SUMMARY) Take into the class  The concrete steps in pursuit of relevant understanding of the concerned issue should be best organize in the following steps and questions to be answered on the way:

      I. First orientation - understand the scope of the concerned issue (closely connected to Module 2)

Pre-research phase

•  What is known about the issue?

• What concerns us? What is the issue about (topic, scope)?

• What are the relevant aspects of the issue that should not be missed?

• What are the relevant actors and their points of view?

• What biases are concerned?

• What are the arguments/data/information available?

-  see Module 2 about how to explore and understand points of view of relevant actors

    II. Formulating the problem, hypothesis and criteria (closely connected to Module 3)

Prepare for the research phase

• Understand the goal of your pursuit. What are you looking for - the problem to be solved? (finding solution, be able to explain something, understand impact)

• Two different goals of the research depending on whether you can already formulate theory/hypothesis (how things seems to be) or you have to explore the issue at first:

i.    Formulate a hypothesis based on existing explanations of the issue (can be based on your perception or perception/arguments of others)

ii.   Define what we should explore and know about the issue to better understand it

• Design the research: Formulate criteria (evidence) that is needed to dismiss or prove the hypothesis or that you need to collect to have better understanding of the issue

-  see Module 3 about how to design own research

  III. The research phase (closely connected to Module 1 and 3)

The research phase

• Collect relevant, reliable and complete evidence (data and information)

-  see Module 1 about required quality of data

-  see Module 3 about how to conduct research

-  see Module 1 about how to collect reliable information on the internet

  IV. Formulate conclusions based on findings from research and assessing the evidence  (closely connected to Module 4)

Interpretation of data and information collected in research phase

• Analyze qualitative and quantitative findings (data) from the research

• Asses the evidence using the tests

• Formulate conclusions – decisions to be made (and understand unknowns)

-  see Module 4 (below) about qualitative and quantitative analysis

-  see Module 4 (below) how to test evidence and formulate conclusions