This 25 page document consists of notes taken during the lectures of the course Academic skills. The notes include important concepts, terms and guides that will assist you in writing the assignments for the course.
Research is about contributing to knowledge. How to do this? Three reasons:
- Create new knowledge
- Add to existing knowledge
- Reject existing knowledge
- Knowledge is theory
“ A theory is a logically self-consistent framework that describes and explains some aspect of the
world, based on observations and experiments” (Lee & Langs, 2013)
Theories are simple frameworks that help us understand certain topics.
To generate theories, we have to conduct research. Theories help us make sense.
The importance of research
Karl Popper (1902-1994) Black swan theory - shows the importance of conducting research.
There will always be an observation that will contradict existing theory: Maybe today, tomorrow or
50 years from now.
- all swans are white
- In all countries?
- What if the color of swans changes throughout the years?
- We need to keep doing research to test whether our theories are still up to date and to make sure
that we don’t miss out new knowledge.
- Without doing research, how can we otherwise understand the world we are living in?
Two research approaches
The inductive approach (qualitative research): When you are studying a topic and you can’t
nd theories or many research ndings about the topic, you need to create a new theory.
The deductive approach (Quantitative research): When you are studying a topic and you
nd many theories explaining your topic, it makes more sense to test whether the extant theories are
accurate or need re nements.
Example: You are interested in studying why some students pass the course and others fail. Which
approach to research do you take, the inductive (qualitative research) or deductive approach
(quantitative research)?
Induction: You start your research from making speci c observations towards creating a general
theory. This means that you will observe what students are doing throughout the course and you
will analyse what the underlying reasons are for passing and failing this course. You can also
interview a few students to ask about their experiences and reasons for passing and failing the
course. Towards the end you will be able to make a general statement/conclusion.
This research can be quite weak, because this theory isn’t tested.So then it is the task of the
quantitative researcher to test this theory.
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, Deduction: if others have already made observations and created the theory, you will have to use
the theory to set up hypothesis (i.e. predictions) and test them. For example, if you sent out surveys
and conclude that out of the 400 students, 350 students at the vu attend lectures are active during
tutorials and work on their assignments. You will set up the following to hypotheses:
1. 350 students at the VU will pass the course
2. 50 students will fail the course
It could be that you nd support for the hypotheses. But, it could also happen that you will have to
rejects the hypotheses. Most of the time you will nd a small deviation, in that case you need to
re ne the theory.
- you need to test which other factors play a role.
- What if students of VU have a high IQ?
- Context could also in uence the results.
- This means that you contribute to knowledge by adding new insights to existing knowledge/
theories.
Figure on the process of induction and deduction (page 8)
Inductive research approach: also called qualitative research and uses for example interviews and
observations for data collection.
Deductive research approach: also calls quantitative research and uses numerical data to test the
hypotheses (i.e. surveys).
Both approaches are equally important, it is not that the one is better than the other. But in social
sciences scholars have extensively studied many topics and created many theories and tested them.
Therefore, if you take an inductive approach you do need to clearly justify this, by explaining why
such an approach is needed.
Academic research:
- focus on generating knowledge
- Adds incrementally yo existing knowledge
- Must be conducted in a rigorous way
Commercial research (e.g. consultancy)
- focus on solving a business problem
- Often lack of underlying theory & building on prior work
- Answer might only be useful in a speci c context, not generalisable
- Solutions often not shared
- Contributes to pro t
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, Four ologies important key terms (page 11)
Ontology
- individual’s believes about the nature of reality
Epistemology and Axiology
- epistemology is a bout how do we generate knowledge? What type of knowledge? Axiology is
about what is the goal of our research?
Methodology
- what method do we need to use to do research?
Whether researchers decide to take an inductive or deductive approach to research is in uenced by
the rst three “ologies”. Thus when you read scienti c articles, you should be able to understand
which approach has been taken by the researchers and what role the three “ologies” played in their
research design and process.
Ontology
- “A set of believes about what the world we are studying actually is” (Lee & Lings, 2013, p. 11)
- Is reality objective and independent of our own perception? Realists would say yes and use
objective measures to study their topic, such as numbers. Results are not in uenced by the
researcher’s experience or meaning about the topic. Facts are given and don’t change. This is
quantitative research.
- Or is reality shaped by those who experience it? Interpretivists would say yes and believe that
what is “real” depends on the meaning you and me attach to it, Therefore they use subjective
measures to study their topic, such as observations, interviews. Such methods allow them to give
Allows them to give meaning to what they are studying and on what’s going on in the
environment. Results are more in uenced by the researcher’s experience and interpretation
during data collection. This is qualitative research. So, reality is subjective. Goal of research, is try
and explore new topics.
Epistemology
What relationship should the researcher have with his research, and in speci c with his data
collection and analysis? What kind of knowledge do you want to generate.
Interpretevists take an “inside” perspective
- knowledge is subjective and thus also the data collection
- Researcher wants to be in the eld and interacts with participants
- Data is context-speci c and more verbal
Realists take an “outside” perspective
- knowledge should be objective and thus also the data collection
- Sending surveys without personal contact
- Numerical data
- Data analysis with speci c software
- Data can be used to make conclusions about similar contexts, called generalisation.
Axiology
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