On Tuesday October 13, we had a Module Two session:
What are questions?
We talked about two kinds of questions – questions that
imply or seem to need answers
Like: Why do performers work through injury?
This question implies that you would need to find out an
answer. But how would you be able to really find this out. You would need to
talk to thousands of people to really be able to have any kind of credible
answer and then you’d need to talk to them a few times to be able to really
understand their reasons.
This kind of question would obviously take more time than 12
weeks and more knowledge about the field because in order to understand the
answers you got from the question you’d need to already know about the
question. In other words questions that imply answers require you to know
enough to recognize the answer. This
course is about giving yourself the time to find out more to explore the
unknown.
Then there are questions that help you understand your
question better – questions that help know more about the question itself.
Like: ‘What are some
of the reasons that performers use for having to work through injury?’ (you
could talk to five people and understand their stories).
Or
‘What experiences have
people in my cast have with working through injury?’ (then maybe you’d find
out more about what have happened to people who work in the same jobs as you).
This second kind of question can be more specific to your
professional practice (which is what your BA is about – finding out that will
help you in your career).
Assumptions:
Another way to look at questions is to look at what they
assume.
Read this post:
You can see that the questions themselves start to ask you
to look at them through ethical eyes and imply how you should find out more.
Ethics is about
how you look at your question from the perspective of how the question and you
finding out more about it will be experienced by others. How much of the
inquiry is you proving you are right about something you feel and how much is
about really finding out more – inquiring.
Your question also implies what tools should be used to inquire into it. For instance above the
question about ‘what are some of the reasons performers use for having to work
through injury’ clearly indicates interviews …
Lastly:
We talked about planning
Remember that you are planning an actual thing/activity. It
has practical elements it needs to be done over 12 weeks, you need to know
where you need to go to get more information and put this in the plan and if
you can go there! What you need to read to find out more and why these books (This
is Literature Review to help you know what other people already think. This
helps prepare you for the activity you are planning).
People involved in the session are writing more about the
conversation in posts on their blogs and in the comments below.
What do you think?
Adesola
Thanks for this Adesola. Im working 14 hour days at the moment and so have not had any time to think about this module but I'm trying to get a couple of hours in today!! Aagh!
ReplyDeleteHi Adesola,
ReplyDeleteI've just published a post on my blog which includes my reflection several points made during tuesday's Skype conversation should anyone be interested.
Best!
Granger.
Thank you for the informative blog Adesola!
ReplyDeleteHi Adesola, thanks for blogging as i was unable to be a part of the Skype. I would appreciate a talk with you, because my question at the moment is whether I have to use primary resources as a part of my inquiry or whether my inquiry can be looking at research that has already been carried out. For example, I can ask people in my professional network's opinions on my topic, but i don't have the time or knowledge to conduct the research myself.
ReplyDeleteLet me know your thoughts,
Thanks, Catherine
Yes, skype me to talk. I am not quite sure what you mean here or I would reply here. :(
ReplyDeleteHi Adesola
ReplyDeleteAs I don't have a blog I wanted to add my thoughts from the skype session.
We had a group skype session and we spoke in depth about the questions we are going to be asking which will help us lead to our final inquiry.During the conversation, Adesola asked the group if we think all questions need an answer? and if they do is there one definitive answer? Or will there be many different things that answer this question.
Listening to everyone and there questions it became clear we already had the answer we wanted.We needed to pick apart our questions to find what it was we really wanted to know and why was we asking?
Did we all just want to ask questions we felt strongly about so we could just prove our point is right?
We need to ensure that we are able to find the resources and materials for everything we are looking at, this will become practical we will need to be able to research something that is realistic. We need to be able to put together a plan so we know, how long it is going to take,what do I need, who am I going to ask and why,what books can I use. All of these questions need an answer as we need to know we are able to find all the resources needed in the right time.
If you are not able to find the answer to your question, have you been able to better your knowledge so you can use it within your practice.
Hope this is ok and helpful
Thanks
Jodie