit scanned PDFs that you have written in. Either is fine, so do what work best for you.
As for the questions themselves, you can create you questions about any topic or issue that you are interested in. These questions can all relate to one topic, or they can all be totally different from one another. That will be up to you and how you want to use this exercise to further develop your knowledge. Be sure to use the provided worksheet to guide you through the process of developing your questions. We’ll be using these questions throughout the term, so be sure to make your best effort as this will make subsequent exercises easier as we move forward.
I will attach the actaul question sheet and another sheet for help
Questions:
Research Question Exercise Worksheet
What is an issue or topic that you interested in?
Who are the individuals, groups, populations, or communities that are affected by this issue?
What do you know about the issue and what do you not know about the issue?
Based on what you know and what you do not know, what are the possible areas to explore?
Which one of these areas provides the best opportunity to expand your knowledge?
What is a potential research question that could help you get the answers you want?
