I. Introduction
What is a research topic?
Topics can usually be understood as problems, but not all problems can be used as research topics. As a research topic, the problem must have the following characteristics: (1) belongs to the field of educational science, and its solution can promote the development of educational science. (2) It must have certain universal significance. If we are talking about individual phenomena, we can't take it as a research topic. For example, "How to cultivate Li Si's good study habits" reflects specific and individual phenomena, so it cannot be used as a research topic. (3) There must be a clear and centralized research scope and tasks. If the research scope is too large and the task is not clear, it is not suitable as a research topic. Such as "How to improve the English level of middle school students". (4) It must be solvable. The problems raised can be solved through a certain period of research. For example, "how to improve the social status of teachers" is of universal significance, but no matter how to study it, it is impossible to solve it. It can be seen that the so-called research topic refers to a problem with universal significance that has a clear and concentrated research scope and task in the field of educational science and can be solved through research.
Second, the premise and matters needing attention of choosing research topics
(A) the premise
Broadly speaking, the choice of research topics includes two aspects: determining the research direction and choosing specific research topics. The so-called research direction is the working direction of researchers engaged in research activities in a long period of time. It stipulates the research fields and contents of researchers for a period of time. It is very necessary for researchers to have a relatively stable direction for a period of time, so that the research work can be continuous and cumulative, and it can be a clue and scope for choosing specific research topics. Therefore, it is a very important strategic choice to choose the appropriate research direction and topic.
(2) Precautions
1. Choose your topic carefully.
This is based on two reasons: First, selecting a topic is the first step to carry out educational research. The quality of topic selection is directly related to the smooth development of research work. Second, the topic selection is one of the most complicated tasks in scientific research, and there is no room for carelessness and rashness. Therefore, every researcher must fully understand the importance of topic selection and spend enough time and energy to carefully select the topic.
2. Choose the topic from reality.
For researchers with teaching experience, their familiarity with educational reality must be considered when selecting topics. If you have been a middle school teacher, you have rich practical experience in education and teaching, and you know the contradictions in education and teaching best. If you can choose a topic from educational practice, you can give full play to your strengths and be conducive to the smooth development of research.
Don't innovate just to keep up with the fashion.
Novelty is a principle of choosing a topic, but it must be clear that the phenomenon of blindly seeking novelty in order to follow the fashion is a misinterpretation of novelty. In fact, as long as researchers can use new research methods and analyze problems from a new angle, they can re-study some old topics and may draw new conclusions. This is not contradictory to novelty. Blindly seeking innovation often gives up important issues.
4. The project operation time should be moderate.
The research time should generally be controlled within six months to one year. In this way, researchers will be more interested and focused, and research results will be produced faster. If the research time is long, such as 5 to 10 years, it is likely to make researchers feel bored and tired. However, if the research time is too short, such as 2-3 months, it is often impossible to complete the research topic, and the research will lose its value, resulting in a waste of human, material and financial resources.
Third, choose the way of research topic.
Choosing a research topic is often understood as a pattern: you provide several topics, and I choose one from them. This kind of "accept everything according to the order" topic is highly praised by some people because of its simplicity. But its limitation is that the selected topics are often not suitable for you. Because everyone's educational practice is not exactly the same, they may think from different angles. This kind of "a la carte" topic selection is not the way we advocate.
We advocate vertical and horizontal topic selection.
(A) vertical topic selection
It mainly includes the following two steps:
1. Determine the research scope.
The subject mainly comes from educational practice and covers a wide range. If you blindly choose a topic from it, it is tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, the first step of selecting a topic is to determine the research scope. For example, you can define the education of underachievers, ideological and moral education and educational evaluation as your own research scope.
When determining the scope of research, we should not blindly seek "big", especially for those who are conducting research for the first time, we should start with "small". When you really start learning, you will feel that the "small" problem is not small. For example, "How to effectively remember English words" is a small research scope, but it also contains many different research questions, such as "the memory effect of different memory methods", "the memory differences of different learners" and "the influence of repetition frequency on memory effect" and so on. It will be very difficult if we can thoroughly study one of these problems. So, how should researchers determine their own research scope?
Interest is the best teacher, it will inspire you to have strong motivation, it will encourage you to go on and eventually contribute to your success. If you are not interested, you will become bored and lazy, and you will feel that you are simply wasting your time. Research will often have little effect or even give up halfway.
Ask questions.
Determining the research scope is equivalent to determining the research direction. The "guerrilla-style" research method is not desirable, which will only lead to our superficial research on every subject, which is not conducive to the improvement of our academic level and research ability. Therefore, every researcher should determine his own research direction as soon as possible, and then put forward his own research topic under the guidance of the research direction.
Being able to ask a question with research value is a great achievement in itself, which shows that you have thought about this question and you are creating spiritual wealth for mankind. As Einstein said: "It is often more important to ask a question than to solve a problem, because solving a problem may be just a mathematical or experimental skill." Putting forward new problems, new possibilities and looking at old problems from a new perspective require creative imagination, which marks the real progress of science. "So what should researchers do to ask valuable questions?
The premise of raising valuable research questions is to stand at the forefront of this research field. This requires researchers to consult relevant literature to understand what previous studies have been done, what research methods have been used and what conclusions have been drawn; Whether these conclusions are consistent, and if not, to what extent; What other aspects have not been studied or have not been studied deeply enough? What other aspects need to be studied repeatedly, because you questioned a conclusion and so on. In short, it is absolutely impossible to raise valuable research questions without a lot of reading and in-depth thinking.
(2) horizontal topic selection
Mainly includes the following four aspects:
1. Selected topics in educational science practice and real life.
Most of the research topics from educational practice and real life belong to applied research. Once this research topic is successful, it can directly serve educational practice and real life, thus reflecting the potential value of this research.
2. Choose a topic in a theoretical field.
First of all, the researcher chooses the corresponding topic to prove a certain theoretical point of view of others or himself. Secondly, choose the topic according to the differences of different theoretical viewpoints. Thirdly, by questioning the existing theories and viewpoints, the research questions are put forward.
3. Choose a theme during the research.
First of all, with the continuous progress of research, especially the in-depth thinking of researchers, many new topics related to the research topics at that time often appear. These studies are not only in line with their own interests, but also urgent problems to be solved in current scientific theory and practice. Secondly, in the process of research, sometimes we accidentally find new phenomena that have nothing to do with the research problem. Usually, these accidental discoveries are of great value and deserve further study.
4. Choose topics according to the new development of science.
Researchers either choose research topics according to the new progress of modern scientific methods and research technology, or choose topics in the blank fields generated by interdisciplinary research.
Fourth, the argument topic
Vertical includes horizontal, because after determining the research direction, researchers can put forward several topics suitable for them at the same time; The horizontal direction obviously also contains vertical components. Whether the vertically or horizontally selected topics can be used for research remains to be demonstrated from many angles:
1. Is the question suitable for research? That is, do you have some basic characteristics that a research topic should have?
2. Is the question worth studying? This should consider two aspects: (1) the necessity of the problem, that is to say, researchers should choose the problems that need to be solved urgently in educational practice or educational theory. Undoubtedly, once such a subject is successfully studied, it can effectively improve the quality of teaching, promote educational reform and promote educational development. For example, "How to stimulate students' learning motivation in English class" and "How to effectively implement grammar teaching in quality education". (2) the novelty of the problem, that is, the selected research topic has not been studied by others before; Or although someone has studied it, you are studying it from a new perspective; Or it has been put forward, but it is still pending. The task of educational research is to reveal the scientific laws that predecessors did not fully understand, and discovering new laws is the highest realm pursued by educational researchers. Therefore, it is possible to highlight the value of this study only by choosing a research topic with certain novelty.
3. Is the question feasible? Researchers should first consider whether the subjective and objective conditions for completing this research project are sufficient. It mainly includes the following aspects: (1) research ability, that is, the subject knowledge and ability that researchers must have when completing a certain topic. This is purely subjective. (2) whether the research time, that is, the time necessary for research, can be guaranteed. (3) data collection. It is absolutely impossible for a researcher to study a subject only by his own experience. Researchers must collect information, sort it out and save it. (4) funds. The cost of data collection and data processing must be guaranteed. The last three items are objective conditions.
If the above four questions can be answered in the affirmative, it means that this question is a good topic for you.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
Choosing a research topic must be combined with your own reality and avoid following the trend. It is not only an arduous and complicated task, but also a painstaking thinking process, which can not tolerate any carelessness and frivolity. Tutor's guidance is very necessary, cooperation between colleagues is sometimes inevitable, and sometimes suggestions from family and friends are also of great benefit to the topic selection.