Over the course of this semester I have grown tremendously as a researcher. Prior to this semester I had never completed academic research to the extent that was completed over the course of this semester. I was able to grow my skills on selecting peer-reviewed sources, creating a research question, deciding upon an independent and dependent variable, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, and overall constructing an academic paper. Before this semester I had completed many academic papers but never before was able to take part in an academic research project that had a real effect on my community. More specifically, what I believe I will take away most from this semester is the structure that this research project required. Taking the time to summarize and synthesize the individual peer-reviewed sources has significant value and I believe showed so in my research. Additionally, in future academic research I will continue to take time in between sections to gather my thoughts which I believe will allow me to bring new ideas to the table and expand my creativity which I have previously struggled with.
When evaluating and selecting which sources to use for my research assignments, I don’t just select sources that apply to my research question but also share a great amount of knowledge on what independent and dependent variables are trying to uncover. When deciding what sources not to use, it highly depends on the credibility of the author and whether the source is peer-reviewed or not. When a source is not peer-reviewed, you risk stating information that is controversial in the field that is being researched. Whether or not more sources are added or removed for the final paper I believe highly depends on whether the author believes if they have enough of the correct information.
The biggest challenge that I believe that I faced when doing research in this class was the response rate for the survey. I was attempting to determine if a correlation existed between race and parent involvement and with only a 20% survey response rate, it made that very hard to do. Unfortunately there was not really any overcoming that obstacle, I could only be honest in my paper about the truth of the poor response rate and how I was unable to make a correlation. In class we brainstormed new ideas for the classes next year to increase the response rate so the same problem doesn’t happen again. The experience alone has tremendously boosted my confidence in regards to survey research. Considering before this semester I had little to no experience with survey research, I was able to gain great knowledge on the subject. I believe what it means to be able to think like a researcher is to be able to identify problems within society and determine ways those problems can be measured, as well as potential ways to fix them.