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Slide 1

LIS 570

Ways of knowing and the research process

Slide 2

Research is everywhere

• The need for research methods literacy

• to protect yourself from misleading research conclusions

• to empower yourself to use valid social science research

• to enable the essential function of research communication

• the partnership between the researcher and the consumer of research

Slide 3

Sources of understanding

• How do we know what we know?

• Variations in explanations e.g. deviance

• Personal experience

• Tradition

• can be a powerful force operating against inquiry

Slide 4

Sources of understanding

• Authority

• how do we select?

• Public opinion

• people can agree on things that are inaccurate

• Common errors in understanding

• we can observe inaccurately

• we can overgeneralise

• we can be guilty of selective perception

Slide 5

Research                     

• “Disciplined way of coming to know something about ourselves or our world“(Bouma)

• “. .the systematic effort to secure answers to questions” (Reinard)

• “. . a process by which we answer questions and try to draw conclusions from information gathered..” (Reinard)

Slide 6

Research in the social sciences

• Features of the scientific method

• empirical

• verifiable

• cumulative

• self-correcting

• deterministic

• ethical and ideological neutrality

• statistical generalizability

Slide 7

Research

• Disciplined Inquiry

• Problem based

• Systematic: Methodical

• Established sources of evidence

• Sound argument

• Concern for Error

• Anticipation

• Control (Elimination)           

• Discussion of the Margin of error

• Public

• Original, Novel

Slide 8

Research in LIS570

• Purpose

• Description

• What is ….

• Search for Relationships

• Association  Between Ideas (Concepts)

• Search for Explanations

• Cause and Effect Relationships

Slide 9

The Phases of Research

• Phase 1: Essential First Steps

• Phase 2: Data Collection

• Phase 3: Analysis and Interpretation

Slide 10

Essential First Steps

• Phase 1

• Select, Narrow and State Problem

• Exploratory Qualitative Research

• Select a Research Design

• Design and Devise Measures for Variables

• Measurement Process

• Select Tables for Analysis

• Select a Sample