Forming Research Questions and Approaches

Forming Research Questions and Approaches

Assessing the fit of a research question

In formulating my current research questions I have identified two main questions and four subquestions in regards to middle school resource officers and school violence. The purpose of my study is to examine how resource officers identify their duties in suburban middle schools while additionally gathering resource officers' recommendations for improving safe learning environment.

A good research question helps to allow you to focus on the right information along with helping you to figure out when you have enough information (How do I Formulate Good Questions, (n.d). I feel that my research questions are good in the fact that they will help me to focus on the information that I need. They will also help me determine when I have gathered enough information. In essence they are working to address the problem that I have identified.

Although I feel that my research questions are basically good, I sense that there may be a disconnect between the two things that I am trying to look at. My first question of how do resource officers identify their duties in the suburban middle school is a good question to determine what resource officers do within the scope of their jobs. My second question is: What recommendations do the resource officers have to offer middle school principals concerning reducing violence and maintaining a safe school climate conductive to learning? I think that this is a very interesting and useful question to answer, but I think it is missing a tie in between it and the job duties that the resource officers perform. I think that there is an assumption being made that the things that resource officers identify as their job duties are related to crime identification and prevention.