Research: Important to a Quality Education
Research plays an important role in education from preschool through graduate school. Many people learn concepts more thoroughly when they discover things for themselves. Also, school is meant to give people the necessary skills to work within their professions. It is not meant to give them the answers to every question or scenario that might arise. Therefore, students will need to know how to research the answers to their future questions.
Preschool and Elementary School
Research in the preschool and early elementary school years is more akin to exploration and simple cause and effect experiments. Some preschool philosophies such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia place more emphasis on experimentation than others. However, most preschools and elementary schools rely on experimentation as a teaching tool.
For example, students might be curious about how water freezes or how ice melts. A teacher could explain the concept to the students but the concept is more likely to be understood by the young student and retained for future use if the student sees it himself. So, a teacher might provide each child with an ice cube or some snow and have the child put in a freezer or on a pot on the stove to see what happens.
By the later elementary school years, students begin to learn research techniques for the social sciences as well as for the natural sciences. They learn how to use the library and other primary and secondary sources to gather information.
Middle and High School
Middle and high school students continue to conduct research in both the natural and social sciences. In the natural sciences students will begin to conduct more sophisticated experiments in biology and chemistry. They will learn to write hypothesizes about their predictions and lab reports about their findings. They will also learn to keep detailed notes about their processes so that they can reach scientifically sound conclusions from their research.
In the social sciences, middle and high school students will conduct their own research in order to write their own papers. They will learn about how to find trustworthy sources and about what type of weight to give primary and secondary sources of information. They will then learn to apply that research to their writing and draw conclusions about historical, societal or philosophical issues.
College
As high school students graduate and become college students their research will become more advanced. They will build upon the concepts that they learned in high school. Some students may conduct research by interviewing other people and others may conduct internet research or library research. However, the most successful college students will combine as many different types of research as possible to conduct their research.
Law School
Almost every law school requires their first year students to take a course in Legal Research and Writing. This course teaches law students how to find and use legal precedents, statutes, regulations and other secondary materials. Throughout the students law school career and, indeed, their entire legal career, the student will use and hone these skills that are critically important to his or her success in the legal profession.
Medical School
Medical students often conduct clinical research during their formal study of medicine. Clinical research is conducted on human beings to treat disease or dysfunction. Medical students are taught both the ethical guidelines for conducting clinical research and how to conduct scientifically sound research. These types of studies benefit the medical students and the greater community.
Graduate School
Many doctoral students are required to write thesis papers in order to get their degree. Thesis papers require a great deal of research from which graduate students must draw conclusions. Most schools require that the thesis be read by several professors of the subject area. The professors then ask the thesis author questions that challenge his or her research and conclusions from that research which the thesis author must defend in order to graduate from the program.
Every student, from preschool to graduate school, learns through research. It is an important part of education and one that many schools build upon at each level of formal education. Research allows students to test new hypotheses and to hone their critical reasoning and thinking skills which are essential for their success in school and after graduation.
