How to Identify a Research Gap? (See link below for our video on "How to Write a Thesis Proposal?")

what is a research gap and how to identify it this lecture will briefly discuss the meaning nature and dynamics of a research gap in particular it will address the following questions what is a research gap what is the importance of identifying the research gap and how to identify a research gap in addressing these three important questions this lecture will give more weight on the third question this is because many fledgling scholars and masters and doctoral students struggled in identifying the gap in their research thesis or dissertation hence it is the goal of this lecture to spare them the unnecessary burden of circling the mountain several times before getting to the top and so let's proceed let's start by asking the question what is a research gap understood more broadly a research gap is the problem that researchers would want to see addressed in the research and as the name suggests it is the gap that researchers feel with their proposed research project hence a research gap is what is missing or what is not addressed in the current state of knowledge put simply a research gap is the question or problem that has not been answered in your area of specialization for this reason the research gap establishes the need or the importance urgency and necessity of your proposed research project thesis or dissertation and so this explains why all types of research always begin with a research gap indeed no research activity is possible without the research gap now please note that this is what experienced reviewers or thesis or dissertation panel members are looking for during thesis or dissertation proposal defense thus if your proposed thesis or dissertation does not have or does not clearly articulate the research gap then chances are your thesis or dissertation proposal will be rejected and you have to do your research again from scratch now this is the problem with many masters and doctoral students when they write their thesis or dissertation in most cases because they are inexperienced researchers and sometimes they do not consult their thesis or dissertation advisor regularly they simply start with a research aim and thought that it's already the research gap but the research gap is not the same with a research aim and in some cases masters and doctoral students just copied or patterned their thesis or dissertation on previous researches let us consider this example suppose the working title of the thesis or dissertation proposal is imposed career study among university students in hong kong with this title we can have the following research aim the proposed research aims to determine the lived experiences of those students who were just forced to take a certain career course according to the wishes of their parents or significant others and how it affects the psycho-emotional and social well-being of these students now again many masters and doctoral students thought that the aim is already the problem or the research gap of the proposed research project but as already mentioned it is not so what could possibly be the research gap of this example now based on the research aim we can have for example the idea the researcher may have learned from experience or through literature review that there are university students in hong kong who were just forced to take certain career course according to the wishes of their parents or significant others and that these students were devastated and became rebellious in schools for this reason these students may become social delinquents in the future now based on the researcher's initial review of related literature it was found out that no study has been conducted on this topic and so as we can see the problem is that there are university students in hong kong who are just forced to take a certain career course according to the wishes of their parents or significant others and as a result of being just forced to take a certain career course these students have become devastated and rebellious which in turn will make them social delinquents in the future also there has been no study conducted in this topic in hong kong now this is exactly what we meant by a research gap this is what is missing or what has not been addressed in the current state of knowledge in this field and with this research gap we can now formulate the research aim which reads the proposed research aims to determine the lived experiences of those students who were just forced to take a certain carrier course according to the wishes of their parents or significant others and how it affects the psycho-emotional and social well-being of these students and so if one may ask why the need for this study then the researcher may add the researcher argues that there is a need to determine the lived experiences of these students so that we can create a career decision making program as an alternative in addressing the problem as we can see identifying the research gap and articulating it in the background or rational of the study is important not only because it will spare the researcher the unnecessary toil of making major revision but also because it will make the research publishable for sure if the researcher clearly identifies the research gap and articulates it in the background of the study the reviewers or thesis defense panel members will be able to conclude right away that the proposed research project is unique and original because it is not a duplication of what have been done in the past this will also send a message to the reviewers or thesis defense panel members that the researcher has a deep knowledge of the topic under investigation as is well known finding original and innovative topics in the chosen field as well as identifying and articulating the research gap is never an easy feat now that we have briefly discussed the nature and meaning of a research gap and its importance the next question is how do we identify the research gap well for experienced researchers because they already have broad and deep knowledge in their chosen field of specialization they can easily identify a research gap however for fledgling scholars as well as masters and doctoral students as already mentioned identifying a research gap is never an easy feat but the application of some proven techniques will somehow help ease the process and so let us briefly discuss three important techniques in identifying a research gap of course there are a number of techniques on how to identify a research gap but the three points raised in this discussion are the most effective ones and so let's start with the first when identifying a research gap it would greatly help if fledgling scholars or masters and doctoral students start with something that they are passionate about something that would seem like second skin to them for some obvious reason being passionate at something makes us push ourselves harder and despite working long hours on it we will still manage to smile in fact if we love what we are doing then long and hard labor are turned into play hence despite the hardships we keep doing our research because we enjoyed it of course starting with something that we are passionate about in relation to identifying a research gap involves choosing a particular topic in your discipline or area of specialization for instance if one's discipline or area of specialization is education then she might be passionate about doing research on teachers burnout level philosophy of education critical pedagogy or lived experiences of teachers handling subjects not in line with their field of specialization and if the researcher's discipline is psychology then she might be passionate about doing research on social cognition social control racism verbal communication or even attraction romance and love now the second technique is once the researcher has chosen a topic that she is passionate about she now proceeds in determining the mega trends or recent debates in the chosen field of specialization this is important because once we know the mega trends or recent debates in our chosen area of specialization we can easily know what have and have not been done in this area of specialization determining the mega trends or recent debates is also important because it ensures that our research is timely and necessary we have to remember that we do not do research for the sake of doing research of completing a master's or doctoral degree we do research because there is a problem that needs to be addressed hence a particular research is timely if the topic is one of the mega trends or recent debates in the field of specialization and it is necessary if it attempts to address a serious problem that requires urgent consideration now of course determining the mega trends or recent debates in a chosen area of specialization implies doing a literature review now this leads us to the third and last point in this discussion needless to say we need to review recent literature in our chosen area of specialization so we know what scholars have done so far in this way we will be able to identify possible gaps that we can fill in for example if one's discipline or area of specialization is anthropology and one is passionate about doing research on the indigenous peoples in southeast asia then she needs to review literature on indigenous peoples in southeast asia in the last say three to five years now suppose several famous scholars on indigenous peoples in southeast asia have published on the marginalization of the dayak indigenous peoples in borneo then this is precisely one of the mega trends or recent debates in this area of specialization now let us also suppose that one is interested in joining the discussion or debate in this area of specialization then again she needs to identify what has not been done in this area and so suppose there are five famous scholars working on this topic the marginalization of the indigenous peoples in southeast asia particularly the dayak indigenous people in borneo what we need to do now is review these pieces of literature and identify their concepts and arguments for instance we may say scholar one in her work titled modernism and the dayak people of borneo says that the dayak indigenous peoples in borneo have been pushed further to the periphery by the forces of modernity such as consumerism scholar two in his work titled militarism in borneo argues that one of the causes of the marginalization of the dioc people in borneo is the imposition of militarization in the island scholar three in her work titled the resiliency of the dayak people says that despite the constant presence of social forces that marginalized the dayak people the researcher found out that the diet people are very resilient in fact they have overcome every challenge that they faced and easily returned to their normal life scholar 4 in his work titled different phases of marginalization in borneo says that the diet people have been marginalized by different forces of globalization such as the logging and mining companies scholar five in her work titled rights recognition and the dayak people narrates not only how the dayak people have been marginalized by the forces of globalization but also the basic and inalienable rights of the dayak people now after reviewing these important pieces of literature about the marginalization of the diak people one may have realized that no scholar on the diet people so far has done research on the way in which the diet people resisted any forms of marginalization hence this could be a possible gap in this area of specialization the researchers can work on for this reason one may work for example on the dayak people's struggle for recognition of their rights to ancestral domain again this is a concrete example of a research gap in this area of specialization that researchers can fill in so that's what a research gap is and how to identify it please note however that the three major tips that we shared here are just some of the techniques and how to identify your research gap there are other techniques that might help you in identifying a research gap or you may want to develop your own what is important is that through this discussion you now have a basic understanding of what a research gap is and how to identify it now lastly please note that the principles we applied in this discussion and how to identify a research gap can be applied to all disciplines be they social sciences humanities natural sciences education engineering mathematics or psychology

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Id: vBJhYYsw5gA

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020