Choosing a Research Topic

One of the most important decisions you will make in your master's program is your selection of a research topic. As you make your decision, you will want to consider the following:

• Personal interest: It is important to choose a topic that is personally interesting to you for two reasons. First, personal interest in the topic can sustain you through the countless hours that you will be studying this topic. Second, if the topic is of personal interest to you, then the findings of research or the product of your project is much more likely to be of use to you. If you pick a topic just for convenience, you are much more likely to feel like the thesis or project experience is a hoop to jump through rather than something of value to you. You'll recognize a topic that is of interest to you by the high level of emotion that you feel toward that topic; those emotions can include curiosity, a sense of importance or necessity (a sense that the topic is something crucial for you and others to better understand), surprise, or anger. When you encounter one of these strong emotion as you think or read about a particular topic, you've identified a topic in which you probably have enough interest to sustain you through the long process of completing a thesis or project.
• Importance to the field: Your research topic should be valued by members of the mathematics education community. Note that just because a topic hasn't been studied before doesn't guarantee that it is worth studying. The topic must be related to important issues and problems in the field. Because you are likely to be unfamiliar with the literature, and thus with what is valued by the community, you may need to seek help from faculty members in determining whether a topic is important enough to study. Early feedback in MthEd 590 can be particularly helpful. You can get help from other faculty by test driving advisors (see below for a description).
• Faculty expertise: The closer your topic is to the research area in which your advisor has expertise, the more likely you are to get valuable help and produce a high quality thesis or project. If your advisor is knowledgeable about your research topic, he or she can identify seminal papers, important research questions, and useful research methods. This can save you a lot of time and result in higher quality theses and projects. Also, if your advisor is currently conducting a study that is closely related to your research topic, you may be able to piggyback on what he or she is doing, perhaps using some of the data that has been collected or working with the subjects who have been recruited. This can allow you to investigate important research questions you would be unable to answer without this access.
• Feasibility: Ultimately you want to graduate in a timely fashion. Consequently, you must pick a topic that can be studied given the amount of time and resources that you have available as a master's student. Your topic must also be researchable. For example, you couldn't study the effect of corporal punishment on the mastery of times tables because you would never be able to obtain approval from Human Subjects. Likewise, you would not be able to study the neural structure formed by learning the times table, because current technology does not allow for the study of neural structures at this level of sensitivity.

Picking a research topic is a process of achieving some level of acceptability for all four of the above factors. Usually graduate students with clear interests are able to make a quick decision about what topic to study, and then narrow that topic further by considering the other three factors. If your interests are broad, then it may be wise to start first by seeing what topics faculty members are studying, and then choose from those topics the one that most interests you. While it is important to take some time to identify a good research topic, you may have to decide on a research topic sooner than you want so that you can complete the program in two years. Talking with other graduate students or with faculty members can speed up the process of selecting a suitable topic, so seek out these people and share where you are in your selection process. Note that you will probably need to select your research topic before you make a decision on an advisor, because his or her decision to be your advisor will be based at least partially on what topic you plan to research.

Choosing an Advisor

Your selection of an advisor is as important as your selection of a research topic. When choosing an advisor, you need to choose someone with whom you think you could work well and who has as much knowledge about your research topic as possible. To find out which faculty member would be the best advisor for you, you will probably want to test drive advisors. Here's how you do it.

Step 1: The first step to test driving an advisor is to read about the research interests that faculty members have posted on the Mathematics Education Graduate Faculty webpage. As you read through their research interests, you will most likely have a sense for which faculty members might be knowledgeable about your research topic. These are the faculty members you will want to test drive.

Step 2: The next step is to set up an appointment to visit with the faculty members you have selected. Send them an email requesting 10 minutes of their time to discuss your research directions, and suggest some blocks of time over the next few days that you would be available to meet. It may take a few emails to nail down a time, so be patient.

Step 3: It is important to remember that when you go to test drive a faculty member, they are test driving you, too. You're going to want to make a good impression. Prepare for the meeting by making a list of the information you want to share and the questions you want to ask. Make a list of the research topics you are considering. Be prepared to explain what you are interested in about those topics and why they are important both to you personally and to the field. Make a list of questions to ask. You'll probably want to ask the faculty member for feedback on the appropriateness of your topics or for help on narrowing down your topics. You may want to ask for recommendations on seminal papers and key researchers related to each topic. If you want to ask questions about the faculty member's research, don't ask questions that you could have found the answer to on the faculty webpage above. You'll make a much better impression if you can show some awareness of the faculty member's areas of expertise. 

Step 4: Meet with the faculty members. Keep the visit short--don't exceed the 10 minutes you requested. Share your information and ask your questions. Thank the faculty member for his or her time, and then move on to the next appointment.

Once you've test driven advisors, it will be time to make some decisions. If you haven't already decided, you'll need to pick your research topic and decide whether you are doing a thesis or a project. Then approach the faculty member you think would be best for you and ask if he or she would be willing to be your advisor. If the faculty member says no, it is likely because he or she is too busy to take on another graduate student, or because he or she does not feel qualified to supervise a thesis or project on your chosen topic. Don't feel bad if you get turned down. Just move on to the next best candidate.

Choosing a Committee

The purpose for committee members is to round out the expertise that you can draw on for your thesis or project. Committee members are not expected to devote nearly as much time to helping you with your thesis or project as your advisor. Thus, you should view them as a limited resource. Often, the best way of choosing a committee is to make the choice with your advisor. He or she will know what additional faculty expertise might be useful and can suggest appropriate faculty. A second advantage to involving your advisor in this decision is that it almost always guarantees that your committee members will get along well. You don't want to be caught in the middle of a battle between professors over their personal pet peeves. You also need to make sure that you are comfortable with the other members of your committee. Don't be shy in sharing with your advisor who you would prefer to be on your committee. After all, the final decision is yours, not your advisor's. If you know you don't work well with a faculty member or two, be prepared to have names ready to suggest as alternatives in case your advisor picks one of these people. Or start with your own picks and get your advisor's blessing. Once you've made your decision, ask the faculty members in person if they would be willing to serve on your committee.