Prior to conducting this research, I’ve had little to no experience with the process of academic research. I’ve studied it in previous courses, but as this project has taught me, studying how to conduct research and actually conducting it are two very different things. I’ve learned that not everything will go as planned. For example, we initially only got nineteen surveys back from our participants, so we had to contact Head Start and attempt to get more surveys back in order to obtain the amount of data needed for the study. However, despite things not always going as planned, I also learned the importance of planning ahead. For instance, because we knew that it may be difficult for people to find the time and motivation to fill out the surveys, we attached a $5 incentive in the form of a Walmart gift card.
Regarding evaluating and selecting sources, I found it most beneficial to begin researching what interested you, and then determining if it was a valid source. My thought process behind this was that if you didn’t first find information that pertained to your project and intrigued you, then you wouldn’t pay as much attention to if it was a valid source to use. With this being said, I didn’t feel the need to add any sources to my final assignment as I was satisfied with the sources I originally found.
The most challenging part about conducting this research was remaining unbiased. I have my own personal opinions about parent involvement and I struggled to keep them out of my research and my final paper. In order to overcome this challenge, I would reread everything I submitted for the project and specifically look for bias. After, I would ask a friend to read my work and look for bias as well. If we both thought it seemed unbiased, then I would go ahead and submit my work. One specific example of this occurred when I was writing the introduction of my final paper. While reading over it, I noticed that I was being rather biased toward the lower class parent involvement experience. After noticing this, I went back and attempted to make my tone sound more neutral.
After doing research this whole semester, I feel as though I am more confident when it comes to identifying potential bias both in my own study and in other studies. Additionally, I have a more positive approach to research in general. Instead of looking at studies as entirely too long, I try to look for what’s interesting about them. I find this makes it easier to comprehend the research. In my opinion, to “Think Like a Researcher” means to be open-minded, interested, and organized. If you are all three of these, then conducting research won’t seem like such an overwhelming task.