Yes I have done original research before, in my psychology class last year, I had to interview 3 people for my final paper and I have also done it for little things in middle and high school but that was the biggest thing that I have used it for.
Original research is when you go out and find information on your own, you get your own research instead of getting it from library research such as research from a book or academic database, etc. Library research may guide original research because you may find a study and want to make your own study and compare it to that one or see if the results of that study in true in their town or with the people in their lives.
A pro of library research is that it is most likely legitimate because usually studies are preformed in big numbers and preformed by doctors in that field of study, that show its credibility. Also it is usually easier to get library research than to go out and get your own. A con of library research is that you may not be able to find research or a study on your specific topic that you are researching, so if you use original research, you can make your own topic of research. Also, another con of library research is you don't get to be involved in your topic, which may mean that you don't learn as much because with original research, for example if you do an interview, you get a lot of experience from it and can know the information first hand, so no bias except your own will affect the research and you may understand learn more from it.
Critical thinking skills that I think are used in both original research and library research include: interpretation, evaluation, inference, analysis and self-regulation. I think the most important critical thinking skill for library research is evaluation because when you are looking for research for a paper or presentation it has to be credible and evaluation is a skill you need to know if the information you are finding is just that, especially since it is not original research that is being done right in front of you, it is by people you probably don't know and you have to evaluate their articles, books, websites, etc. The most important critical thinking skill for original research I think is self-regulation because you are the one who is going out and finding the research, so you have to be able to monitor what you're doing, whether it is being in control of a study or an interview by evaluating and analyzing in one without having your judgments interfere.
Hi Kaitlin,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post on original research vs library research. You make a good point when you say that in original research, you might be able to learn more about your subject, or see a different perspective on your subject, which others did not catch in their books and journal articles.
Be careful about making generalizations about library research and reading research studies, though...their research design and questions asked still may reflect bias, or still might collect inaccurate information because the right questions were not asked. This is where our critical thinking skills come in, to evaluate the research that others have done.
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum