Choosing your own topic
Let's assume that your course instructor for a course on introductory motor behavior wants you to pick a particular physical activity and then discuss how someone learns how to perform that activity. Pick a topic that interests you, or that you have some knowledge of. Think about how you would learn how to master it. Draw on your own experiences, your readings, and just general knowledge.

For example:

Activity How to learn the activity

roller blading

reading instuctional manual (if provided)
modeling (observation)
trial and error
taking a class

 

Stating your research questions
Try to be as open minded as possible at this early stage of inquiry. What you are attempting to do now is find background information on your general topic, so keep an open mind and explore your topic. Run with any ideas that come to you and see where they lead. For example, you might ask yourself the following:

Refining your topic
At this preliminary stage start thinking about how you will go about finding out background material for your topic. Think about keywords and concepts (like roller blading, blading, roller skating, skating, etc.) that might be used to look for material.

Depending on your course and your assignment instructions the choice of topics will vary considerably. You may be asked to look at a historical perspective of a particular topic, or compare two or more different topics, or even discuss a research design for a particular topic. No matter what it is the method of going about obtaining background materials is similar.

The remaining tutorial modules and example pages in this series will help you with more specific search strategies and suggest library sources that you should be familiar with.

 

 

This page is http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~dsuarez/physeduc/physgen_develop_examples_textpage

Updated: September 11, 2001