Factors Influencing Post Graduate Students’ Choice of Research Topic in Education at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi-Nigeria

Abstract

Most frequent external and personal; difference between Ph.D and M.Ed students; on factors that influences the choice of research topic were among the objectives of the study. Survey design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of 45 (20Ph.D and 25 M.Ed) Post Graduate (PG) students in education from Faculty of Technology Education (FTE), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi. Stratify random sampling was used to select 40(17 Ph.D, 23M.Ed) male and 10(4Ph.D, 6 M.Ed) female PG students in Education. Factors that influence PG students Choice of Research Topic in Education Questionnaire (CRTEQ) was developed, validated and used for data collection. Stability coefficient of 0.88 was established. Hypotheses were tested at α =0.05 level of significance. The data was analyzed using frequency count, percentages and Chi- Square test. Findings from the study revealed that availability of the data method on external factors and the topic falls within my interest and intellectual ability on personal factors were the most frequent factors that influence choice of research topic by PG students in education. There is no significant differences (Chi-Square=.527, ρ<0.05) between Ph.D and M.Ed students in education on the factors that influence the choice of the research topic. Recommendations from the study includes Post Graduate Research Supervisors (PGRS) to take into consideration of student’s preference on choice of research topic, lectures to be organized to PG students in Education by Faculty on the qualities and sources of a good research topic.