Becoming a Scholar Infographic designed by Kimberly S. Grotewold, 2023, using Visme.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Research as Inquiry slide designed by Kimberly S. Grotewold, 2023, using Visme.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
People do research in everyday life to answer questions they have about something. You likely do some type of information seeking when you decide if you are going to watch a specific movie or buy a particular product. Maybe you conducted some personal research comparing graduate programs before you applied or enrolled at A&M-SA. Often personal research involves searching online and/or getting input from people you know and trust.
Problem by Kamin Ginkaew from Noun Project
Professional research involves information seeking to solve work-based problems. Usually the goal is to improve one's practice as a professional in the field or as an organization more broadly. Like with personal research, the information search is often based on a question or problem but now it is connected to the workplace. For an educator, an example could include, "How can I incorporate more active learning in my social studies instruction?" For this question, the teacher might search online and retrieve a mix of different types of information (news media, performance data, journal articles) and discuss the issue with colleagues. The collected information is often applied to improve practices or processes within a particular setting without the larger goal of publishing the results of these efforts to a larger community of scholars.
Business Woman by Andy Horvath from Noun Project
Academic research is similar to the other types of research because it often begins with a question, problem, or observed situation. The people carrying out the research may search for information online or talk with colleagues to establish an overview of the topic or question and this may include trying to figure out if others are interested in or are doing work on the topic. An important goal of the academic researcher is to share knowledge with the larger community of scholars in their discipline or field. Therefore, their information seeking will almost always need to move beyond open web searches and will involve using specialized databases and more advanced searches. The researcher will frequently refer to existing theories from their discipline to frame their inquiry and/or explain their research findings. If they are doing empirical research involving human participants, they will need to file for Institutional Review Board (or equivalent) approval to certify that they are following protocols that minimize possible risks to the people who agree to be involved.
Thesis by Cuputo from Noun Project