Over the course of this class, I have learned many things about conducting academic research. When starting the design of the research project, we had to start by defining the purpose of our project. We had to select a research method and determine the measure of results. Then we had to determine what we were studying, collect data, process and analyze data, and report our findings. This is one aspect that has changed for me when it comes to the process of academic research. Also, when it came to writing the final research paper, another way that my process changed was setting up the paper and when the parts were written. For example, we were instructed to do the abstract, introduction, and conclusion last and that was new to me. I believed that the introduction always comes first, but that was not the case here. It was interesting to change up the way I thought a paper should be written, but it also felt great to bring all of what I learned together at the end. It started to make sense as to why this is the process for the paper. For example, we could not write the abstract until we had all our findings. We also used different apparatuses, such as Rstudio, that gave us numerical information on our results. I have never used anything like this, but I will be utilizing it for future research. The process for evaluating and selecting sources was a bit of a challenge. I started off by searching the topic of our research. I found many sources, but not all of them would work. It was tedious work reading through the sources. I started off by reading the abstract first, then skimming over the article while noticing headers and graphs, and finally reading the article all together. Many of the sources I found sounded like they would work but once I started to read them, they were not what I was looking for. For example, some sources would give information on family involvement, but it strayed too far from the research I was conducting. This was seen in sources that did not involve the themes I focused on in my literature review. I was able to pick and choose the information I wanted to use from the sources and put them into a chart. The chart helped me focus on the sections that needed more sources and it organized all my sources so that I was ready to begin synthesizing for my literature review. I encountered only a few challenges while doing research for this class. The biggest challenge I had was navigating Rstudio and how to interpret the information that was being given. I was able figure it out by asking questions, and once I understood I was able to use that information for my quantitative assignment. Another challenge that I had was with the qualitative section. It was simple looking through the surveys and finding themes but the challenging part for me was explaining the respondents’ answers. I was able to overcome this by thinking through every comment I chose and explaining how it pertained to our research question. I also felt like the literature review challenged me as a writer and researcher. When I first started this class, I believed I knew how to write a literature review and I quickly realized I did not. I was able to overcome this challenge by using a chart that organized all my material. I then began to synthesize the previous literature I found, and I was able to create my literature review. Overall, my confidence for doing research has risen over the course of this semester. When I first started this class, I was worried because I did not think I was going to do good. I was told that this is one of the hardest classes I will take so I felt predisposed to having low confidence. Once we started conducting our research, I realized that it was not something I needed to stress over. I was able to grasp the content given to us and how we should use that for our research. My confidence was boosted when I realized that Rstudio was not as hard as it seemed. Numbers can sometimes be overwhelming but taking a second to understand the information was very helpful and changed the way I felt about it. When I think of what it means to think like a researcher, I believe that one must dive into all that is known about a topic. When conducting research, it is important to find gaps in the literature and to maybe even fill those gaps. It also important to understand the limitations of research and what can be done to help that. When someone thinks like a researcher, they must be willing to do the work that not many people can do. Research can be a long process that takes a certain willingness to complete. It is also tedious and requires a lot of attention. Anyone who thinks like a researcher is ready for all of it.