The Nature of Research

THE NATURE OF RESEARCH

In the start of the chapter few examples are coded to know what research is. These examples suggest that teachers, councilor, administrators, parents and students continually need information to do their jobs.
There are many ways of obtaining information. One can consult experts, review books and articles examine one’s own past experience, questioner observe colleagues etc. but the answers they provide are not   always reliable. This is why knowledge of scientific research methodology can be of value. It provides information that is as accurate and reliable as we can get.
Then we study about the comparison of scientific knowledge with other ways of knowing like sensory experience, agreement with others, expert opinion, logic and the scientific method.
We see, we hear, we smell, we taste, and we touch. The information we take in from the world through our senses is the most immediate way we have of knowing something. Sensory knowledge is undependable; it is also incomplete. The data we take in through our senses do not account for all of what we seem to feel is the range of human knowledge. To obtain reliable knowledge, therefore, we cannot rely on our senses alone but must check what we think we know with other sources
One such source is the opinion of others. Not only can we share our sensation with others, we can also check on the accuracy and authenticity of these sensations. The problem with such common knowledge is that, it too can be wrong. Hence, we need to consider some additional ways to obtain reliable knowledge.
All any expert can do is give us an opinion based of what he or she knows, and no matter how much this is, it is never all there to know.
              We also know things logically. Our intellect, our capability to reason things out and allows us to use sensory data to develop a new kind of knowledge. There is a fundamental danger in logical reasoning; however it is only when the major and minor premises of a...