Lesson Report:
**Title: Crafting Effective Research Questions: Ensuring Theoretical Alignment**
**Synopsis:**
In this session, students were guided on crafting effective research questions with a strong emphasis on theoretical alignment. The class focused on bridging gaps between theory and research topics, with examples illustrating effective integration of theory into various international relations scenarios. Students engaged in exercises to refine their research questions, ensuring specificity and measurability. The professor underscored the importance of originality in thesis work and prepared students for selecting research supervisors.
**Attendance:**
One student mentioned absent due to a rainstorm (Diana).
**Topics Covered:**
1. **Introduction to Crafting Strong Research Questions:**
– Importance of clarity, focus, complexity, and theoretical alignment in creating a research question.
– Common pitfalls in previous projects, such as superficial mention of theories without consistent integration.
2. **Examples of Theoretical Alignment:**
– Professor shared a personal example: analyzing the CSTO’s influence in Central Asian countries using bandwagoning theory.
– Examples of successful integration of theory with a research question, emphasizing depth and theoretical analysis.
3. **Student Examples and Feedback:**
– A student queried on creating a thesis with established theories applied to significant cases. The professor emphasized the importance of originality and contributing new insights.
– Individual student cases were discussed, touching on topics like terrorism, CSTO leadership, regional cooperation, and cultural suppression.
4. **Exercises on Research Question Refinement:**
– Students engaged in a task focusing on the specificity and measurability of their selected topics.
– Key questions included narrowing the topic, identifying specific elements to measure, and simplifying descriptions for clearer understanding.
5. **Preparation for Research Supervisor Selection:**
– Guidelines provided for selecting research supervisors with a focus on aligning student research needs with the expertise of faculty members.
– Instructions to submit research question drafts and supervisor preferences by a set deadline for assignment.
**Actionable Items:**
– **Immediate:**
– Students to finalize and submit their research questions and preferred research supervisor choices by the given deadline.
– Ensure entries are made in the designated document on the eCourse platform.
– **This Week:**
– Students tasked with identifying and defining key variables and theories relevant to their research questions.
– Emphasis on conducting preliminary research to refine topics and enhance theoretical frameworks.
– **Ongoing:**
– Continue progressing on integrating theoretical frameworks with research questions to ensure originality and depth.
– Prepare for upcoming exercises that focus on originality and contribution to existing scholarly conversations.
**Note:** Students were advised to communicate with professors or peers for clarification and support, especially in identifying theoretical gaps and strengthening research methodologies.
Homework Instructions:
NO HOMEWORK. The transcript contains an in-class activity where students discuss and refine their research questions, but there is no mention of any homework assignment being given. The focus is on ensuring students understand how to develop strong research questions, which is emphasized through in-class exercises rather than assigned as homework.