The next presentation describes the research process and the steps involved.
The fundamentals (Part B)
You should now have a good understanding of what science and research are. Next, you need to become more familiar with the process of scientific research, i.e. the series of steps researchers use. You'll also see how these steps can help you to conduct your own research projects.
When scientists conduct a study, they usually follow a series of steps that provides them with a framework that helps them to organize and conduct their studies. These steps that were first identified as the 'scientific method' are based on the procedures used to conduct research in the physical sciences. The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.
Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause-and-effect relationships in nature. In other words, by making use of their observations, scientists design an experiment so that a change to one item causes something else to vary in a predictable way.
For example, let's say a scientist observes that the growth of bacteria slows down at a low temperature. The scientist may then speculate that the growth rate of bacteria is affected by temperature, and he will design an experiment to try to prove his idea. For example, in this case he could measure the growth rate of bacteria in various temperatures.
Even though you now know that the scientific method contains a series of steps, bear in mind that it is an iterative process. This means that new information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process.
In addition, different types of research have their own specific purposes, so they may use various steps and parts of the scientific method differently.
As you can see in this diagram, the research process is cyclical; this is what I meant by the word 'iterative'.
Research begin with Identifying a research problem, just like the example we used of how temperature affects bacterial growth. Once we have identified a research problem, then we can search for more information by reviewing the literature to give us a better understanding of the topic, and especially so that we can sub-divide our research problem into sub-problems. I will talk more about this later. Then we need to specify a purpose for the research. This is also called forming questions and hypotheses. In our example, the hypothesis could be 'the growth rate of bacteria is affected by temperature'. Then we need to design the experiments and collect data, and finally we'll need to analyse the data and interpret the research.
Please keep in mind that the research process is cyclical – scientific research is an iterative process.
This means that new information or thinking might cause a scientist to back up and repeat steps at any point during the process.
Just as this diagram shows, you need go through these steps when you perform your own research, remembering that the process is iterative.
After finishing the eight steps, you may find that your research results either support or reject your hypothesis. No matter what your result is, you may find it beneficial to start the process over from construction of hypothesis again.
These steps in fact provide the foundation for scientific research today. Although not all studies include all eight steps, researchers use this overall process as a framework whenever they undertake a research study.
To make it easier for you to understand the steps of the scientific method, I've summarized the key steps involved in the process:
- Identifying a research problem
- Reviewing the literature
- Specifying a purpose for the research; that is, forming questions and hypotheses
- Experimental design and collecting data
- Analysing data
- Reporting results
- Interpreting the research
- Disseminating and evaluating the research
Please note that the steps for scientific methods described in various sources or textbooks may be slightly different from each other. For example, some descriptions of the scientific research process say there are nine steps because they add a step called 'prediction' after the forming of a hypothesis. Therefore, please bear in mind that the eight steps I describe here are only the generalized key steps for a typical scientific research project.
Now let's take a look at an example.
Imagine one day that a boy Tom does to a beach and observes that there is a lot of sand there. Of course there should be sand on a beach! No big deal! But he comes up with a question: 'where does the sand on the beach come from'?
Now Tom has identified a research problem, and has asked a question, that is, 'where does the sand on the beach come from?' His next step is to try to get more information about his topic so that he can refine his question; that is, he needs to break the problem into sub-problems. Besides searching the literature, he may simply look around the environment to see if he can get some clues. Let's say Tom notices that there are rivers flowing from the nearby mountains to the beach. This triggers him to refine his question and ask himself 'does the sand come from the mountains by the way of river streams?'
So now Tom could make up a hypothesis such as 'the sand comes from the mountains.'
Now we get into experimental design. Can you think any method for testing Tom's hypothesis? What Tom might do is to examine and compare the mineral content of sand from the river streams, beach, and rocks from the mountains.
Let's say Tom collects this kind of data, analyses them, and comes to a conclusion. If the mineral contents of the sand extracted from the three places are the same, then he could accept his hypothesis. Remember, however, that this really doesn't mean that the hypothesis is true. More experimental tests should be done before it can be proposed as a theory.
On the other hand, if the mineral contents of the sand extracted from the three places are not the same, then Tom could reject his hypothesis. He would then to figure out a new hypothesis by repeating the steps again. Remember this is a cyclical process.
Before we end this section, I would like to introduce you to some research tools.
When scientists conduct a research, they need specialized tools in order to make their research effective, just as a carpenter needs a hammer, a screwdriver and a saw when making a table or chair.
The tools of research can be anything such as:
The library and its resources can help you find more information about your study topic.
- A computer and its software are useful for data storage and analysis.
- Measurement techniques are needed to use the equipment and protocols you need for your experiment.
- Statistics and the human mind are needed for data analysis.
- And even language is a tool for report writing and oral presentations.
Getting to know how to best use these tools will help a lot in your research.
One key point from this presentation that you will have noted is that the research process is cyclical; this is what I meant by the word iterative. After finishing the eight steps, you may either find your research results support or reject your hypothesis. No matter what your result is, you may find it beneficial to start the process over from step 1 or step 3. These steps in fact provide the foundation for scientific research today. Although not all studies include all eight steps, researchers use this overall process as a framework whenever they undertake a research study.
You should now be able to identify the nine steps that comprise the scientific method. You also learned that when scientists conduct research, they need specialized tools in order to make their research effective. Several key tools are used by researchers when performing their research. These tools can be effective and helpful — but they must be used correctly. One effective and helpful way of learning about research tools is to work closely with or talk to an experienced researcher in your field. For example, you could talk to your tutor, course coordinator and even the professors in your school about their experiences in using these research tools in their fields.
You can now test your understanding by completing the following Self-test 2.
You have now learned all of the fundamental and universal steps of research. Although you may find not all of these steps are involved in some kinds of research, they provide you with a framework for conducting your own research.
In the next section of this module you will start to learn about the first major step of the research process: identifying problems.
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