What is Good Research?
Kelly Thomas
University of the Pacific
What is Good Research?
What is good research? Perhaps the first question that should be pondered is what is research? Without the knowledge of what constitutes research, there is no way of determining what good research is. Research begins with an idea, question, inquiry, or purpose which drives the research project. Research is an inquiry, study, or investigation embarked upon to improve or add to knowledge. Research is also used to investigate and eventually prove or disprove hypotheses. Hostetler gives a good definition of educational research:
The question of what counts as good education research has received a great deal of attention, but too often it is conceived principally as a methodological question rather than an ethical one. Good education research is a matter not only of sound procedures but also of beneficial aims and results; our ultimate aim as researchers and educators is to serve people’s well-being.” (Hostetler, 2010, p. 1)
Good research has a solid appropriate methodology, starts with an objective or hypothesis, attempts to be ethical and unbiased, has a clear procedure and planning, is transparent, and concludes with findings based on the research at hand.
First and foremost, good research must have sound methodology. The research should show clearly if the approach is qualitative or quantitative, or mixed methods. There are many different approaches to collecting data.
Research can be used in many methods, for example: questionnaires, television, leaflets, books etc. it allows us to keep up to date on the new findings or discoveries e.g. a new type of cancer or a new vaccination. Research is the investigation into
Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, with an open mind, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories. Research can be divided into different steps in order to understand the whole process more in depth. The first step towards conducting research is to observe. Consistst of the subject area of ones interest and following that subject area to conduct subject related research. The subject area should not be randomly chosen since it requires reading a vast amount of
WHAT IS RESEARCH? It is a planned process whereby information is collected for a specific purpose, analysed and reported.
According to Depoy and Gittin, research is a way individuals think about problems in systematic way. Research is generally described as description, exploration, analysis, prediction and problem solving. There are different types of research and these researches are called the experiments, quasi-experiments and non-experiments. The purpose of research is to provide the insight to practice, it also enhance individuals understanding as well as developing new approaches with different topics, get to test your research for effectiveness. Understanding research is important because it helps to build individuals knowledge bases and informs decision making in practice. Research also enable us to make sure that our practice are up to date with relevant information.
Research allows us to better understand what is unknown, how a human thinks, why a dog barks when they hear a stranger approaching or that the earth is round and not flat. Research allows us to find answers to the questions we have. Research attempts to both understand and define. There are three kinds of research; Explanatory; Exploratory and Descriptive research. Explanatory, Exploratory and Descriptive research define what research is; Research is the attempt to explain, explore and describe (Neuman, 2006, 24).
Educational research is meaningful and purposeful. It helps educators continuously find ways to improve their practices and help student achievement improve. There are several research techniques that can be used to help improve the learning process. The ear we live in research is being conducted often. Research must be conducted with good intentions and purpose. There are steps that must be followed in order to achieve validity and success.
The goal of a research study is to generate new knowledge, which can then be shared within the scientific community. Unlike QI and EBP, research is conducted using a systematic process known as the scientific method. The scientific method is used to ensure results from a study are valid and reliable (Potter & Perry, 2012, p. 57). The research process is rigorous and studies must follow strict guidelines and be approved by the IRB. Data collection for research projects is more time intensive and is not rapid cycle like QI. In addition, funding for research projects typically comes from an external source such as a grant (Shirey et al.,
There are different types of researches that can occur depending on what information needs to be solved and discovered. Usually when a researcher picks a certain topic to research they tend to pick a topic that will have a paragraph that can relate to their self so this gives them more interest to feel for that subject, this is called problem formulation. When the researcher is developing a plan to start the research the focus should be based on where the subject is currently highly affected the most and who is mainly drawn to this subject. This was the researcher can know who to interview and which location. For instance if a case worker is researching rates on domestic violence, the findings should come from the state which has the highest rates as well as the rates of men who are arrested for domestic violence. Being a researcher you have to manage time well and make sure your researching in
Taylor,et.al,(2000), research method in education Fifth edition Louise Cohen. Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison Landon and New York. Retrieved from, http://documents.tips/education/research-method-in-education.html
Population, participation and productivity: needs to have new migrants to lift the three ‘"Ps" of high economic growth - population, participation and productivity’ (Carvalho, 2015) for its economic sustainability. The IGR 2015 shows that compared to 54% of Australians being under 40, more than 88% of the migrant population is below 40. Similarly more than 50% of those who came in within the last three years are aged between 20-34 years whereas one in five Australians fall in that age group. Migrants are mostly young and fall within the productive age group. Therefore the migrants can be easily the valued human capital for Australia to continue its economic growth. Moreover, increasing aged population will
The famous German physicist Albert Einstein once said, “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” Often in the classroom and life in general, many people assume that in order to research something, a person must first understand it, but that simply is not the case. The whole concept of research stems from human’s natural response to the unknown and the desire to understand it; almost all humans have used research to comprehend and attempt to solve problems. Personally, I have used research a great deal for personal and educational reasons. In high school, I used research for historical and literary papers, in order to better understand concepts, and to discover resources for almost every class. I also
Research is comprised of data which give the reader some understanding of the subject matter. In order for a reader to completely gain a full comprehension of this information, they must understand key terms. The following list of definition is provided to supply the reader with a better understanding of the findings.
It’s important to do good research so we can accurately learn about a subject. Research must always be of high quality in order to produce knowledge that is valid outside of the research setting. Without good research strategies, even intelligent and attentive people can be fooled.
Research is a form of systematic inquiry. It sets out to answer questions through assessing, summarizing and drawing conclusions from what are often very large amounts of information.
What I have learned about research is that it is a process, a scientific process that psychologist and scientist develop that includes many different approaches and that is carefully peer reviewed and evaluated. There is what is called the Scientific Approach where scientist have an idea or theory and based on their observation will either support the theory or the theory can be falsified by their peers. Data also goes through a review period before it is published in a scientific journal by scientist who have the knowledge and expertise to evaluate it.