Aceveda, Ma. Allyssa M.

JOUR 60
BAJOURN 1-2

THEORY IN RESEARCH

Theorizing was developed when people began to wonder where things came from. A
theory is a speculation, belief or model of how a phenomenon began. In the Ancient Period,
philosophy, theory and science emerged where science explains the origin of things, because of
the never-ending questions, until now there are still many theories being developed in the world.
Theory greatly aids people in understanding how a phenomenon occurred or will occur.
According to George Santayana (The Sense of Beauty, 1896), “theory helps us to bear our
ignorance of fact." We have learned and continue to learn how to survive in everyday life since
we were born. Our intelligence, ideas that come to mind, and principles that we learn from our
life experiences. Theory helps us to learn something that we do not know, or that is difficult to
understand. In Senior High School, we start our subject Research, in which we used a
theoretical framework to answer our questions. Our research is qualitative in nature, with the
goal of understanding and interpreting the why of a phenomenon through the analysis and
collection of non-numerical data. Theory plays an important role in research because it helps to
add meaning to research objectives and finds explanation in different aspects of a study.
According to Silvermann, 2000 "Any scientific finding is usually to be assessed in relation to the
theoretical perspective from which it derives and to which it may contribute.", Theories provide a
framework for understanding a phenomenon as well as a foundation for organizing what is
unknown. Theories also assist researchers in developing research questions, identifying
potential threats to validity, and demonstrating the research's relevance. We were perplexed
when we were taught the various theories in qualitative research because we did not
understand other terminologies, but once we began the study, we understood how the flow of
research worked. Research, theory, and frameworks are all confusing to think about, but as a
student who never runs out of opportunities to learn, doing research and theory will help us
understand things, human behavior, and phenomenon.