The methodology behind Tutoeris
Holistic understanding of science
An original proposal—a syntagm—that integrates what diverse approaches contributed to the research process. Not just another approach, but an integrative understanding of science and its practice.
What is the Holistic Understanding of Science?
It goes beyond traditional views and encompasses the different research paradigms. It impacts research through its inclusive vision, its respectful attitude toward the different ways of understanding research, its own synergy, and its openness to new discoveries.
Science is conceived as a process that integrates the objective and the subjective, analytical and intuitive thinking, the general and the particular, the sequential and the simultaneous. It transcends the traditional divide between formal and factual science, understanding that both are part of the same process with varying emphases.
The pillars of holistic research
Unity of the whole
Every aspect and moment of the research contains and reflects the whole research—coherent and in harmony with the totality.
Simultaneity and synchronicity
There are acausal, non-linear connections between phenomena: events with similar significance without a direct cause-and-effect link.
Integrality
It treats holopraxis as a holistic experience that integrates every dimension of the human being: intellective, volitional-social, biophysiological, and ethical-moral.
Open possibilities
A dynamic, creative process is not limited to a single reductionist technique; it requires a diversity of possibilities, techniques, and instruments.
Holographic principle
The event contains the whole: each aspect and moment reflects the entire research. It is expressed especially in the holopraxic statement.
Complementarity
The integration of complementary approaches is called a “syntagm.” Different approaches within a discipline are complementary, not mutually exclusive.
Holosynthetic relationships
Each aspect of a study acquires its full meaning only in connection with the totality of the research.
Becoming and the Holistic Spiral
Knowledge is a continuous process of development, evolution, and transcendence.
The holistic spiral
The map of the research process: ten holotypes organized into four levels of increasing complexity, from the simplest at the bottom to the most complex at the top. Click to explore them.
Or explore by level
Click a holotype (the points on the spiral) or a level to see what it means. The process rises from the simplest (bottom) to the most complex (top).
Development
Created by Jacqueline Hurtado de Barrera in 1996, it logically connects every aspect and step of the research process (types, designs, instruments, and procedures) that are usually scattered.
Continuous and evolving
The results of one study become the starting point for new, more complex research, within a larger evolutionary process.
Research objectives
It organizes objectives into ten categories (ten types of research) grouped into four levels of complexity, where the method is subordinate to the objective.
Integration
It enables the syntagmatic integration of diverse approaches and methods, overcoming the qualitative/quantitative dichotomy by treating them as complementary techniques.
The seed of your research: the holopraxic statement
It is the phrase, question, or statement that captures in a few words what the researcher wants to know: what is to be known, about which event, in which units of study, in what context, and when. From it derive the methods, procedures, instruments, and even the conclusions.
Unlike the “problem” in the positivist approach—which usually leads to confirmatory research—the holopraxic statement is much broader: it can lead to any of the ten types of research in the holistic framework.
Components
The 5 pieces of the holopraxic statement
Every well-formulated research question answers, in a single sentence, these five questions.
Anatomy of an example
How do we describe academic motivation among secondary-school students in rural schools of Boyacá during 2025?
What you want to know
Points to the level of research and therefore to the general objective and the holotype. The verb in the infinitive (“describe”, “compare”, “explain”) marks the level of knowledge.
About which characteristic
Leads to identifying the event of study, its synergies and indicators, and guides the choice of data-collection instruments.
In whom
The units of study (people, groups, organizations, texts…) from which information is obtained; defines population, sample, and sources.
In which context
The geographic, cultural, historical, and situational context where the study takes place and to which the results are generalized, if applicable.
When it occurs
The temporality of the study: present (transectional), over time (longitudinal), or in the past (retrospective).
Apply this methodology, step by step
Tutoeris turns the holistic understanding into an AI-guided path, from the holopraxic statement to your objectives.
Get started with TutoerisReferences
- Hurtado de Barrera, Jacqueline. (2012). Metodología de la investigación. Guía para una comprensión holística de la ciencia (4th ed.). Bogotá: Ediciones Quirón-Sypal.
- Hurtado de Barrera, Jacqueline. (2015). El proyecto de investigación. Bogotá: Ediciones Quirón-Sypal.