Getting over the Hump: A Position Paper on Junior Level Research

This paper examines the role of research methods courses. The paper offers several "facts" concerning such courses and considers four myths and their role in the teaching of research courses in communication. Among the suspect "facts" cited in the paper are that today's students are both products and producers of an "information society"; information must be obtained, processed, and evaluated to be any good; and to understand research the student must first understand theory. The myths the paper discusses are: (1) research is math; (2) research is memorization and computation; (3) there is no career connection to learning about research; and (4) communication students cannot compete with business students. The paper concludes that, in reality, a grasp of the principles of human communication provides students with an ability to see the larger picture, to view individuals as people rather than units, and use their understanding of persuasion and information flow to produce the best outcome. (Author/SG)