LibGuides: World Studies Extended Essay: Evaluating the Insights of Academic Disciplines

Selecting and Evaluating the Insights of Academic Disciplines

Telescope and accompanying spotting scope - Britannica ImageQuest You will need to look beyond a discipline’s content when exploring whether it will be useful to your essay. You should also reflect on these other aspects of a discipline:

insights
findings
theories
methods
techniques
approaches
forms of communication.

Questions to Ask

When you evaluate the contributions of each discipline and its particular theories, findings, methods or tools, you must evaluate each discipline against your research goals.

Questions for you to ask

How might this particular disciplinary perspective inform my study?
Is this theory helpful?
Do I need to adjust my research question if I include this particular disciplinary perspective?
Among the possible useful disciplinary perspectives I am considering, which ones should I exclude, so that I have a logical and orderly approach to my essay and a workable scope that I will be able to manage?

Using the RRS (Researcher's Reflection Space)

You can use your RRS (Researcher's Reflection Space) to examine disciplines and seek advice from your supervisor or experts in relevant fields.

Sample Prompts for the WSEE RRS
What should you write in your RRS? Use these questions and prompts to help you think through the various stages of the research for your WSEE: your initial ideas, your thoughts and reflections during the process, and your conclusions.