Relationship between Academia and Practice Essay

Relationship between Academia and Practice - Essay Example In a clear scenario, it is supposed that a person needs academic training in Medicine to be a doctor; whereas another person needs training in Education to be a teacher. However though, the issue of whether or not people explicitly apply the knowledge they acquire in school to their occupation is a debate that will continue for good. The same phenomenon exists with the conduct of research. A lot of people argue that a person does not need personal experience or academic knowhow to conduct research in a particular area of operation. To others though, without personal experience and academic qualification, it is not possible to undertake a research in a said area of practice. This essay seeks to examine these two points of view. Do you have to have personal experience of a specific area of practice in order to be able to conduct research into it? According to the Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2003), a research is â€Å"a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (n ew) information or reach a (new) understanding.† From this definition, it can be established that research is conducted purposely to come out with or identify new area of knowledge. To this effect, it can be said that there would not be the need for a research if the researcher embarking the research is sure of what the result of the research would be. This therefore makes it logically right to argue that research is in itself an act of learning as learning also concerns itself with the acquisition of new ideas (Boateng, 2001). For this reason, it is possible to conduct research in a specific area of practice even in the absence of personal experience. This is because we all start learning specific concepts without any person experiences in the said concept. However though, the need to have some level of personal experience in the area of research only gives the researcher additional benefits though it does not serve as prerequisite condition to enable one undertake a research in a particular area. With personal experience and having learnt about a specific area of practice, the researcher is put in a position to easily understand occurrences in the field of research. Personal experience in the conduct of research also makes the handling, analysis and use of data collected very easy, meaningful and useful. Do you have to fully understand the theory of research in order to conduct research in a business environment? It has been said earlier that research is in itself an act of learning and so as we all start learning without any foreknowledge of the concepts to be taught but we most of the time end up excelling in the courses we started learning about. However, there can be a school of thought that would argue that one also needs to know how to learn because successful learning can take place. Going by the latter argument, it can be said that if one does not have total understanding of the theory of research, conducting research in the business environmen t would be a fiasco especially as the business environment has been identified to be very volatile. It must be noted that business research involves a lot of technical calculations and manipulation of figures, which require only people with background. As noted by Jenlink (2009), â€Å"There is a blurring of boundaries in the knowledge-practice and inquiry-practice relationships that define both the learning to lead and the practice of leading in the educational setting.† Therefore, the absence of a full understanding of the theory of research (as an academia) would make research in the business environment (as practice) extremely challenging. Does research that is designed by practitioners, with little or no influence of academic theory incorporated, of any value in assisting practitioners