Point of View: Research Only Matters if You Do Research That Matters

by: William David Burns

If we want research to matter we must make the questions asked and issues pursued be about real things, whose answers really matter to the teachers and professors, to the students, and to others who need to know. Merely performing—going through the motions to show that one can devise a hypothesis, test it, etc.—is not enough. What matters is whether the question being asked is one whose answers have the potential to be considered at least minimally significant. What is discovered—the product of the research—should add to our knowledge, not just tell us something we already know.

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Type Journal ArticlePub Date 3/1/2008Stock # jcst08_037_04_12Volume 037Issue 04

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