Research as a method of gaining knowledge

INTRODUCTION

Human beings have always been curious to explore their biological, physical, and social world. This inquisitiveness of human nature has helped generate a lot of information regarding the biological physical and social aspects of the world we live in. 

In their quest to know the ‘truth’ or reality of the world in which human beings live, they have employed a variety of methods to gain understanding of the world. 

In early times tradition and personal experiences were the only methods of gaining knowledge. Later, revealed knowledge (as given in religious scriptures), and expert advice became the methods of knowing.

Aristotle proposed deductive logic (the process of deriving logical conclusions about particular instances from general premises or statements) as the method of knowing. 

Francis Bacon on the other hand, advocated inductive logic (the process of inferring a generalised conclusion from particular instances).

Charles Darwin popularised the inductive-deductive approach as a method of knowing.

In recent times science (the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment) has emerged as a discipline. Philosophers like John Dewey have advocated that an approach based on the methods of science should be employed for gaining knowledge of the physical and natural world.

This scientific and disciplined inquiry approach, which has helped the mankind in gaining objective understanding of the natural and social world, is called research. 

The Scientific and disciplined inquiry approach is made up of many steps. The four crucial steps are:

1. Recognize and identify a problem to be studied;

2. Describe and execute procedures to collect information about the questions or problem being studied;

3. Analyse the collected information;

4. State results or implications based on analysis of the information.

Compared to other methods of knowing, such as tradition, expert advice, personal experience, and inductive and deductive logic, a scientific and disciplined inquiry approach provides the most unbiased and verifiable understandings.

MEANING OF RESEARCH

The word research is composed of two syllables, ‘re’ and ‘search’. re is a prefix meaning ‘again, anew or over again’; search is a verb meaning ‘to examine closely and carefully, to test and try, or to probe’. Together they form a noun describing ‘a careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to establish facts or principles’.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines research as ‘the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions’. 

Simply stated, research is the application of scientific and disciplined inquiry approach to the study of problems and issues of the natural and social world.

The primary goal of research is to explain or help understand relevant issues, questions and processes.

Secondary goals of research are to help others understand, predict future outcomes, improve future research and practice, and raise new questions to research.

Rarely does any single study produce definitive answers to research questions. Rather, understandings accumulated from many studies are the basis of progress and understanding.

Research is a process of collecting, analysing and interpreting information to answer questions. But to qualify as research, the process must have certain characteristics: it must, as far as possible, be controlled, rigorous, systematic, valid and verifiable, empirical and critical.