HS52015: Principles of social sciences research
[Page last updated: 15 August 2024]
| Academic Year: | 2024/25 |
| Owning Department/School: | Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (units for MRes programmes) |
| Credits: | 10 [equivalent to 20 CATS credits] |
| Notional Study Hours: | 200 |
| Level: | Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7) |
| Period: |
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| Assessment Summary: | CWES 25%, CWRI 75% |
| Assessment Detail: |
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| Supplementary Assessment: |
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| Requisites: | |
| Learning Outcomes: |
By the end of the unit, students are expected to:
* Identify the social, political and ethical context of social science research. * Understand the role of epistemologies in scientific inquiry * Distinguish between research methodologies * Identify basic and applied modes of social scientific inquiry * Formulate a research problem and a research question * Formulate a research design based on principles of social science research * Understand the relationship between paradigms and research methods * Differentiate between basic and applied research * Identify the different roles of theory * Distinguish between research guided by a disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach * Formulate disciplinary or interdisciplinary research proposals for external funding * Develop written and oral argumentation in the domain of social science research |
| Synopsis: | Explore the philosophical foundations of social research. This will help you to distinguish between different research paradigms and methodologies.
You¿ll critically analyse disciplinary and interdisciplinary research approaches, and basic and applied research methods. This will enhance your understanding of these and the situations in which they can be used.
You¿ll also develop a better understanding of the societal, political and ethical contexts of the social research process. |
| Aims: | By the end of the unit, students are expected to:
* Identify the social, political and ethical context of social science research. * Understand the role of epistemologies in scientific inquiry * Distinguish between research methodologies * Identify basic and applied modes of social scientific inquiry * Formulate a research problem and a research question * Formulate a research design based on principles of social science research * Understand the relationship between paradigms and research methods * Differentiate between basic and applied research * Identify the different roles of theory * Distinguish between research guided by a disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approach * Formulate disciplinary or interdisciplinary research proposals for external funding * Develop written and oral argumentation in the domain of social science research |
| Skills: | You will learn to differentiate between basic and applied research, you will learn to formulate a research problem and a research question and understand the role of epistemologies in scientific inquiry.
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| Content: | The content includes the paradigms of social science and their history, different definitions of science and knowledge, the concepts of validity and reliability, formulating a research question in the social sciences, selecting methodologies, combining research methods, distinguishing between basic and applied research, disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, and strategies for public engagement in the social sciences. |
| Course availability: |
HS52015 is Compulsory on the following courses:Department of Education
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Notes:
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