Saturday, June 27, 2015

When I think of Research

Now that we are ending our Developing Research Competency class, I found myself not wanting the class to end. It has been one of the most fun, enlightening, and educational classes for me. This is my fifth class, so that also means I am at halfway point of my graduate studies.

As some of you know, I am a research associate but never had an opportunity to develop my own research. This is where I have become more confident and knowledgeable about the research process. My professional base of knowledge has been enhanced in ways that I did not expect and indeed appreciated.  As I think back to my Week 1 where I developed my class research simulation topic and subtopics, I could see how the class helped me hone my basic skills and thoughts into a finely crafted research question. Most of all, I was glad Dr. Parrish kept assuring us that, by the end of class, we will have something we can be proud of. I am grateful I decided to just enjoy the process albeit with some really stressful weekends of studying!

Sometimes when the weekly reading was not clear, all I need to do was check out our Discussions, and everything would then make sense. Thank you to all of the colleagues in our Discussions. Thanks, Dr. Parrish, for your patience with me.

For me, I appreciated most of all the opportunity to learn about certain methodologies and when and why we would employ quantitative or qualitative methods. I did not realize that there was a third one – mixed method research, and that’s my favorite!

I loved learning about tools that are available to researchers. Tools like triangulation is helpful to know for when we are struggling with certain aspects of the research project or indigenist research that would help us work with the populations that we want to research. Most surprising for me was the allowance of researchers’ personal biases and how to work through the biases. I had never heard about equality and equity and am really grateful to know a few new things about them.

Good luck to some of you who will be doing actual research; I hope I will get an opportunity to apply for funds to conduct my research.

Finally, good luck also to some of you who will continue with classes and to those who are taking breaks. May our paths cross again in the next few classes.



3 comments:

  1. First of all, thank you for sharing throughout this course. I have enjoyed reading your posts and blogs and I appreciate your feedback as well. It has been a real challenge.I am still grateful though for all the information shared it helps a bit more with understanding research. This has been a really good course.

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  2. Marla,
    Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and learning with me. I truly enjoyed this class as well and while I have always sought understanding and knowledge, I never really considered conducting research as a possible career path or experience to pursue. I would love to learn more about your position and what kind of work you perform as a research assistant. Hopefully we meet up again in future classes soon!

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  3. Marla,
    I very much enjoyed reading your blog. I too learned so much this class. I must admit there were times where I was very confused and very frustrated, especially with all the new terminology. When it comes to studying and terminology, I tend to have a short term memory, so it really took me a while to catch on and remember everything I had just learned, but I'm glad I did. I have a new found interest as someday I can see myself participating in research and will feel much more comfortable with it. I agree that participating in the discussions was also useful because it gave me a different perspective that just the book. Sometimes I need to hear it from another angle to make more sense. I enjoyed all of your posts and hope to see you in class again! Good luck!

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