Business research Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business research Skills - Essay Example The study revealed that the general confidence of students increases from first year to third year. Introduction In today’s society, education has a vital role to play in political, economic, cultural, social as well as intellectual life. It has the ability to increase the quality of life for individuals. Tertiary education, also referred to as third level education is particularly essential in improving individuals’ lifestyle. In addition, third level education can help individual secure exciting job opportunities. It represents a crucial transition for students as they join from secondary school and most of them will go out to the job market upon completion. It is a transition from school life to employment. When students join college or universities from secondary school, they are always looking naive and they do not know what to expect at the tertiary level. They do not have any research skills or they have too little if any. For most of the students, it is a dream come true when they join universities and college but their confidence is usually very low (Shapiro, 2009). In fact, some do not have any confidence at all. Studies have indicated that most students who have dropped their studies at the tertiary level always drop while in their first year. There are a number of reasons that can result to the dropouts. One of the reasons is their lack of confidence. Higher education is a complete new experience for them (Burton & Schofield, 2011). For any individual, new experience always have a strong impact and is usually essential determinant of their progress to the next level. First year is a challenging year for many students. It is viewed as a make or break year to them. Students who progress past first year have a higher chance of completing their studies since their confidence builds up as they advance towards the third year. Epistemology This term generally means knowledge. In philosophy, it refers to the scope of knowledge as well as the n ature of knowledge (Rescher, 2003). It addresses the ways in which knowledge is acquired. In addition, it gives a distinction between true knowledge and untrue knowledge. Education is all about acquiring knowledge. When a student joins college or university, their main objective is to extend their knowledge so that they can be ready for the job market. Lack of knowledge keeps their confidence at a low level. However, as they acquire knowledge across their 3 years in the university, their confidence increases and they can be ready to work on their own. Their epistemology increases and their confidence also increase in the process. Ontology Ontology refers to the study of the nature of reality or existence. It attempts to explain the entities that exist, how they exist and why they exist (Adelsberger, 2008). This term is usually confused with epistemology. However, it can be used in the context of knowledge sharing where it means specification of a conceptualization. It describes conc epts as well as relationships that might exist for a given agent. Ontologies in technology are domains that can be understood by computers and can be used in research. They assist in sharing information within education systems and they also personalized student support. Therefore, ontologies can be effective in improving the students’