Educational Research: Writing Research Papers

The introduction communicates to the reader the study’s ‘BIS’ which stands for Background, Issue and Solution. In this section, you say why you have chosen to do your research project in this area, explain what you want to inquire into and justify the need for your research. For example, you could have identified a research gap or are going to investigate the impact of a teaching intervention or pedagogy.

The literature review organises and explains what other research has been done in the area. By reviewing literature, you focus and sharpen your research ideas and record what other research has or has not been done. When writing the literature review, it is recommended to make reference to already published research (e.g., journals or conference proceedings) and established academics in the field.

A methodology section (sometimes called ‘Research design’) explains why you have chosen to do your research in the way that you have chosen. You will say why you have chosen to do a particular methodology such as a quantitative questionnaire, qualitative interviews or mixed methods (a combination of quantitative and qualitative). It is always important to explain how you ensured the validity and reliability of the methodology. For example, you could have adapted or contextualised the questionnaire from an existing validated instrument or performed a face validation exercise with other students or lecturers.

This section details how you collected the data and it is important that this should be aligned with your selected methodology. Data can broadly be classified as quantitative (mainly using numbers) and qualitative (mainly using words).

Besides detailing the type of data collected, it is also expected that you describe how you collected the data and the sample size. For example you could state that the interviews were conducted virtually online for a specified number of students over a period of time or you used the end-of-semester test results for the research study.

Writing how you analysed the data collected establishes credibility and supports your understanding of the data. If you analyse quantitative data, state the statistical test used that is relevant to your study and the results of the statistical test (e.g., hypothesis testing and resulting significance/non-significance). For qualitative data, describe how you performed thematic analysis and list down the identified codes.

After you write the results of your analysis, it is time to connect them back to your initial research objectives or questions. State whether the results met what you set out to investigate in the study. Sometimes the findings can help you make a case for an implication. Research implications suggest how the findings may be important for policy, practice, theory, and subsequent research.

The final section of the research paper is to revise your introduction as you synthesise and appraise your research. Depending on the nature of your study, you could reconcile your findings with those of others, appraise strengths, weaknesses or limitations in the study, reiterate a call for adoption or outline points for further research.