SESSION 1: NATURE OF INQUIRY IN RESEARCH

Research is best defined as:

• A casual process of finding interesting facts.

• A systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information.

• Quickly gathering information from the internet.

• Reading many books on a single topic.

One of the primary goals of research is to:

• Confirm pre-existing biases.

• Increase our understanding of a phenomenon.

• Simply accumulate data without interpretation.

• Create complex and unsolvable problems.

Research aims to solve problems and contribute to:

• Individual fame and fortune only.

• Maintaining the current state of affairs.

• People’s overall quality of life and general welfare.

• Proving that all old theories are wrong.

"Formal Research" implies an expectation to:

• Keep findings secret to gain an advantage.

• Only share results with close friends.

• Communicate discoveries to the larger scientific community.

• Publish findings only in popular magazines.

The "systematic process" in research means that it is:

• Done quickly and sporadically.

• Follows a logical and organized sequence of steps.

• Based only on intuition and personal feelings.

• Flexible to the point of having no structure.

When research involves "interpreting information," it means:

• Translating it into another language.

• Finding meaning and implications in the data.

• Simply rephrasing the collected data.

A key characteristic of data used in research is that it is:

• Always numerical.

• Collected, analyzed, and interpreted.

• Based purely on opinions.

• Guaranteed to be 100% accurate from the start.

The "phenomenon about which we are interested or concerned" in research refers to:

• Only supernatural events.

• Any observable event, behavior, or condition that can be studied.

• Something that is already fully understood.

• Topics that have no practical importance.

Disseminating research findings is crucial because it:

• Allows others to critique and build upon the work.

• Is mainly for the researcher to gain popularity.

• Ensures no one else can study the same topic.

• Makes the research process more complicated.

The term "scientific community" in the context of formal research refers to:

• Only Nobel prize winners.

• A group of experts and researchers in relevant fields.

• The general public with no specific expertise.

• Students in a single classroom.