I know that it is quite normal for a plan to change quite a lot during the course of the research, but is it normal for the main questions to change?
Although I had a great meeting with the sup a couple of days ago, really positive sounding, enthusiastic and all that, what worried me was that we were discussing less the main point of what I was originally aiming for.
Do I carry on with my original idea in mind, or shall I just go with the flow of the new ideas and see where it takes me?

Sorry for not sounding very clear here (too much trifle! Yum.), but I'm still quite new to the whole thing. I think my supervisor is giving me hints to stop with the original plan and go with the new one. Dunno. hmm.

My overall question has changed all the way through, right up to when I tackled my conclusions chapter some months ago! That's the fancy-sounding question at least. The broad idea hadn't changed, but the fancy academic sounding bit did. In my case it was more a case of discovering where I'd ended up at the end of my research, rather than changing direction. I also had a very open-ended enquiry, without preconceived ideas/conclusions at the start. So more room for change.

Yeh, like Bilbo, my questions also changed. My broad topic stayed the same, but the research questions changed, as I worked through my findings and discovered what I had found. Which I think is pretty common. Talk to your sup and confirm that you should be going with the new direction - this is the fun part, seeing where your research takes you!

Both my plan and question have changed overtime. I'd like to think it's a normal part of the process. But I think it's important for phd students to take their research in the direction that makes sense to them. That's something it took me a while to learn.

Hi there! I'm sort of in the middle of a debate on this one myself- my main idea has stayed the same and so have most of the research questions, but one of the main questions I originally had might need to be sacrificed now because I am not convinced that it is feasible to carry out that part of the research to a satisfactory standard, mainly due to timing and recruitment issues. I will probably wait for another few months to make the final decision on that one, but I think it will have to go! I guess your final questions might also be modified when you look at your results and see what you have found- it isn't uncommon in research to see what your results are telling you and then go back to your original questions and tailor them a bit to match what you want to talk about in your results/discussion sections. One of my pals had added an extra study to his PhD as a result of an interesting but unexpected finding on one of his first studies, which he wanted to build on, so it's okay to do that too. My remaining research questions were fairly broad as I am doing a rather exploratory study, but I think it's best to be open-minded really and see where it takes you. I would check with your sup though, that you are on the right track, before you go hurtling down it! Best wishes, KB

At the moment I am trying very hard not to get sidetracked from my main study. Which I think has a great bearing on the future of education, but I am finding the material I am is now using is from very diverse sources, this isn't a bad thing, as it shows linkage, but I need to be very careful it doesn't take the whole thing in another direction, which I don't want to happen. My title is deliberately vague, and therefore can incorporate all these other areas, and it is this which helps make my research different, but I still want it to be based in education and not in other areas. I'm going to suggest that there are possibilities for further research in these diverse areas in my conclusion, who knows, someone might even take me up on it!:-)

Cool, thanks. It's reassuring to know that it's quite a common process. I thought perhaps that it was changing because I wasn't producing the goods or something, but if that was the case, my supervisor probably would have told me, wouldn't he?
Thanks again for the replies, and don't forget to go on the new year's resolution thread :-)

Like yours, Joyce, my title is also very vague, and therefore allows a lot of freedom in what to explore. It's quite exciting actually! :-) I'm also going to propose extra ideas for others to look at. Maybe my supervisor was just trying to help me focus my attention a bit on one thing at a time. I was a bit unorganised before with notes and ideas all over the place.
Isn't it frustrating though when you can see some amazing new ideas, but you're not sure if you should go down that road yet (or at all) because it may steer your original intentions down the wrong path? It's so annoying. Since I've started I've seen so many new things I would like to do. There must be a way of incorporating them in....hmm

Haha, me too Cobweb. I have so many ideas for additional studies that I would love to do that my supervisor would also love me to do, but there just isn't the time unfortunately within the PhD timescale. If it was left to me I would have at least one additional qualitative study, more participants for my quantitative study, a longer time period between timepoint one and timepoint two, and a series of case studies to go with it all! It would probably take me about 7 years to get it all done! Especially when I'm reading the literature or have been out testing, I always end up so full of ideas and think I might be able to incorporate them, then reality sinks in! Maybe in a post-doc....! Best wishes all, KB