Healthy eating habits.

Evaluating A Wicked Problem from Multiple Research Perspectives
As you have read this week, there are multiple ways to explore a problem, site, or area of research, depending on your research goals. Now let us put these concepts into a specific context.
The following activity will allow us to focus on the overarching research topic of healthy eating habits.
Activity Instructions:
1. Review the following research study titles and abstracts. If a research project doesn’t have an abstract, familiarize yourself with the first paragraph or two).
2. Choose two (2) from the list you think to sound interesting to read in-full. When possible, try to choose studies that have not already been chosen or annotated by your classmates. As you read the studies in full, select key sentences, paragraphs, or sections that help you identify the following key criteria:
Criteria
Description
Possible Examples
The research method(s) used in the study
The processes or techniques utilized in the collection of data or evidence for analysis. What kind of data is being collected? Where did the data come from? How does the way the data are collected inform the way it can be analyzed?
Interviews focus groups, observations, analysis of artifacts, documents, or pictures, oral histories or life stories, self-reflection, surveys, questionnaires, database data, previous research data or findings, experiments, etc.
How the author(s) conceptualize the problem motivating their research.
How does/do the researcher(s) problematize healthy eating? What problem do they hope to solve, illuminate, or understand?
Public health issues, cultural issues, organizational problems, individual behavioral problems, issues of access or affordability, etc.
The stated research goal(s) of the project
What do/does the researcher(s) hope to uncover, learn, or do in the process of their research?
To directly intervene or implement something in a particular space or group, to illuminate an injustice, to extend a theory, etc.
The role of the researcher in the research
What position does the researcher play? How does it relate to the research method(s) employed?
Distanced observer, involved observer, active participant, etc.
Intended audience
Who do you believe the researcher(s) is/are writing to? Who will benefit from the findings?
Written for an academic audience, findings to be used for city, organizational, or community planning, co-created an intervention specific to a group, findings help extend a theory, etc.
The role of participants in the research
If there are participants in the study, what role do they play? How were they identified? Were they included in the study? Who was included, and as a result who was not?
Participants provided responses to a survey, were de-identified, anonymized, and aggregated with other participants; participants interacted with the researcher(s) and co-created the research project; no specific participants — data were in aggregate population level; participants included individuals in a specific community only; etc.
The significance of the study
Does the research achieve the stated goals? What do the findings/results tell us? What can we do with the study?
Findings are descriptive — they forward our understanding about a topic, theory, or group of people; findings are prescriptive — we can apply the findings to solve similar organizational, group, or community-wide problems; findings are transformative — the findings were novel and specific to a group or entity, but the impact was paramount to that group.
3. Use the annotation features in hypothes.is to select/highlight key content in the studies, and leave annotations to write, in your own words, a short description of why you selected the sentences, paragraphs, or sections you did to represent the components of research (above).
4. Then choose one (1) new article and respond to a peer’s annotations. Without having read the entire article, do you feel the sections they’ve identified and highlighted help you understand the research methodology, goals, and findings of the project?
5. You should have at least 14 original annotations (at least 1 annotation for each of the seven criteria in the instructions for both articles). If an article does not appear to have a clear example of each specific criteria, or you are unable to find it, leave an annotation where you think it would have been useful to add that criterion. You should have at least three (3) peer responses.
6. After completing your annotations, use the discussion board to reflect on this activity using the discussion board prompts.

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