I'm in day 5/6 of the course, and I have grown a tidbit as a researcher. I viewed the video in module 1, searched the internet, and reread pages 6 & 7 of the syllabus several times over.
I now understand more about the theoretical framework of research, or my beliefs/mindset about the topic of my research. It's not as scary as it sounds. In my research, I found two questions to ask when conducting original research: 1) What is the problem? and 2) Why is my approach a feasible solution? http://www.coedu.usf.edu/jwhite/secedseminar/theoryframe.pdf
I learned a key phrase from my blog partner, Jessica, that will help me easily identify one key component of a research article. I also learned that sometimes the findings, discussions, and complications/implications are found in the same section of a research article. Some of my prior knowledge is being activated. Hopefully, it will all come back to me soon.
What's bothering me is the conflicting information that I interpreted from the syllabus and my independent research about the expectations of what actually belongs in the findings versus discussions section of the Research Summary Chart. From my understanding, they appear to be extremely similar and it seems that they will contain repetition. I leave this week unable to distinguish between the two. Well, at least I have something to look forward to learning.
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Andrea-
ReplyDeleteI think you have asked a valid question in today’s posting. The findings and discussion do contain similar information but there are differences in their purposes. I flipped through my old notes from my research class and this is how my teacher explained the different sections to my class.
While reading the introduction of a research study, you should be asking yourself, “What is the problem?” and “Why is it important?” Also most researchers will state their guiding question in this section. It is important to understand the purpose and the guiding question because it will tell you what the focus of the entire study.
When you get to the Methods section you should ask, “How did the researcher study the problem?” “What tools of measurement were used?” The next section will be the findings.
The purpose of the finding sections is to inform the reader what was discovered. When reading these sections in other research studies you should ask yourself, “What did they find?” Next will be the discussion of the findings.
The purpose of the discussion is to explain the impact the finding will have. The researcher will explain their finding in detail in this section. When you read these sections you should be asking yourself, “What do these findings mean?”
Lastly there is the conclusion. In this section the researcher should focus on, “What actions need to be taken?” This is where they justify the entire study and suggest ways of improving their topic in the future.
I hope these notes can help you in your future research. It shouldn't be to much longer before you become the butterfly of research :)