But as only what has been sown in the ground will ever grow in it, so nothing will be developed by the experimental method except the ideas submitted to it. The method itself gives birth to nothing. Research is important because it requires a different kind of thinking and a different kind of process than any other learning experience. Research converts the student from a receiver of knowledge to a maker of meaning and from a critic of knowledge to a creator of knowledge. It teaches the student to pose questions and to invent the means by which the answer can be determined.
Research is really about concepts and interrelationships.
Knowledge is not found like pears growing on a tree. Rather, knowledge is actively created, combining both process and content. It makes us change our minds, understand the world in new and different ways, and crystallize new relationships that can move the self and the discipline, and perhaps, even the world forward. Research is hard work. Make no mistake, research will make more intellectual demands on you than any other form of learning, but the rewards and satisfaction in coming to know this knowledge are also greater.