IT GIVES THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHICAL OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH, ITS FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS AND FOCUSES ON THE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

1. PREPARED BY:
DR. SHEELU SINGH BHATIA

2.  The word research itself is a combination of
"re" and "search," which is meant by a
systematic investigation to gain a new
knowledge from already existing facts.
 In the words of Wernher Von Braun (a German
philosopher), "Research is what I'm doing
when I don't know what I'm doing".
 Albert Szent Gyorgyi (Hungarian Biochemist,
Nobel Prize - 1937) writes "Research is to see
what everybody else has seen and think what
nobody has thought".

3.  According to Clifford Woody (American
philosopher, 1939),
"Research comprises of defining and redefining
problems, formulating the hypothesis for
suggested solutions, collecting, organizing and
evaluating data, making deductions and
reaching conclusion and further testing the
conclusion whether they fit into formulating the
hypothesis”.

4.  To propose and test certain hypotheses to provide
causal relationships between certain variables;
 To discover and establish the existence of
relationship, association, and independence between
two or more aspects of a particular situation or
phenomenon;
 To understand different phenomenon and develop
new perceptions about it;
 To study and describe accurately the characteristics
of situations, problems, phenomena, services,
groups, or individuals;
 To explain unexplored horizons of knowledge;
 To test reported findings and conclusions on new
data and novel conclusions on previously reported
data;
 To study the frequency of research that is connected
with unspecified objectives.

5.  Dedication and Commitment;
 Consistency and Patience;
 Good Written Communication;
 Domain Knowledge;
 Good Verbal Communication;
 Creativity

6.  Research inculcates scientific, curious and
inductive thinking of any objective. Being an
important component of the development of
nation and individual, research has special
significance in deciding government policies in
economics in solving various operational and
planning problems of business and industry and
in seeking answers to various social problems.
Research opens different avenues in particular
domain for the betterment of mankind and
world. Research activity develops critical thinking
about the problem, systematic examination,
developing and testing new theories, and draw
important meaningful conclusions.

7.  At glance during research process researcher
should monitor following stage-wise details:
 First stage:
 Where do you start?
 Area of interest should be decided.
 Check out why this area is of interest.
 Discuss your idea with local R&D staff.
 Second stage:
 From the existing source systematic reviews
should be considered carefully before starting
the research;
 Duplication of research which is not of sufficient
quality is itself unethical.

8. Third Stage:
 Research domain should be determined;
 Data should be arranged for a specific purpose and
statistically analyzed;
 Determine top-down or bottom-up approach or
combination;
 Data should be compared and validate on the work done;
 Data should provide the information and action performed
for comparison of the work;
 Results should deal with a means of solving the problem;
 Research validation should be verified with surveys;
 Perform research validation using research methods
(interviews, surveys, etc.);
 Appropriateness of the work should be justified;
 Cost should be specified;
 Test Practicality.

9. Educational research more often has become the focus for mass
academic attention throughout the world. More than 1.5 million
conferences/workshops/ research seminars on various themes are
being organized by universities /HEIS in a calendar year as per
record of American Educational Research Association, European
Education Research Association, Association for Research on
Learning and Instruction, Comparative and International Education
Society and Conference Alert forum. Since methodology is viewed
as the theory of organization of an activity, we should start with the
basic notions connected with an activity. An activity is an active
interaction of a human being with an external environment, where
the former acts as a subject exerting a purposeful impact on an
object to satisfy his/her own needs. In philosophy, a subject is
defined as a bearer of the object-oriented practical activity and
cognition (an individual or a social group); as the source of active
behaviour directed towards an object.

10.  Motivational;
 Personnel-related;
 Material and technical;
 Methodical;
 Financial;
 Organizational;
 Regulatory and legal;
 Informational.

11.  Philosophy of Research (refers to the ideas,
rooted in epistemology. ethics, and social
philosophy, which might underlie the idea
and practice of action research, but of which
action researchers themselves do not
necessarily have to be aware).
 Philosophy in research (refers to the ways in
which, arguably at least, action researchers
need to engage more self-consciously with
philosophical questions).

12.  According to John Elliott (British Historian,
1991): "A philosopher who played a central
role in the development of action research
and someone who always regarded the two
fields of educational inquiry as mutually
dependent. Philosophical reflection... itself
modifies conceptions of ends in ways which
change one's understanding of what
constitutes good data about practice. So, one
cannot improve the methodology of action
research independently of philosophical
reflection".

13. Certain features of modest initiatives that carry wider significance
in research are to be observed:
 how the practitioners are developing their understanding of
their professional practice not by reference to any externally
generated theory or generalized principles. With reference to
their experience tested in their own environment, there are
some epistemological principles at the work order section;
 that the practitioners are themselves taking responsibility for
developing their practice, rather than being directed in the
development by some outside agency.
 that the inquiry, the research, is being conducted by an insider
researcher in the context of his/her own working environment,
so there are some ethical principles invoked both, in the
preference for the insider researcher over the outsider
researcher and in the obligations to be right at stake in the
relationship between researcher and researched.

14.  There is an illuminating association between
some of the classical theories of truth and the
major paradigms of educational research. The
application of any type of research method and
the defence of the results of inquiry thus
obtained implies a view, or views, of what is to be
count as knowledge. The point of preferring one
set of methods over another is to believe that the
chosen set will lead to knowledge rather than
mere belief, opinion, or personal preference. We
may regard our work as simply another
construction.