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Minds on

MINDS ON

“

Seeing your world view as open to improvement by the evidence and experience of others…

~ Michael Patrick Lynch, How to see past your own perspective and find truth, TEDTalk, April 2017.

Human beings are born with an innate curiosity.  From a very young age, it’s how we learn about the world around us and about how we fit into it. As such, each of us has a unique knowledge about the world stemming from our own experiences in it.  Studying the social sciences keeps our curiosity active and helps our own world view expand as we learn more about how others view the world around us, from individuals, groups, and whole societies and cultures, historically and in the present.  It’s about making the shift from our own knowing to our own trying to understand our world.  

Using their natural curiosity as a starting point, social scientists use multiple sources of information and craft research plans to assist in their investigations, so that they can both understand an issue and share their new insights with others.

Action.

ACTION

Inquiry Process in the Social Sciences: Investigating

This stage of the inquiry process in the social sciences is called Investigating. In this step, social scientists have to locate and select relevant information and use appropriate research and inquiry methods.

This image is a diagram which shows four circles, each identifying a stage of the Inquiry Process in the Social Sciences. Exploring: explore topics related to the subject area, identify concepts, and formulate questions to guide research and inquiry. Investigating: create research plans and locate and select information relevant to chosen topics, using appropriate research and inquiry methods; formulate hypotheses, questions theses. Processing information: assess, record, organize, analyse, and synthesize information; document sources; form conclusions. Communicating and Reflecting: communicate the results of research and inquiry clearly and effectively, and reflect on and evaluate research, inquiry and communication skills.

It’s no secret we are bombarded with sources of information: from our interactions with people - both virtually and face-to-face - and the 24/7 availability of information on our devices, we have a steady stream of information available to us.  Knowing how to determine which information is most useful and most credible for our research is a valuable skill social scientists need to develop.

 

Primary and Secondary Sources

Social scientists consult and use both primary and secondary sources of information to satisfy their curiosity.  When conducting research, it is recommended to use both kinds of sources. As you review the different types of primary and secondary sources in this activity, try to determine why it would be important for a social scientist to consider using both types in his or her research.

ResearchSources

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Evaluating Sources

Locating information from a variety of sources is one important step in the inquiry process.  Deciding if the source itself is valuable is another. This interactive shows you the CRAAP method which helps you identify the right kinds of questions to ask to determine if a source will be valuable or not.

CRAAP

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Next Step:  The Research Plan

Social scientists shape their curiosity into a research plan that captures both what they want to know and understand and what their plan is to find out.   Here are the basic parts of a research plan:

Introduction

  • Purpose - introduction to topic
  • Literature Review
  • Hypothesis or Research question

Methodology

  • Methods selected to conduct primary research (includes sample population)
  • Procedure
  • Expected results
  • Limitations and risks/ethical considerations

Research Tool Samples

References

 

The following sample research plan will show you what each part can look like.  As you read each section, select the different parts to see more about what kind of information each section should contain.

ResearchPlan

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As you can see, a research plan is a thoughtful construction of how a social scientist can follow up on his or her curiosity to understand more about a topic of interest.  Once the research is conducted, the researcher follows up with a Research Report.  A Research Report builds on the proposal or plan to include the results in charts, graphs, tables, or summaries (as appropriate to the research tool used), an analysis of the results, conclusions that relate back to the research question, and a self-reflection of the research process.  Further explanation of the Research Report, and samples of these, will be provided later in the course.

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