{"id":733,"date":"2013-09-06T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=733"},"modified":"2014-10-28T17:36:43","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T17:36:43","slug":"short-sweet-a-primer-on-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/short-sweet-a-primer-on-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Short & Sweet: A Primer on Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Paul and Linda Elder\u2019s The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, 6th<\/sup> ed.<\/em> is a tremendously helpful and brief tool for reasoning and research.\u00a0 While filled with much helpful advice, what these authors do so well is provide a laundry list of potential pit-falls that researchers often unknowingly fall into.\u00a0 These include recognizing that one\u2019s conclusion may not be the final answer to the question; that everyone brings assumptions and prejudice to the table; researchers get to pick and choose their evidence; and facts are easily distorted to fit one\u2019s thesis.\u00a0 This calls for great honest and great humility, which is necessary for genuine dialog and open debate that moves research and reasoning forward.\u00a0 Blindness to these issues creates dead-ends to open reasoning.<\/p>\n

Due to the \u201cminiature\u201d nature of this text, there are many issues and assumptions that are not addressed, which ironically is one the pit-falls warned about in the book.\u00a0 In fact, the book is based on the givens of modern research methods, which anyone with a higher degree would instantly recognize. But important assumptions are given without discussion, like: is there in fact something called reason that is a common and accepted idea among all researchers, and is it possible to find it by following certain guidelines (as laid out in this book)? \u00a0\u00a0Is it true that all research addresses a fundamental question?\u00a0 Upon what basis do we in fact conclude that clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance and other points are indeed the best criteria for successful research?\u00a0 There is little question in my mind that all this is true a priori,<\/em> yet, much of the text calls us to accept without argument or defense the argument that good research requires both argument and defense.<\/p>\n

Most instructive for is the discussion on sociocentric and egocentric blinders.\u00a0 From the point of view an Evangelical Christians, both of these tendencies can have detrimental effects on one\u2019s research and level of openness to criticism.\u00a0 From a tradition of revealed and authoritative truth, there is the danger among Christians to both falling into groupthink and blind acceptance of assumptions that are beyond the scope of ever being questioned.\u00a0 Any criticism on essential truth claims would find only deaf ears.\u00a0 Questioning some assumptions might even result in consternation by one\u2019s peers.\u00a0 This would naturally block any form of open dialog or honest struggle with other traditions or truth claims.\u00a0 However, such sociocentric blinders are not necessarily inherent to Biblical Christianity, which, I believe, encourages humility, even when it comes to truth claims.\u00a0 True humility for Evangelicals might begin with a reminder that we don\u2019t own the truth nor can we fully comprehend the truth.\u00a0 But we seek truth in a person claims to be Truth.\u00a0 To say that one knows Truth fully has failed to understand that \u2013 like in any relationship \u2013 we can know someone well, but we will never fully know them and we will always be learners.\u00a0 As humble seekers who hunger for Truth, we of all people should create space to listen and learn.\u00a0 Further, we understand in general revelation signs of God in every culture, people group and even religion.\u00a0 Such openness and awareness of our limitations as mere seekers and God\u2019s truth appearing in unexpected places through out His creation, will provide a path to deeper humility, understanding and appreciation of ideas and arguments from outside our group.<\/p>\n

Research, we are reminded, is a multifaceted process.\u00a0 It includes one\u2019s person (ego and life-experience), one\u2019s society and culture, one\u2019s training and belief systems, which ultimately instruct both how we approach a problem and how we respond to criticism.\u00a0 Bottom line, humble recognition of our \u201cbaggage\u201d and limitations that we bring into the process and setting clear and honest goals for the research process, will provide the basis for an open, critical and reasoned dialog that will move research forward.<\/p>\n

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Richard Paul and Linda Elder\u2019s The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, 6th ed. is a tremendously helpful and brief tool for reasoning and research.\u00a0 While filled with much helpful advice, what these authors do so well is provide a laundry list of potential pit-falls that researchers often unknowingly fall into.\u00a0 These include recognizing that one\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,290],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-elder","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2925,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/2925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}