Also, during the lecture Dr. Williams taught the six components of research. The first aspect is "Component of Research." This section is where the statement of the problem and or challenge is located. Researchers should consider the purpose of the research and the skill level that is needed. The second component is the "Current State of Research." The underlying question of this component is "what has already been said about the subject?"; in other words what research has been done and what analysis have already been concluded. The third component is "Methodology." It determines how you will approach the research, study the design of the research (ex. longitudinal), and method of data collection (secondary sources, interviews) . There are three types of studies which are discipline specific, multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary. Discipline specific refers to the underlying assumption of one field. Multi-disciplinary is comprised of multiple disciplines and their thinking process. Lastly, interdisciplinary is inquired knowledge that has an unlimited domain.
The last three components of research are framework, development of thesis, and conclusion. The framework describes how you will structure the project and how you will display your data. The development of a thesis is self explanatory; the way in which you write your assertion about the data is the development of a thesis. Researchers must be able to clearly articulate their thesis in order for readers to comprehend it. Finally, the conclusion should provide new insights that the research has revealed. In the conclusion one should provide the limitations and obstacles they inquired will doing the research. These six components if followed accurately are the steps to produce a good research project. In freshman seminar specifically students must follow the six components of research in conjunction with their group project.
-Kaylynn Webb
Research and Methodology: Inscription as a Liberating Practice
ReplyDeleteIn last weeks freshmen seminar lecture we finally began to relate our previous lectures to our class projects. Dr. Dana Williams started by reiterating the goals of freshmen seminar, which are independent discovery, and making sure that a commitment to academic excellence is achieved. She also explained to us the objectives of her presentations, which were to identify the principle components of research and to relate it to our group project. We learned that the basic components of research are the statement of the problem, the current state of research, the methodology and the framework of the final presentation. In my opinion it was one of the only classes that I could directly relate to our group projects and I learned new ways to research for our research project.
Later in the presentation, Dr. Williams talk about how our previous lectures related to our group project. Each presentation from every influential professor helped cultivate our skills on listening to lectures and effectively receiving the right information and taking notes. Also learning about the history and legacy of Howard University and other influential African scribes added to our information on how knowledge is generated by all fields. Basically, this lecture was a crash course on everything that went on in our freshmen seminar class along with information on what is to come ahead with our group projects.
October 4th’s lecture by Dr. Dana Williams was entitled Research and Methodology: Inscription as Liberating Practice. Like Dr. Gbadegesin before her, Williams began the presentation by giving homage to those before, now, and after her. The lecture focused on pursuing independent research, as well as appreciating the importance of research. Dr. Williams presented two objectives that would help with conducting a good group project. The first objective was to identify the principle components of research, and the second objective was to relate these principle components to the group project. Identifying components make it easier to organize and strategize how to go about developing and presenting an effective research project. As an aid, Dr. Williams too the freshman seminar course as a case study to exemplify how the six components she identified should be used. These six components include stating the problem, the current state of research, methodology, framework, development of thesis, and the conclusion. By combining these components and freshman seminar she showed how the coordinators worked to redevelop the curriculum and objectives that would be taught. In summation, the entire lecture dealt with formulating a research topic and how to present it in a way to best present one’s research. This lecture was very helpful and was the only one that could be called relevant to helping the freshman. This particular lecture should have been one of the first presented instead of waiting until the end. Out of all the lectures this is the one that I really paid attention to. Research is a big part of life and being able to conduct and present it correctly is a must.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s lecture was a very informative and important one. Dr. Dana Williams presented a lecture entitled “Research and Methodology: Inscription as a Liberating Practice” which could not have been timed better. Right as we begun doing research for our group presentations she gave us directions as to how to complete them, and detailed certain criteria that needed to be met. In the lecture she first discussed the overall purpose of freshman seminar, which was a nice reminder, because I felt as though a lot of students were loosing sight of what they were there for. She then related that to our group projects and detailed exactly what her lecture would be about, which was very helpful. She covered the basic components of research and gave us questions to encourage us to think outside of the box. She encouraged us to consider the reasonableness of our research question, and to examine past research done on these topics in order to determine whether we were presenting new information. She then discussed the methodology of the research, such as listing secondary sources, and the framework of our individual presentations, listing videos PowerPoints, and other various methods as options to present. Then she reviewed what she had said which was very helpful for those of us that missed sections. To top it all off, Dr. Williams provided an example. Using freshman seminar as a model she created a mock research project, showing the students more in detail how to conduct and complete the freshman seminar group project. This lecture was the most concise and most relevant to our actual work load.
ReplyDelete