Bridging Theory to Practice: Building Research Self-Efficacy in Doctoral Students From the Beginning

Background

Theory in research can refer to how concepts are defined, how concepts are related, how concepts should be studied, and how concepts are conceived by the researcher and study participants (Ravitch & Riggan, 2017). According to Anfara and Mertz (2015), “a useful theory is one that tells an enlightening story about some phenomenon…and gives you new insights and broadens your understanding of the phenomenon” (p. 5). Tashakkori et al. (2021) define theory as “an explanatory system or explanation of ‘how’ a phenomenon operates and ‘why’ it operates the way it does” (p. 406). Theory is used in research in two ways: (a) to frame and serve as a foundation for a study, and (b) to connect theory to findings by relating them to existing theory or drawing theory from findings for generalizing or transferring to other settings (Kiley, 2015). Hammond (2018), after reviewing the concept of theorizing in the literature, defined it as “finding a perspective or ‘lens’ through which a problem should be viewed and an invitation to see the problem in a new or revised way” (p. 2). In some disciplines, theory is referred to as the model that is empirically tested in a study (Kiley, 2015).