GOAL: The goal of this course is to enable students to design good research based on a thorough understanding of the research process, and of the methods frequently used in social sciences and humanities research. As such, the course focuses on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research designs, and of knowing how differences in the worldview underlying these approaches contribute to the choices we make when designing our research.
OBJECTIVES:
Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
- Understand the basic characteristics of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research and the differences among these approaches.
- Define the major strategies of inquiry used in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
- Understand the role of literature and theory in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
- Develop writing strategies for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research proposals and reports.
- Anticipate and resolve ethical issues related to research.
- Understand the elements that comprise a good introduction to research.
- Write a purpose statement for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
- Develop research questions and/or hypotheses for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
- Understand the procedures involved in developing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods plans.
- Identify, review, and critique qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research studies.
- Develop a plan for a research study.
- Present information about research in a scholarly manner.
TOPICS:
- Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to scholarly inquiry
- Philosophical assumptions and ideological perspectives underpinning qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches
- Strategies of inquiry associated with the various approaches
- Specific techniques of data collection
- Writing and presenting research
- Research ethics
- Evaluating research
- Research synthesis
- Writing a dissertation proposal