University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Lecture Research Skills

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills OBJECTIVES By the end of this lecture the student should – Understand the characteristics of good research Understand what Intelligence Gathering is: The ‘what’ questions Understand Research and: The ‘why’ questions Appreciate the basic types of research Appreciate the need to develop research skills

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills What is Research? Finding out something you don’t know “Endeavouring to discover new, or collate old facts, by critical study” (OED)

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Intelligence Gathering Is about the ‘What’ and ‘How many’ questions Needs to be carefully defined to be meaningful Answers need to be: –Quantitative –Objective –Provide information for analysis

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Intelligence Gathering: Example “How many Professionalism and Personal Skills students are female?” Can be objectively quantified What would you do with the data?

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Research The ‘Why’ questions Looks for explanations Requires intelligence gathering first to provide data Assesses information and critically evaluates it Identifies where further data is required to provide further information to answer the question

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Research Example “Why are there only X number of female students on the Professionalism and Personal Skills module?” Data gathered gives the value of ‘X’ To look for explanation we need to – –Identify WHY we want to know –Clarify further questions that need to be asked

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Characteristics of Good Research Good research skills develop with continual testing, reviewing and criticism of your work and others Conventional wisdom may not bear critical, impartial evaluation

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Characteristics of Good Research Good researchers examine data critically Both the data itself, and its source They need to ask – –Are the facts right? –Can more data be found? –Can the results be interpreted differently?

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Types of Research Exploratory Testing Problem Solving

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Exploratory Research Looks at a new topic area Little previous work in this area Research idea may not be very well formulated There will be a need to examine what theories/concepts are appropriate May not lead to conclusive results

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Testing Research Examines existing theory and looks at defining limits of applicability For instance – “everyone knows that the value of gravity = 9.81M/S 2 ” In what range is this true? This is the basic task in academic research

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Problem Solving Research The problem to be solved is defined The problem is often ‘real world’ The researcher needs to choose appropriate methods and theories to solve the problem Much of the actual research will be involved in identifying and critically evaluating appropriate techniques and theories to use within the problem domain

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Developing Research Skills Development through – –Practice –Self assessment –Feedback from peers –Feedback from researchers Professionalism and Personal Skills provides the forum within which these skills can be developed

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Basic Research Skills Required Ability to write technical papers To be able to marshal facts into logical order To present arguments well, citing theory to clarify and support assertions To acknowledge other views on a subject and put them into perspective To write clearly, tersely and unambiguously

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Basic Research Skills Required Ability to unearth reference material from a variety of sources The ability to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills Basic Research Skills Required The ability to design and analyse questionnaires The ability to design and conduct interviews The ability to use statistical techniques The ability to design experiments to test out hypotheses

University of Sunderland Professionalism and Personal Skills Unit 7 Professionalism and Personal Skills SUMMARY Objectives Understand the characteristics of good research Understand what Intelligence Gathering is: The ‘what’ questions Understand Research and: The ‘why’ questions Appreciate the basic types of research Appreciate the need to develop research skills