Learning about the theoretical grounds related to Research allows me to develop

better critical thinking skills to conduct research

By Irving Martín

People all around the world have long been concerned to understanding their

environment and the nature of the phenomena that is present to their senses. This attempts

to discover the truth is called Research.

According to Kerlinger (cited in Cohen & Manion, 1994), research is a controlled

empirical and critical investigation of propositions about the relations that are believed to

exist among natural phenomena. Hence, conducting a piece of research implies having the

knowledge and the basis about what research is in order to be able to comprehend, select,

organize and present the correct approaches, tools, data, hypotheses, etc. in our work.

However, it does not only consist of having the knowledge, it is necessary that we acquire

skills that help us to select, and most importantly, to use the knowledge as a source to

become more critical concerning the conduction of research.

Critical Thinking

In recent years critical thinking has become an important concept and skill to be applied

in most of the areas of knowledge in order to think or analyse in the most logical, active,

persistent and careful way. Research is not excluded from that set of areas that benefit from

critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, we should ask first what critical thinking is and how

and in which aspect is related to research. According to Norris and Ennis (cited in Fisher,

2001), critical thinking is a reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what

to believe or do. That is, when we are thinking critically we are using our knowledge
effectively to arrive at the most reasonable and justifiable position. On the other hand, when

we are not thinking critically, no matter how intelligent or knowledgeable we are we will

make unreasonable decisions and we will arrive at unreasonable beliefs. It is not quantity of

information but assimilation and appropriate use of it.

Research and critical thinking?

The relation between critical thinking skills and research is evident. In that respect, it is

important to have the theoretical grounds concerning research because it will help us to

understand the issues to be developed subsequently when conducting a study.

When planning to conduct research is important to think about what we want to study,

why, where, which is the purpose and many other queries we ought to ask ourselves. These

questions require our ability of reasoning. Here, critical thinking is vital. Now, what are

those theoretical grounds that we should know in order to become more critical? We can

call them foundations of research, which are important issues related to the conduction of a

study.

Important aspects such as the nature or assumption of the reality, whether positivism or

anti-positivism, guides us when deciding the perspective of the study, if we believe that

knowledge is external to individuals, given out there in the world and of one single reality,

or that knowledge is subjective, product of individual cognition and consciousness (Cohen

& Manion, 1994).

Another important concept is the approach, quantitative or qualitative. This refers to

whether we focus more on the results and the statistical procedures or we are more

interested in the participants’ experiences, feelings and their conception of the world.
Depending on the approach, we should select a type of research or methodology according

to the needs of the study and the information sought. They can be experimental studies,

survey methods, interviews, correlations, etc, for quantitative, and discourse analysis,

interaction analysis, ethnography, case studies, classroom observation, diaries,

introspection, retrospection, action research, etc. for qualitative; all of them with very

specific purposes and very specific type of data under study. Therefore, we should be aware

why we are adopting a specific type of study or method, and the best way to do it is having

knowledge about them and the differences among them, their aims, and the type of data we

are working with. We should question ourselves why we are to use a specific method, does

it respond to the needs of the study? Is it better than others are? What are the advantages

and disadvantages? Can the results be replicated in this method? Etc. This type of questions

reflect our critical thinking at the moment of selecting one of those, and this occurs only if

we have knowledge of the different types of research that can be conducted and the

differences among them.

We should also consider other aspects of research that are closely related to the

development and the use of critical thinking skills. These aspects are validity, reliability

and axiology or ethics in research.

Validity has to do with the extent to which a piece of research investigates what the

investigator purports to investigate and the generalisation of the results of the study. Two

key questions we should ask to confirm validity in our research are:

 Is the research design such that we can confidently say that the outcomes are the

result of the treatment of the data?

  Is the research design such that we are able to generalise beyond the sample under

investigation to a wider population? (Bodgan & Knopps, 2007)

On the other hand, reliability refers to the consistency and replicability of the results that

we obtained from a piece of research. The two key questions we should ask are the

following:

 Would another researcher, when reanalysing the data, come to the same

conclusions?

 Would a different researcher, when replicating the study, come to the same

conclusions? (Bodgan & Knopps, 2007)

In addition to validity and reliability, researcher need to pay attention to axiology,

which is the study of values or more commonly known as ethics. Ethics in research is a

dilemma because deciding on what is ethical or not is not as simple as we may think. While

people may make up guidelines for ethical decision-making, the tough ethical decisions

reside in you and work along with your values and your judgements of right and wrong and

with your reasoning skills and critical thinking in order to decide the best way to proceed in

a specific situation. According to Cohen & Manion (1994), researchers are required to have

interpersonal and thinking skills of high order to deal effectively with the ethical challenges

of the research “adventure”. They need to develop an intuitive ability to discern what works

and what does not, what is appropriate and what is not. Furthermore, researchers should

show qualities of professional and human values as well as humility.

 The theoretical grounds related to Research allows the development of better critical

thinking skills to conduct research

Only having the knowledge will not make us critical thinkers, but using that knowledge

properly will show our critical thinking skills when deciding what information is helpful to

make decisions with regard to the conduction of a study.

The goal of thinking critically is simple: to guarantee, as far as possible, that one’s

beliefs and actions are justifiable and can stand up to the test of rational analysis (Facione,

2010). In general terms, we can say that thinking critically is to reason clearly, accurately,

knowledgeably, and fairly while evaluating the causes of a belief or the results of taking

some action.

There is a great deal of pressure in this society to not to think, to simply accept what we

are given, and repeat what we have been told. This starts with our earliest childhood,

however, that needs to be changed (Wood, 2002). Knowledge and assumptions of any

matter enable us to impose some sort of meaning in the world, they are the means by which

we are able to come to terms with our experience. How we perceived the world is highly

dependent on the repertoire of concepts and knowledge we have of a subject, in this case,

research. It allows us to understand it and to make justifiable decisions based on our

knowledge. As regards to this, when we state that learning about the theoretical grounds

related to Research allows the development of better critical thinking skills to conduct

research, we are not referring to memorisation of concepts as a way of becoming critical

thinkers as memorisation is not part of critical thinking. We understand that knowledge

facilitates the decision-making when conducting research since we have bases and
arguments to compare and to choose from. The knowledge should be internalised and it

should be meaningful, not simply a set of meaningless information. Hence, to be a critical

thinker a person should have some characteristics: Systematic, Inquisitive, Judicious, Truth

seeking, Confident in reasoning, Open-minded, Analytical (Facione, 2010).

These characteristics are developed in ourselves when we internalized the

knowledge, so we are able to question, judge, analyse, etc. The knowledge we have

acquired concerning research allows us to make decisions, compare and put in practice

other critical thinking cognitive skills in order to conduct a study in the most properly way.

As we have mentioned, when selecting the topic, the methodology, the approach, the tools

we are using and justifying our choices, our ethical values, our decisions when working

with participants, etc. theoretical grounds are of an utmost importance and useful

information to decide the best way to proceed.

Conclusion

Critical thinking is all about improving our own thinking by considering how we think

in various contexts and using the information and knowledge that we have to become high

level reasoning people. Now that we have some knowledge of what tools are enacted to the

different approaches, the different methods that exist, the history and concept of qualitative

and quantitative approaches, the importance of validity and reliability, that importance of

ethics and deciding what is ethical and what is not, we can start making decisions; and

come to conclusions. This particular value of knowledge in research is what enables us the

kind of reasoning that ensure progression and development in the area.

 References:

Bodgan, R. & Knopps, S. (2007). Qualitative Research for Education: an introduction to

theories and methods. (5th Ed.). USA: Pearson

Cohen, L. & Manion, L. (1994). Research methods in education. (4th Ed.). Great Britain:

Routledge

Facione, P. (2010). Critical Thinking: what it is and why it counts. Retrieved May 9th, 2011,

from http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/What&Why2010.pdf

Fisher, A. (2001). Critical Thinking: an introduction. Retrieved May 9th, 2011, from

http://assets.cambridge.org/052100/9847/sample/0521009847ws.pdf

Wood, R. (2002). Critical Thinking. Retrieved May 9th, 2011, from

http://www.robinwood.com/Democracy/GeneralEssays/CriticalThinking.pdf