First, reading literature: get innovative inspiration and find problems.

Innovation is difficult, innovation is difficult, is it really that difficult to find innovation? What can we do to find seemingly universal research innovation in "reading"?

1. Read the literature. According to my observation of my classmates around me, I found that they all have a fatal problem: too little hands-on and too few periodicals. Many people who publish SCI generally read foreign periodicals, and now many libraries have expanded the data resources of foreign periodicals. I suggest that you have the opportunity to read more books. The advantage of this is that you can browse the research related to the top journals in your field through this journal. Why can't some people find innovation? Maybe they don't know the direction of their research field at all.

2. Frequently reading some top-level and academic frontier journals can cultivate your subject sensitivity invisibly-searching for keywords on the computer is my most commonly used search method, but! ! ! I can't guarantee that the keywords I entered are up to date. That's why I advocate encouraging everyone to dabble as widely as possible. Innovation depends on articles on different topics, many of which come from interdisciplinary and other disciplines.

Excellent scientific practitioners need to have a keen sense of scientific research, which is cultivated through long-term thinking and cruel elimination-sometimes you think hard for days or even half a month before you have an idea, and it is likely that others have done it more than ten years ago.

Therefore, in addition to using scientific and efficient methods to ensure that the latest and cutting-edge research trends are always obtained, we must also consider:

A. Read a lot of literature carefully, listen to academic reports, discuss with peers, and get inspiration from it. Don't rush for success.

B. summarize unexplored but meaningful topics in areas of interest;

C. Summarize controversial issues, compare research methods and conclusions repeatedly, and find the breakthrough point;

D being good at grasping unexplained problems encountered in scientific research often becomes the bright spot of thinking;

E. explain the scheme and demonstrate its feasibility.

Second, break through the "gaps", "gaps" and "intersections" of disciplines.

It is difficult to choose a topic for a dissertation, which is conducive to tapping the potential of graduate students, carrying forward the spirit of innovation, making a breakthrough on the basis of predecessors, expressing their new opinions and viewpoints and becoming a unified statement.

1. "Blank"

"Blanking" is a subject that has not been involved in this discipline.

In most cases, there are not many big problems that "everyone in your field has not solved". So once again, you need to know the research progress in the existing field. At the same time, such as various new problems raised in the reform; Application of new products, new processes, etc. -There is little or no reference to such topics. Although the research space is vast, it is unknown whether the actual academic value and the existing theoretical basis are sufficient to support it, and whether the theoretical framework and model are established. Therefore, if there is no considerable research foundation and strong team support for this topic, it is better to retreat from difficulties.

2. "Vacancy"

"Vacancy" is a topic that has been studied in this field, but there is still room for discussion.

Or disagree with the previous point of view, or take a new approach to the old theme and choose a new angle to explain the problem; Or correct the mistakes or defects in research methods. Can be discussed from the following aspects:

Is the result incomplete, incomplete and inappropriate?

What problems remain to be solved in a certain discipline?

Which of the solved problems need to be supplemented or corrected?

What is the focus of current theoretical controversy?

Where is the focus of the debate?

What is the representative's opinion?

What are the shortcomings of the mainstream view?

What are the advantages of opposing opinions?

Many major innovations are challenges to authority, sparking sparks in the collision of problems. There are countless examples of this.

3. Multidisciplinary "intersection"

Interdisciplinary learning is very conducive to expanding thinking. In the knowledge economy and information society, the development of science and technology presents the trend of mutual penetration, mutual intersection and mutual integration. At the intersection of disciplines, some new disciplines such as literary psychology and biomedical engineering are constantly emerging, which will inevitably bring new problems. Graduate students are required to choose topics in new interdisciplinary fields that have not been explored by predecessors, find new problems and produce new ideas in the synthesis and comparison of disciplines.

Communication sociology, public relations psychology, population, resources and environmental economics and other disciplines are developed on the edge of the discipline; Reception aesthetics is the development and rise of No Man's Land, which is ignored by the audience. This kind of opportunity also exists between different stages in the same department. For example, during the period of China ancient literature 1234 ~ 127 1 year, how did zaju and Sanqu develop? At present, the research is still blank, and people don't know much about it. In this way, we should pay attention to the permeability, complementarity, continuity, transition and mutation between disciplines or within disciplines.

Third, comprehensive comparison and social investigation.

1. comprehensive method

It can be roughly divided into "review" and "review". "Summary" requires that all the academic research results on a certain issue be summarized. The so-called "all" is relative, which can be the "all" of a certain stage or the "all" of a certain meeting. The "review" requires comments on this basis. To choose this kind of topic, we must first have comprehensive information, scientific summary and realistic classification. When evaluating the achievements of others, try to be objective and fair, without emotion; When expressing opinions, you should have original opinions and be well-founded.

2. Comparative method

First of all, we must confirm that the objects are comparable, that is, they belong to the same category or the same condition and the same relationship. There are both vertical and horizontal comparisons. Vertical ratio is historical comparison, that is, comparing the specific changes of the same thing in different times, such as the evolution of Confucianism in different historical periods, and horizontal ratio is the comparison of different specific things under the same standard, determining their similarities and differences, and exploring their reasons. For example, studying the similarities and differences between the two representative legends of the Qing Dynasty, The Palace of Eternal Life and Peach Blossom Fan, is a horizontal comparison.

3 social investigation method

The ultimate goal of this paper is to serve the society. The determination of the topic should be based on social needs, pay attention to social investigation, collect first-hand information from social practice, discard the rough and select the fine, discard the false and retain the true, upgrade perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge, and finally establish the topic. Really choose topics from practice and serve practice.

Fourthly, material extraction, trying to verify the heuristic method.

1. Material extraction method

The more reading materials, the better. Be diligent in doing things, think carefully and classify them. It is necessary to find out what problems need to be solved urgently in this discipline and which are the focus of debate in this discipline. After repeated pondering and refining, it has formed its own topic.

2. Hypothetical verification method

Refers to the method of thinking first, and then determining the topic through reading materials and verification. According to my usual observation and study, I initially determined the scope of the topic, and then read a lot of materials to understand the academic discussion. For example, a graduate student discussed how to get out of the predicament of state-owned enterprises with the topic of "Theoretical analysis and practical discussion on asset reorganization of enterprises in China", which was determined on the basis of collecting a large number of cases of success or failure of asset reorganization of state-owned enterprises.

3. Exploration method

In teaching, teachers combine classroom knowledge with extracurricular reading to inspire graduate students' views, basis and methods on a certain issue, so that they can find a suitable topic. For example, when teachers teach marketing theory, students are deeply inspired and think of the successful experience of strengthening brand management in an enterprise, thus determining the topic of "rethinking enterprise brand strategy"

Five, retrospective method

This method starts with the result or current situation of things, carries out reverse thinking, traces back to the source, finds the root of contradictions and determines the topic. For example, most of the research papers on A Dream of Red Mansions are mainly comments by Zhi Yanzhai. Further analysis and comparison show that these comments are suspicious and contradictory. For example, the fifth comment on the earliest known manuscript "A Preface to the Dragon" (1754), the story of Chiyanzhai re-evaluating the stone wrote: "The author regards his daughter as a treasure. I wonder. Does her daughter know now? I am crying for the author's infatuation, and I hate my daughter who has recently given up on herself. " Its tone is obviously from the descendants of different times from the "book writer". However, according to a lot of criticism, Zhi Yanzhai is a close friend who is older than the author and participates in the revision, proofreading and copying of the novel. For example, at the end of the thirteenth comment, it was written: "Qin Keqing mourned for Tianxianglou, and the author used the pen of history. Because the old man has a soul, he entrusted two things to Xifeng Jia's family ... because he ordered Xiqin to delete it. " Among them, "Western Qin" is Cao Xueqin. 1754, Cao Xueqin was in his thirties, and the approver of this book called himself an "antique". This is its contradiction. Suspicious points, such as: At the end of the first round of the JOE edition, some people criticized: "After reading Zhi Yan Zhai JOE, we will still use the Story of the Stone." It was not until 30 years later (1784) that the first batch of 80 manuscripts named after A Dream of Red Mansions appeared. Previously, the title of all manuscripts was "The Story of the Stone". But in the fifth edition of JOE, there is such a criticism: "The speaker should read A Dream of Red Mansions in this way, not to mention its moral."

How to explain the above problems? We can use the "backtracking method" to investigate JOE's discovery. 1928 February, Hu Shi published an article claiming that he had bought off JOE and published his research results on JOE. However, Hu kept the book and its source secret for more than 30 years, until Taiwan Province Province photocopied the book at 196 1. He said, "I was so negligent at that time that I didn't write down the name and address of the seller and didn't correspond with him, so I didn't know the history of this book in recent decades." On this basis, some redologists put forward the authenticity of fat criticism, which attracted the attention of academic circles. If you choose this topic, you might as well name it "Fat Batch Case Study".

Six, transplantation and doubt method

1. Transplantation

It refers to studying the problems of this discipline with reference to the methods of other disciplines, and organically combining them with the characteristics and laws of this discipline on the basis of correctly understanding the basic principles and methods of other disciplines. With the development of modern science, emerging disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines are constantly emerging, breaking the traditional boundary between natural science and social science. The mutual penetration between disciplines has become an important feature of the development of modern science, which is the objective basis for the emergence of transplantation.

Graduate students should be good at discovering the relationship between research objects and thinking methods in different disciplines, get inspiration from the research in other disciplines, and find tools to find problems.

2. Analogy transplantation method

The important premise of analogy transplantation is to find the similarities or contact points between them, including the selection of analogy objects and analogy reasoning. The former should choose familiar or vivid things as analogy objects based on the research purpose; The latter finds the key point of analogy transplantation by comparing and considering the similarities or similarities between the two.

There are three situations of simulated transplantation:

① Conceptual analogy transplantation. For example, the concept of "orientation" in biology is extended to the study of the relationship between teachers and students in the field of education, and the concept of "teacher-oriented" appears. How to make use of students' teacher-centered characteristics to form a good teacher-student relationship has become a hot issue in the field of educational theory.

② theoretical system transplantation. For example, when studying the art of classroom teaching, we can learn from the aesthetic standard system-the beauty of material, the beauty of form and the beauty of expression, and divide the art of classroom teaching into the art of using teaching materials, the art of organizing classroom teaching forms and the art of expressing classroom teaching.

③ Methods Transplantation. There are both thinking method transplantation and research method transplantation here. From the course of theoretical development, the fundamental revolution of any theoretical development is closely related to the revolution of thinking mode and research method. The transplantation of methods is the highest realm of analogy transplantation.

3. Doubt method

There is no forbidden area for academics, and there is no end to science. The truth thought today may become a fallacy tomorrow, so graduate students can be skeptical about any theoretical viewpoint and practical behavior, and make non-absolute affirmative or negative judgments on the rationality of existing conclusions, conventions, habits and behaviors. Doubt will inevitably cause graduate students to re-examine things and find new problems.

There are two main reasons for suspicion:

First, a lot of facts and experience; The second is the logical conclusion of scientific analysis.

There are two possibilities to doubt the result: one is to partially or completely confirm one's doubts; The second is to falsify your doubts. Whether it is confirmed or falsified, it will make graduate students take a step forward in their understanding of this issue. For example, the view that "school education plays a leading role in the process of human development" can be discussed in depth. There are many factors that affect people's development, such as heredity, environment, education and people's subjective initiative, among which school education is only one of the important factors. Theoretically speaking, school, as a specialized educational institution, should play a leading role in people's development, but in fact it is not, because there are preconditions for school education to play a leading role in people's development. People's development has its inherent law, and unless school education conforms to this law, its function is limited. In reality, the development of some schools is lagging behind, and it is difficult to play a leading role in the development of students.

Seven, empathy.

In-place thinking aims at getting rid of the original mindset and understanding the research object from different angles and levels, thus forming a new understanding of the object. This requires rearranging a set of familiar materials and looking at them from different angles to get rid of the influence of popular theories at that time. There are three kinds of transposition thinking: transposition in the same layer, transposition in different layers and transposition in time and space.

1. transposition at the same level

It refers to observing, analyzing and studying the research object from the same logical level and from different angles and sides. For example, Comenius, a Czech educator, studied educational theory, established his own teaching theory system from the system of cosmic wisdom, and separated educational research from philosophical epistemology for the first time. Herbart, a German educator, systematically studied pedagogy from the perspective of teachers, and constructed a teacher-centered theoretical system of traditional pedagogy. Dewey, an American educator, constructed a child-centered pedagogy system with the background of empiricism philosophy. These three peaks in the development of educational theory are all characterized by empathy, which is carried out at the level of education, teachers and teaching activities and belongs to transposition at the same level.

2. Transposition of different layers

The development of contemporary educational theory is no longer simply from the level of teachers, students or textbooks, but more from the level of teacher-student relationship (elements), and discusses the education and teaching problems from the perspective of teacher-student interaction, that is, transposition at different levels.

3. Space-time transposition

When we discuss the same education and teaching problem, we study it from different angles of time and space. For example, when choosing a school site, we will ask, why can China Ancient Academy be located next to famous mountains and rivers, while contemporary China University should be located in the city? Why can many famous American universities be located in remote towns, but not in China? This is empathy in time and space.

Eight, time and method

According to the research time, it can be divided into horizontal research and vertical research.

1. Cross-sectional study

Refers to the cross-sectional study of the research object at a certain moment (the whole picture of different types of research objects at a certain moment). Its advantages are that the research scope is wide, statistical investigation methods are mostly used, the data format is unified and comes from the same time, and various types of research objects can be described and compared, but the depth and breadth of data are poor. For example, the general survey of educational resources is a typical cross-sectional study.

2. Longitudinal study

It refers to observing and studying a scientific development phenomenon from both positive and negative development directions at different time points or for a long time, so as to understand the development process of the phenomenon and compare the changes in different periods; Moreover, because of the clear time series of various variables, it is easy to make logical causal judgments, but its research scope is small and it is difficult to compare different types.