*Scientific Ways of Knowing

Kate Magsamen-Conrad

Unit 2: [Knowing things through] Academic (and Communication) Research

5 *Scientific Ways of Knowing

What IS it about scientists/researchers?? Always running around, acting like they know more than anyone else… crapping on your personal experience, tradition, faith- inspired ways of knowing.. Jeez! It really rankles when someone thinks they know more than you do, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s just me, being one of those sciency types and all. My hope is that by the end of the course you see that IF these folks employed legit, appropriate research methods, they really DO know their stuff! A good scientific study takes OCEANS of time and steps that are invisible to the general public, and frankly, I think we get a little discouraged (and, ok, irritated) when people believe their buddy Fred who has done no legitimate primary research (we’ll get to that), and not even the kind of super sleuth secondary research you’ll be able to do by the end of this course. So let’s get started, shall we. Here’s what your student textbook authors have to say about scientific ways of knowing.

Learning Objectives

Juxtapose Everyday ways of knowing to Scientific ways of knowing.

sys·tem·at·ic

/ˌsistəˈmadik/

adjective

done or acting according to a fixed plan or system; methodical.

“a systematic search of the whole city”

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Scientific ways of knowing describes knowledge that comes through scientific reasoning; derived through testing or observing in a systematic manner. In other words, scientific reasoning is gained by asking questions and creating a method to test and/or observe the validity of that question.

The three characteristics of scientific research…

Scientific research must be potentially replicable because science is intended to be replicated (i.e., done again). This replication ensures the validity of research and each individual replication should have the same findings are the original research. Methodology in scientific research is crucial for this reason. Other researchers should be able to follow the exact steps the original researcher took in order to replicate it.
Scientific research must be reflexive and self-critical because it guards against the researchers biases. The researcher must have the ability to step back (reflexive) and pick out their own biases and cognitive conservatism (self-critical). The researcher should be aware of the context of knowledge construction and their role in it. These concepts require a researcher’s acknowledgement of their postionality.
Scientific research must be cumulative and self-correcting so that enough of it amasses to spot the duds. Researchers cannot leave out any information (i.e., results that didn’t turn out quite how you wanted) and researchers must acknowledge where there are errors in research.

cu·mu·la·tive

/ˈkyo͞omyələdiv,ˈkyo͞omyəˌlādiv/

adjective

increasing or increased in quantity, degree, or force by successive additions.

“the cumulative effect of two years of drought”

I tried out a new software to make recordings for you. 9 minutes in it told me that it wasn’t capturing my camera. Then it just said “nope. not working. we’re going to stop the recording now.” (paraphrased). So. That was fun. But I prevailed.