Disciplined Inquiry

In research-based knowledge, conclusions are derived from carefully planned studies based on systematic observation using disciplined inquiry (involving an organized research plan or design that is considered acceptable by those with long experience in each relevant field of study). Characteristic of these inquiries are time-tested frameworks that are subject to critical review by peers in each area of investigation.

Some disciplines tend to focus on quantitative research. Chemists and other scientists conduct quantitative experimental research to study the physical world and its phenomena. Economists employ micro- and macroanalyses to study production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Some sociologists use demographics, organizational analysis, surveys, and correlational research to learn about social organization. Linguists employ discourse analysis to study language.

Other disciplines rely on qualitative inquiry. Anthropologists conduct ethnographic research to study culture. Historians employ their craft to interpret past events. Political scientists use policy and organizational analysis to understand the nature and distribution of power. Other researchers conduct arts-based inquiry to study phenomena aesthetically. Across all these disciplines, the reasons for knowing differ, and may include testing theory, learning something new, assessing needs, improving programs to inform practice, or evaluating. Whether quantitative or qualitative approaches are used, research findings should be and usually are subject to inspection and replication by those who conduct similar studies.

The gathering of empirical information, derived through direct observation, experience, or experiment, is usually referred to as either scientific or social scientific research. We commonly use the term scientific when applied to physical areas, such as chemistry or biology, and social scientific when used to study people and their interaction with environments in such research areas as anthropology and history. Scientific studies are more often those investigations carried out in highly controlled, laboratory-like settings in which potential causes are manipulated and observed to measure the effects. Social scientific inquiry, however, is generally conducted in real-life environments in which events are observed as they unfold without manipulation of normal patterns. Current research practices reflect a variety of strategies, procedures, and rules used in both scientific and social scientific studies that represent differing emphases in their designs. It is the case, though, that particularly in the physical domains, most approaches can be traced to what has been called the scientific method. This historic framework is characterized by the quantification of even qualitative events and the application of statistical analysis.

The scientific method begins with stating the problem and formulating a hypothesis, a reasoned and research-supported guess about what might cause a result or desired outcome. One might hypothesize, for example, that involving staff in decisions is likely to result in staff members' feeling more a part of the organization. Using the scientific method, such a hypothesis could then be pre- and posttested to arrive at conclusions either proving or disproving the hypothesized effect of staff involvement.

The development of the scientific method cannot be easily traced, but evidence of its application is found long Before the Current Era (BCE). Aristotle (384–322 BCE) is responsible for refining the process associated with the scientific method of establishing hypotheses, making observations, and determining answers through repeated experiments in order to test the relative truth of an original problem statement. Many other philosophers and mathematicians furthered Aristotle's work. A thoroughly modified and advanced current generation of quantitative designs is best represented in the early work of Campbell and Stanley (1963) and has evolved into conceptualizations found in Shadish, Cook, and Campbell(2002. This formulation of quantitative research is best characterized by true experiments found in the literature today, studies that include treatment and control groups, with participants randomly assigned to each hypothesized cause or intervention.