What are research paradigms?

Research paradigms are like toolkits that scientists use to explore and understand the world, just like you might have a different set of toys for building vs. for drawing.

Imagine you're playing with blocks. One day, you decide to build a tower by stacking them one on top of another. That's like using one kind of research paradigm: it helps you figure things out in a certain way. But maybe the next day, you try to make roads and cars from your blocks, that’s like using a different research paradigm, because now you're looking at the same toys but solving a new kind of problem.

There are a few main kinds of toolkits in research:

• The traditional toolkit uses rules and logic, like how you solve a math problem.
• The exploratory toolkit lets you try lots of ideas, like when you mix colors to see what happens.
• The questioning toolkit helps you look at problems from new angles, like when you ask “why” or “what if?”

Each toolkit gives researchers different ways to discover answers, just like your toys help you learn in different ways.