Architecture and Design homework help. Design Dissertation
Developing a coherent methodology
Aim:
To provide an overview of concepts of
research,
research process & methods
research design.
What is it?
Should you be doing it?
How do you do it?
My research image:
Examine, determine, review, investigate, study, develop, inquire
Scientific & systematic search for pertinent information for a specific topic
Critical inquiry in seeking facts for principles
Process of arriving at dependable solutions through the planned and systematic collection, analysis & interpretation of data
Aims of a Dissertation
The dissertation or project should demonstrate knowledge of the relevant literature; show that the student has executed a substantial piece of advanced individual work and should bring together the independent work with the knowledge gained in the literature and theory.
Where creative work is involved this should be informed by and be related to the theoretical aspect of the work.
What is Methodology?
A system of rules, principles, and procedures that guide scientific investigation
Methodology / Method
Methodology refers to how you go about finding out knowledge and carrying out your research. It is your strategic approach, rather than your techniques and data analysis (Wainright, 1997).
Some examples of such methods are:
the scientific method (quantitative method),
ethnographic approach, case study approach, (both using qualitative methods), ideological framework (e.g. an interpretation from Marxist, Feminist viewpoint), dialectic approach (e.g. compare and contrast different points of view or constructs, including your own).
Paradigm
A paradigm is simply a belief system (or theory) that guides the way we do things, or more formally establishes a set of practices. This can range from thought patterns to action.
Disciplines tend to be governed by particular paradigms.
“the set of common beliefs and agreements shared between scientists about how problems should be understood and addressed” (Kuhn, 1962)
Guba (1990), research paradigms can be characterized through their:
Ontology – What is reality? (what exists?)
Epistemology – How do you know something?
Methodology – How do you go about finding it out?
what exists?
What is its nature?
Epistemology – Theory of knowledge: All claims to knowledge are tentative (some more than others)
Knowledge: Belief, Justification, Truth (necessary for knowledge)
Methodology – How do you go about finding it out?
Why is it important?
Your ontology and epistemology create a holistic view of how knowledge is viewed and how we can see ourselves in relation to this knowledge, and the methodological strategies we use to un/discover it.
Awareness of philosophical assumptions will increase quality of research and can contribute to the creativity of the researcher.
Positivists believe that there is a single reality, which can be measured and known, and therefore they are more likely to use quantitative methods to measure and this reality.
Constructivists believe that there is no single reality or truth, and therefore reality needs to be interpreted, and therefore they are more likely to use qualitative methods to get those multiple realities.
Pragmatists believe that reality is constantly renegotiated, debated, interpreted, and therefore the best method to use is the one that solves the problem.
Crotty, M., 1998. Foundations of social research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process. p.256.
Applied, then to social psychology, it is important to understand the tension, throughout its history, between:
- A more traditional experimental (quantitative) approach, which sees social reality as a set of facts to be known for all time by measuring people in the laboratory;
- A more critical, discursive (qualitative) approach, which sees social reality as mutually constructed between people in the real world.
However, pragmatism (and hence mixed methods research) is also being increasingly used in social sciences
Research Problem
What is a research problem?
A research problem:
1. must be defined properly,
2. must be posed in solvable terms
Research ……Design……Research
Design testing – a methodology!
Spatial Research
- planning the future cannot be based on the certainty of programmes and conditions.
- Designer is confronted with changing conditions and shifting programmes.
- A plan has also to reflect its own conditions and the effects of the planned interventions.
- Therefore, the process of design has to be transformed into a process of multiple feedback
Design research is both the study of design and the process of knowledge production that occurs through the act of design
Scientific research is analytical, searching for objective truth and eternal rules, aspiring universal application, is cumulative, and can be validated.
design is described as explorative and innovative, exceeding the limits of the body of knowledge both in a methodological and a theoretical way, it is exploring several truths, and studies multiple futures, hence it is “non-cumulative.
design is both an object of study and a means of carrying out that study.
a dynamic process that is improvisational and responsive to the changing design situation
Research By Design
- Research by design is a type of academic investigation through which design is explored as a method of inquiry, by the development of a project and also exploring the different materials by which a design is carried out—sketches, mapping, among others
