Unit 2 – Discussion Board 

Unit:  Research Process and Critical Thinking

delivery length 400 words

The Doctoral Research Process

The Unit 1 Individual Project introduced the idea that library research is one of two key research endeavors that are at the center of the dissertation journey. The second component is the research that a scholar–practitioner does when deciding on a research design, acquiring data, and analyzing them, all of which subsequently enable the researcher to articulate the study findings and draw conclusions about them.

To learn a little about conducting an original research requires some time in the library. Go to the CTU Library, and from the home page scroll down the alphabetical list of databases until you find the one labeled “Research Methods (SAGE).” Click on that title, and it will land you at the home page of this specific database. Look for the phrase, “I want to…,” and select from the series of boxes the one that says “Design a research project.” If you click on this box, it will give you access to a basic overview of how to design a research project. For this assignment, click on the green bar that says, “Begin your research: Why we do research.” This will land you in the area named “Philosophy of Research.” Here you will see a long list of topic areas on the right, each of which has a plus (+) sign. Clicking on any of those plus signs will enable you to read the very short text that is in that area.

For this assignment, stay in the Philosophy of Research area, and choose the topic “Why Do Research?” and 2 additional topics that draw your attention. In your primary post, complete the following tasks:

• Provide a brief summary in your own words of each of the 3 areas that you chose: “Why Do Research?” and 2 additional ones. Each summary should be composed of 1 paragraph.
• What are your key takeaways from each of your chosen 3 areas about what is involved in determining a research design for a study?
• What do you think will be your biggest challenges in learning how to conduct a research for the topic area that you anticipate pursuing for your dissertation project?