This week I said to a large lecture theatre full of First Year students :
‘We have many search engines, such as google, library searches and data base search facilities. However, there is only one ‘research engine’ known to humanity. What is it?’
One student called out ‘Us’. Yes, the only research engine is the ‘human mind’. Many animals can search, but only the human brain is known to have the capacity to research (although dam-building beavers make me wonder about that).
One of the defining features of research is the ‘re’ part- ‘doing it again’. This is an element of research that requires hardwork. Whilst we may be driven by curiosity to want to research, as we get into it it just gets hard. This reflects the move from ‘query’ to ‘inquiry, where being ‘in’ the query, being immersed in it, is all encompassing, requiring effort to keep one’s head above water. What does this need to keep on going tell us about the affective or emotional side of research?
The second cognitive facet of the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework is that students find information and generate data using discipline-appropriate methodologies. If this is completed in a half-hearted or slapdash way, that which is found is likely to lack sufficient rigor or credibility. Therefore, the affect associated with this facet is:
Determined
Students being determined enough to find information that addresses their questions or purpose, formulating an answers. Then, with a dawning realisation that they may have only found a partial answer, or drawn on a set of articles that were somehow biased in orientation, they seacrch for more information. Students generating data in laboratories, field research, clinical research or surveying opinions, analysing their results and deciding to go back and regenerate to test the voracity of findings. Determinination entails keeping on going until the job is done properly.
Another statement from Albert Einstein about one of his key researcher characteristics was:
‘Its not that I am so smart. Its just that I stay with problems longer’
How can we facilitate the development of determined students who stay with problems longer? Some students give up easily when they encounter obstacles. Others, given a challenge, may not let go until it is resolved. Maybe one key is building a supportive ‘community of inquiry’ where there is a social norm to encounter problems, share problems and work through problems as part of a research process, ie smooth sailing is abnormal! Another key may be personal committment by students to the phenomena being researched, where this can be realised through ownership and autonomy being as high as possible, but no higher. A third, and more readily realisable, key to develop determined students is the process of making the need to be determined more explicit; stating this as a core characteristic, as well as lecturer modelling of determination, may go a long way to helping its gestation in students. Ultimately, there may be a strong link between the engagment suggested by ‘curiosity’ and the persitance suggested by ‘determination’; these are an inter-related couple amongst the vital six affective facets of research.
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