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VI Excercises on Research Process

tekijä: Tanja Tuulikki Välisalo Viimeisin muutos maanantai 08. maaliskuuta 2010, 13.35

VI Exercises on Research Process

 

The exercises on Research Processes are divided into two categories:

Exercise A applies to the student’s own discipline and research subject

Exercise B which requires either or both a broader and a theoretical discussion

The exercises on Research Processes are broken into five sections: Focusing and Justifying the Study,

Research Plan, Conducting Research, Reporting and Ethics.

 

Focusing and Justifying the Study

VI 1 A) Make a list of different thematic topics which your discipline has researched. Discuss which themes you find interesting and which do not interest you.  

VI 2 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Present three different ways of defining the subject matter into a more exact topic.

VI 3 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Find previous researches on the subject matter and compare them. How do the points of view and methodological choices differ in these researches? Which points of views, approaches and methods are reoccurring in these researches?

VI 4 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Make a list of the different points of views from which the subject matter has been researched and from which the subject matter could be researched. Make a list of concepts which have been used in the previous researches.

VI 5 B) What kind of subject matter is a good for research? What kind of subject matter is not worth researching?

VI 6 B) Discuss how defining the research topic may at the same time define the possible data collection and data analysis methods.

VI 7 B) Discuss if it is reasonable to research a topic, which has already been researched before with a similar kind of research aim.

VI 8 B) Discuss what a concept is and the significance of concepts in scientific research.

 

Research Plan

VI 9 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Formulate three different research aims, which demand the use of different research method in the each aim.  

VI 10 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). From which theoretical points of view has the subject matter been previously researched? How have the used theoretical points of views influenced on the selection of the methods in the previous researches?

VI 11 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Which are the core concepts in your subject matter? What kinds of hierarchies do the concepts form? Discuss if the same concept is used in different meanings and if the use of concepts contain some evaluative connotations.

VI 12 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis) and formulate a research question on the subject matter. What do you expect to be the answer to the question? How did you end up with the answer (describe the reasoning process)? Discuss with which methods you could prove whether your answer was valid.

VI 13 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). With which kinds of data collection methods could the data on the subject matter be collected? Which analysis methods seem natural for researching the possible data? Which analysis methods do not seem to fit to the research of the subject matter? Why do some analysis methods seem to fit better to the research of the subject matter?

VI 14 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Discuss your personal relation to the subject matter: How does your relation (as an expert, enthusiast, professional, outsider etc.) influence on the research of the subject matter.

VI 15 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Make a research plan on the subject matter.

VI 16 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Make a work plan and schedule for the research of the subject matter.

VI 17 B) Different data collection and analysis methods influence the researcher’s position. Discuss in which methods the researcher has an intensely subjective position in the production of research results, and in which methods the position of the researcher is not as meaningful.  

VI 18 B) Discuss how research strategies, data collection methods and data analysis methods are linked together. 

VI 19 B) What is the ‘life span’ of a hypothesis in scientific research? How can the hypothesis change during the research process?

VI 20 B) Discuss how changes in concepts influence or reflect changes in scientific thinking and the renewal of science.

VI 21 B) Discuss how theory and method differ from each other in scientific research.  

VI 22 B) What unexpected factors may delay a planned schedule? How can researchers prepare themselves for delaying factors?

VI 23 B) Discuss, how research aims differ in theoretical and empirical research. How do the differences influence the selection of methods?  

VI 24 B) Discuss in which phase of the research the researcher should try to formulate a Table  of Contents for the research project. What kind of tool is the Table of Contents for the researcher?  

 

Conducting Research

VI 24 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Discuss what kind of data could be collected on the subject matter. Choose one data type for a closer study. Make an exact plan of how the chosen data could be collected.  

VI 25 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Discuss what kind of data could be collected on the subject matter. Choose one data type for a closer study. Discuss which analysis method could be used in the analysis of the chosen data type. Describe how the analysis could proceed.

VI 26 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Find some previous research on the subject matter. What does the research explore and what conclusions or interpretations are made in the research? How has the researcher reached the conclusions or interpretations?

VI 27 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Find some previous research on the subject matter. What kind of reasoning is used in the research in the production of the results?  

VI 28 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Discuss

a) with which methods are the results of the analysis repeatable and as objective as possible

b) with which methods do the results depend highly on the researcher’s position and the research conditions are subjective?

c) the positive and negative aspects of the methods for the research of your subject matter.

VI 29 B) Discuss the positive and negative aspects of collecting data with several data collection methods.  

VI 30 B) The same research may include various analysis methods. Discuss which analysis methods are sufficiently different due to their philosophical base that they cannot reasonably be used in the same research project.

VI 31 B) Discuss if the research results and conclusions are always the researcher´s interpretations.  

VI 32 B) What makes reasoning scientific?  

VI 33 B) How can the reliability and validity of quantitative and qualitative research be evaluated?

 

Reporting

VI 34 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Make a research plan on the subject matter. Find out the typical structure of a scientific article. Organize the content of the plan according to the typical structure of a scientific article.

VI 35 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Choose three data collection methods and three data analysis methods which could be used in the analysis of the data. How do the data collection and data analysis methods influence writing and reference practices?

VI 36 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Is it possible to illustrate the subject matter in the research report with pictures or tables? How could you illustrate your subject matter if the research is:

a) qualitative research

b) quantitative research

c) theoretical research?

VI 37 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). Find out what kinds of texts have been previously written on the subject matter. Evaluate which texts you find the most reliable and adequate in the context of your subject matter. Explain why some texts are more reliable than others in the context of your subject matter?

VI 38 B) Discuss how the writing processes in qualitative and quantitative research differ.

VI 39 B) What kind of information on research methods is necessary to present as an appendix in a research report and why is this information necessary.

VI 40 B) Discuss when it is reasonable in a research report to use Figures which illustrate concepts, theories or methods used in the research.  

VI 41 B) Discuss how the age of the source of information influences its use in research.

 

Ethics

VI 42 A) Choose a subject matter which you find interesting to research (e.g. the subject matter of your thesis). What kind of ethical problems could be included in the research of the subject matter, the collection of the data and the analysis of the data?

VI 43 B) Discuss which kinds of data collection and data analysis methods include the most ethical problems. How could the ethics of the research be increased in those cases?