I'd appreciate it if you support your reply by referring to valid references.
It is invariably wise to have a research question (or more than one) as this makes clear the precise focus of the study and enables one to clarify why the question is important to answer and what is already known about it.
Stating a hypothesis (or more than one) enables even greater precision as to the focus of the study. Being able to state a hypothesis (or more than one) requires clarity about the variables involved. Clarity about variables can depend on the focus of the research.
A textbook on research methods is a source of valid references.
A dissertation begins with an hypotheses, followed by a research and lasts with a question which will be the next thesis!
It depends greatly on the type of primary method you are using (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods). With a qualitative dissertation you are very unlikely to posit a hypothesis. I can't think of a qualitative design that would facilitate the testing of a hypothesis (grounded theory can lead one to the development of hypotheses). With mixed methods you may include a mixture of hypotheses and research questions and with a quantitative study you may have only hypotheses, only research questions, or a mixture. What also plays into this decision is the goal of your study (descriptive, exploration, explanation, evaluation, prediction, etc.).
The question should have been "research question/s, hypotheses, objectives, or several?"
The answer depends on the way the research is organized. Hypotheses are usually linked to statistical procedures to verify their validity, but this is not ever necessary; you can state hypotheses and verify them qualitatively. However, in qualitative research, it is usually better to state questions than hypotheses.
In qualitative or mixed research, statement of research questions or objectives, or even hypotheses is most times a case of writing styles or personal liking. For instance:
Objective: Identify different strategies of mathematical problem solving showed by grade 10 students.
Question: Which strategies of mathematical problem solving show grade 10 students?
Hypothesis: Grade 10 students show different strategies when solving mathematical problems.
In the end, the research will be the same (pose a set of problems to a sample of students and classify their procedures of solution), it will produce the same results, and the only difference is the way the results are presented in relation to the research objective/question/hypothesis.
Keith Jones Charalampos Triantis Martinos John Ridings Omar Al-Khashman
Angel Gutierrez Thank you all for your answers.
سلام. اساتید در علوم انسانی میگن که بسته به اینکه موضوع مورد بررسی تون از پیشینه قوی برخوردار باشه یا نه، از پرسش و فرضیه استفاده می کنید. یعنی وقتی که پیشینه درباره موضوعی ضعیف است سوال می پرسم و وقتی که پیشینه قوی درباره موضوعی دارم فرضیه مطرح می کنم.
این مورد رو شخصا از اساتیددرس سنجش شنیدم و در کتاب دکتر بازرگان و سرمد درباره روش تحقیق در علوم رفتاری نیز دیده شده است.
موفق و سربلند باشید.
Hypothesis formation is an important step in experimental research. Note that a hypothesis is a possible or probable answer to a specific problem, which describes what you expect to happen in your study in definite terms. However, not all research studies have hypotheses. Sometimes, a study is designed to be exploratory or descriptive as in anatomy, ecology, astronomy, and sociology. In such studies, we may not be able to state a hypothesis in a formal way, but research questions only as the purpose of the study is to explore some particular area of interest more thoroughly.
Of course one must know about the hypothesis to carry out the research work and completion of the dissertation.
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