2015年9月27日星期日

Theme3: Research and Theory (after)

  The topic of this theme is more academic and abstract so that the texts to be somewhat harder than one in last week for me to understand. Before the lecture, I also take a long time to read texts and other relative papers but I still have a difficulty for understanding the main method. After one week, I think I got some informative and important points to the texts.

  In the lecture, the teacher give a impressive conclusion for theory which is theory is something we construct, it does not exist by itself. Theory is explaining what, why and how of an event or study. So how can a statement can become a real theory? According to the lecture, the answer can be that when a theory is tested and accepted by a majority of experts in a particular field, it can be regarded as true.


     During the seminar, the main question in our discussion is what theory is not. As the references indicates that data, list of variables or constructs, diagrams, hypotheses, references are not considered into theory. I really agree with the idea that theory is not practical. We also discussed a question that whether the theory can be categorized into good and bad? In my opinion, theory is concluded through practical identify or common experience, probably bad comments cannot pass the test and be accepted by the masses. Therefore my idea is that to some what theory is impossible to show as a bad one.
     
     In conclusion, the view that “nothing is so practical as a good theory” can support the method the texts described. Anyway, the lecture and seminar give me more clear understanding of theory. It is extremely meaningful for me in academic research and writing.

6 条评论:

  1. Hi,

    thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts! I really find it interesting since I could identify myself a lot. Furthermore, I really enjoyed that you have mentioned the saying to underline your statement. We have also mentioned Thomas S. Kuhn and his paradigm shift. I agree with you that this lecture was extremely important for our academic career. Great Job!

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  2. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about this week's theme. Your well-structured texts make it easy to follow and you have plenty of interesting remarks on our subject 'theory'. It seems even difficult for scientists to really specify the term itself. Here, it is interesting to read your reflection on the seminar and how you categorized theory into good and bad.
    The topic you chose as research paper is quite interesting. I was not that aware about local news stations being forced to change due to the alteration in broadcasting and how this transformation affects the profession as a journalist. I especially like your sentence "more news does not mean more democracy or a better informed public", since it is really thought provoking. Well done!

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  3. Hi,
    Your discription of the discussion for categorizing the theory is very novel for me.I even never think about the topic.In my view,I might argue that there are not bad or good theories in deed,because the puzzle is how we could have a objective and common thoughts from the different individuals to judge it.It seems to go back the theme 1.I think the theory is better to divide with research areas.Thank for sharing.

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  4. Hi! I really like your reflection! It's good structured and you you explain a lot of crucial moments from the lecture. Thank you for that. I also like your statement “nothing is so practical as a good theory”. By the way in our seminar when we discuss topic what is the theory, the teacher proposed following definition "theory is what practice is not". So basically we cannot consider theory and practice separately since theory explain practical things. Consequently, theory cannot exists as idea or something abstract. I think that theory is structured explanation of observed and analyzed practical things.

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  5. Hi,
    thank you for you interesting post,i could say you have somewhere is different like what i thought but most of you opinions are similar to mine. The difficult of theory is how should we define it in our experiments and how should we judgment the definitions we defined is right or wrong, but through you post i saw that you have a clearly thinking after this theme. And yes, i also think it will give a great supports for our future academic researches. Nice work!

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  6. Hey, thanks for your reflection. The "nothing is so practical as good theory" was an interesting statement because at first sight it seems rather contradictory, but the way I interpret it is that a good theory can form a very solid base that comprises data, experiments and the like. In any case, good job!

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