THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

      The scientific approach which is the foundation of all researches is a special systematized form of all reflective thinking and inquiry.  John Dewey, (1993,p.116), outlined a general paradigm of inquiry that has provided the basis of the scientific approach with the following components:

      1.  Problem-Obstacle-Idea

      The researcher encounters an obstacle to understanding, an incomprehensible unrest about observed and unobserved phenomena.  The most important step is to get the idea out into the open and express it into a reasonably manageable form.  Dewey (1993, p.118) said:

      "There is a troubled, perplexed, trying situation, where difficulty is as it were, spread throughout the entire situation, infecting it as a whole.  In stating the problem, one intellectualizes what is merely an emotional quality of the whole situation."

      2.  Hypothesis

      Intellectualizing the problem and turning back on experience for possible solutions precede the formulation of a hypothesis which is a conjectural statement, a tentative proposition about the relation between two or more phenomena or variables (Dewey,p.119).

      3.  Reasoning-Deduction is the step where one makes a deduction of the consequences of a hypothesis.  This is a deductive reasoning which requires experience and knowledge (Dewey, p.120).

      4.  Observation-Test-Experiment

      This involves testing the relation expressed by the hypothesis. Observation, testing and experimentation put the problem relation to empirical test.

      The steps of the scientific method follow a consecutive pattern, but they are not neatly fixed.  What is important is the controlled rationality of the scientific process, the interdependence of the parts of the process and the importance of the problem at hand.