To choose a suitable research topic, I look at the work that I am performing at my place of employment. I try to understand the industry to identify a gap. Then I start reading the literature to confirm my hypotheses. Finally, I start drafting my research goals, contexts, and target participants.

In the above example, it took a long time to be able to generate reliable findings because, during COVID few students were interested in responding to surveys.

Perseverance and my conviction in the research topic led to a convincing article that contributed to the understanding of the TPACK model (technological pedagogical content knowledge).

The Research Approach varies, it will depend on your research focus and anticipated expectations. Personally, I prefer Quantitative Studies because, the findings can be partially predicted in advance, and the data collection and analysis can be controlled to write a convincing Discussion and Limitations sections.

Personally, I find Qualitative Evidence to provide poor convincing evidence that can lead to convincing outcomes. For qualitative findings to be convincing the author needs to have access to a large sample pool of respondents. Otherwise, the findings can be challenged, or could potentially not provide evidence upon which to draw reliable general information.

The main Writing Resources I rely upon is the literature review. I make sure that the literature I read aligns with my research context; for an Australian research output, I attempt to find all research published from an Australian Context.

There are a few options available to researchers for communicating research output and resources. The article above, published by MDPI, is one example of a suitable approach.

Establishing links with Industry Partners is viable through HDR PhD candidates because their research interest may required industry related partnership to investigate the hypothesis. However, the Education Industry may at time be challenging to receive the appropriate Ethics Clearances. For me personally, I prefer to focus on University research participants because it is a captive audience. I have tried to conduct a TPACK research with Inservice school teachers in the UAE and receiving the Ethics approval was rather complexed. Personally, I prefer to research contexts that I can control, with limited impact.

Reference

Mercer-Mapstone, L., & Kuchel, L. (2017). Core skills for effective science communication: A teaching resource for undergraduate science education. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 7(2), 181-201.

Stachová, K., Papula, J., Stacho, Z., & Kohnová, L. (2019). External partnerships in employee education and development as the key to facing industry 4.0 challenges. Sustainability, 11(2), 345.