Explain the importance of research for academic purposes

At the end of this topic, you should be able to explain the importance of research, in the context of academic purpose. 

Let us begin our first topic on research methodology with something that you are familiar with.  RESEARCH.  What do you understand by research? 

Do you notice that the word “research” has been used in many ways and sometimes rather loosely, giving rise to confusion and sometimes with the intention to deceive. 

Research is a way of thinking; it involves thinking what we want to study, how we go about collecting data, analysing the data and deriving conclusions. What else do we need to know about research? Let us find out what they are and continue the lesson! 

What can you say to define research? 

Kerlinger (1990) defines research as “the systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypotheses on the presumed relations among the phenomena” (p. 10).  

Based on this definition, what can you conclude? You will notice that there are certain key words used in these definitions of research.  What are those definitions? 

Yes, it is a scientific (or systematic) process of gathering information on the hypothesised relations between phenomena. For example, to investigate if there is a relationship between a post graduate student’s attitude towards research methodology and his or her performance in research methodology. 

Now, what do you understand by educational research, research for academic purposes and its importance? 

Generally, educational research is described as research that investigates the behaviour of students, teachers, administrators, parents and other members of the community who interact with educational institutions. The word behaviour is taken broadly to mean such phenomena as learning, attitudes, aptitudes, abilities, interests, practices, processes, emotions and so forth.  

What is the purpose of educational research? Since education is fundamentally the development of individuals, then the central purpose of educational research is to find ways to improve student learning. It has been argued that educational research which does not have this as its ultimate motivation and objective is not educational research. Anyone who is engaged in a systematic search of ways to improve student learning is doing educational research. 

In terms of academic research, academic research seeks to advance new knowledge and has relevance based on solving problems that contribute to the improvement of society. Therefore, when you perform academic research, you are essentially trying to solve a mystery—for instance you want to investigate or explore how something works or why something happened. 

Now, view the following video to get a better understanding of the module