CMP-9703E v2

Bloomberg, L. D., & Volpe, M. (2019). Completing your qualitative dissertation: A road map from beginning to end (4th ed.). SAGE.
This text offers comprehensive guidance and practical tools for navigating each step in the qualitative dissertation process, including the planning, research, and writing phases. Blending the conceptual, theoretical, and practical, the book becomes a dissertation in action—an explanation and illustration of both content and process. There is also a companion website at (https://edge.sagepub.com/bloomberg-qualitative-5e)
Read Chapter 2 (“Gearing Up: There is Method in the Madness”). Read the section on identifying and developing a researchable topic. This chapter addresses identifying and developing a sound, researchable topic, which is the starting point for any research study.
Access the Redshelf book from your course, in the Getting Started module or from the Bookshelf link, on the top navigation bar.

Cassibba, J. (2021). The effect of difficulty orientation and self-efficacy on performance in STEM: A quantitative correlational study (Order No. 28720200). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ Northcentral University. (2585939494).
Please refer to the Ph.D. dissertations written by NU alumni. This week as you are thinking about a viable research topic, review the first chapter of each dissertation to gain an idea of how the researchers explored a broad topic area, and then went on to define a narrower research focus, which becomes the research problem. Jump ahead to the literature review chapter and take a look at what theoretical or conceptual framework was selected. Keep this framework in mind as you review the broad topic area. Here is an example.

Northcentral University. (2019). NU dissertation center [Web resource]. Northcentral University.
This resource provides information for developing the theoretical framework.

NU Library. (2019). Researching Theoretical Frameworks [Web resource].
NU’s academic success center has created detailed instructions to show you how to find possible frameworks using a variety of resources such as eBook databases, Proquest dissertations, NavigatorSearch, and more. An ASC tutorial shows you how to search for theoretical frameworks using google (NU, 2019).

Grant, C., & Osanloo, A. (2014). Understanding, selecting, and integrating a theoretical framework in dissertation research: Creating a blueprint for your “house.” Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, and Research, 4(2), 12-26.
This resource, located in the NU Library, will help you to select and integrate a theoretical framework in your study or project if you are using a theoretical versus conceptual framework.