Originally posted to eBridge, 12 February 2013
Stimulate research thinking – ultimately this comes down to
our ability to make connections. If we don’t understand other peoples’
perspectives we aren’t going to build our professional network, and these are
really what sustains our on-going development. Beyond the ‘course’ of
pre-approved knowledge, we are into the realms of the unknown! The advance of
the internet has broken down a lot of the barriers to finding other people and
their ideas. Through blogging I have been exposed to a wealth of new ideas to
guide my practice – even though the ‘data’ isn’t numerical, simply reading the
narrative of other professionals is sufficient immersion in the subject to
understand their perspectives, and the attitudes that are necessary for
success.
However our learning has to extend beyond the formal realm,
so journal articles and books are still useful! In this respect my professional
connections are focused on workplace practice, not in the academic research
field, so I don’t always know where to start. Also, workplace data is not always
readily available, since there is no incentive to share it between
organisations. My success will rely on drawing links between academic topics of
interest and my own field – hence the importance of imagination! Methods of data
collection need to be considered carefully if I am going to research online
communities, as participation is not always constant. When synthesising research
findings, I will again need to be imaginative to find appropriate links to other
research areas, since there may not always be contexts similar to my own.
References:
- Newby, P. (2010) Research Methods for Education. Pearson Education Limited.
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