Readings, What is research?
I thought that the What is Research? was a great introductory reading for this class.
I'm reluctant to admit that I could identify with doing things in the What Research Is Not. I always sensed there was something intrinsic missing from a lot of my projects and essays, and it seems to be the interpretation of data.
After reading this chapter, I resolved to use it as the framework for my group for project 1. Though we're not completely prepared yet, I think that we're very close to setting up a solid base for our research. Following the 8 distinct characteristics of a research project, we have defined the research problem and its sub-questions. We have a plan, but it needs another meeting to tweak and to get our respective roles clearly defined. We've also started to discuss the form that our data collection and interpretation should take. We've discussed that observation and data collecting are important, but we must devise an effective ethnographic survey or approach to interview people at the specified location of our case study.
We have yet to define the critical assumptions of this project, but I suppose they would have to do with how this winter is not abnormal or that there are no other significant factors particular to College and Grace that would affect our findings this year.
I'm hesitant to propose any hypotheses though. This would need to be done after some discussion with our group, since it would, in effect, presume to answer our research question and direct our entire project.
I hope that we can agree on the interpretation of the data and present our findings effectively. I do feel better about our start thought after reading What is Research?