Final post

The course has now ended and I will reflect on the purpose of this course and what it has taught me about theory and method. during this course I had difficulties seeing how all the different themes were connected and interrelated with each other. I’ve gone back and read through all my previous postings and now at the end of the course I have been able to take a step back and start to reflect on how these different themes really goes together. The themes are connected and gives you a wider perspective on different methods on understanding, questioning and solving problems. Looking at all the courses as whole has gained me a clearer understanding and shows that themes are connected to each other and has given us new insight and knowledge on how to tackle different problems or questions.

Starting from the beginning of the course, one of the main central concept was a priori. Which explained how to obtain knowledge independently of experience. This has been a occasionally upcoming concept throughout the course and following themes. The first theme has been a good start to start reflecting about where knowledge derives from and how we obtain it. It made me open up my mind to new ways of thinking and questioning things in order to help see them from a different perspective. I felt that it was a good theme to start of with since it also made me connect more to a philosophical reasoning which is something that I have not done that much in my other courses. You need to be able to open your mind to new perspective in order to gain new knowledge and for this a more philosophical thinking is a perfect way to begin with. The first theme purpose was to reflect on why we perceive the world as we do and we learned this by reading about Kant and Plato’s text. Reflecting on why perceive the world as we do is a big topic and a well suited question to make us reflect upon greater things that may or may not have straight correct answers according to different perspectives and mentalities. Another thing about the first theme was due to the literature given to us to read was on a higher level than I am used to I had difficulties understanding everything as a whole and reflect upon it. This led to me extending my literature to new sources in order to gain a deeper understanding of some concept that were harder to grasp. Extending my sources and making my own source research early on in the course showed me that different explanations can be more helpful than limiting yourself to the course literature.

Theory and hypothesis was another concept during this course that felt was central. How a theory distinguish from hypothesis is important and was well explained in this course. A theory is something that is built on a hypothesis that can be tested and a hypothesis is something you can reason and argue about. The concepts were also mentioned and used in the others themes which made it good that we already had gained knowledge about them to be able to gain a deeper understanding about the other concepts in the other themes. One these concepts were case studies. Case studies was a relatively new concept to me and my understanding of it during the pre post was greatly enhanced after the theme which is shown in my post posting. Case studies are more efficiently when researching a rare and unexplored phenomena but less efficient when you are trying to prove a theory and test a hypothesis. My knowledge about hypothesis made me realize why a case study is more suitable for research within an unexplored field. The reason is that a hypothesis can not be made within this unexplored field since there is not enough knowledge about the field prior the case study to make a hypothesis since you can not reason around the phenomena that you still do not understand or know much about.

How or what method should be used is another main concept we have talked about in this course. The discussions on methods such as qualitative and quantitative research and research strategies has been a more practical learning than philosophical. By having read the literature and participated in seminars and lectures it was easier to understand how to find methods to solve problems by having multiple perspective. From having learned how to gain knowledge and what it is, the learning on how to take the data we already had a priori and find new knowledge was enhanced.

To sum it up, in order to find solutions to complex research question one must not depend on finding the answer but understanding the best way to solve it. In order to understand a problem you need to be able to define the problem through different perspectives giving you multiple new angles on the problem. And in order to define the problem you need to go all the way back to the first question what is knowledge and what is the aim of the study. As Haibo Li mentioned in a lecture you need to spend 90% of your time in defining the problem and the rest on solving it. By looking at a problem from multiple angles in a research the solution will be better and easier to find. When trying to solve complex research question methods can be combined gaining the research with greater and deeper knowledge. The important thing is to find the methods that complements each other and are useful. This is the main thing I have learned throughout this course and will have in use in the future.