PIR-40095 - Module Specification
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

N/A

Description for 2024/25

How is advanced research in the social sciences designed and conducted? How do researchers make up their minds about what research designs to select and what evidence gathering methods to use? How do they deal with potential ethical issues that may arise? How do they overcome the many obstacles that beset practical research? And after all that, how do they learn from and build on their experiences of conducting empirical research?
This module seeks to address these questions by providing an in-depth and hands-on advanced introduction to research design and evidence gathering in the social sciences. It first explores how to select and narrow down a research topic, and how to formulate a good research question. It then examines the range of research designs used in the social sciences, before going on to consider a variety of evidence gathering approaches, including interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, documents and texts. Each approach is explained and discussed by academic members of staff who are engaged in research that makes use of these different methods. Staff therefore explain the key issues involved in using these different evidence-gathering techniques, offer advice to students contemplating adopting these techniques in their own research, and share their experiences of good practice. Alongside this, the module explores the ethical issues involved in undertaking social research, and examines what steps researchers should take to ensure that their research is conduced ethically.
For their assessment, students are asked to design and conduct their own small-scale practical research project, based on a (Politics and International Relations) topic of their own choosing. Students will work in small teams to design and carry out this research. After they have completed their small-scale project, students are asked to write a 4,000-word reflective report on their project. This report in an individual (not a team) report. The report should detail what topic was chosen, why it was chosen, what the research question was, how the research was designed, and how it was carried out (i.e. what evidence gathering approach was adopted and why). In the report students should also reflect on their experiences of hand-on research and discuss any difficulties or problems that arose in the course of their project.
The module offers students the opportunity to further develop a whole range of employability skills, including their team-working and leadership skills, their communication skills, their information-handling skills, their research skills, and their problem-solving skills. It is therefore aimed both at students intending to go on to further academic study and at those wishing to embark on professional careers in which research skills (including the collection and understanding of data) are crucial.

This module aims to provide an in-depth and hands-on advanced introduction to research design and evidence-gathering methods in the social sciences. It considers the importance of research questions, explores the purpose of research design, provides an overview of different types of research design, examines a variety of evidence-gathering techniques, and reflects on ethical issues involved in conducting social research. It then offers students an opportunity to design and conduct their own small-scale practical research task and to later reflect upon their choices of research design and methods, and their experiences of hands-on research.
Through the conduct of this task, the module also aims to enable students to develop a whole range of skills, including their team-working and leadership skills, their communication skills, their information-handling skills, their research skills, and their problem-solving skills.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Identify a suitable research topic and research question for a small-scale but advanced research task: 1
Demonstrate systematic knowledge of a range of research designs used in advanced social science research and an ability to select the research design(s) most appropriate to a chosen task: 1
Demonstrate systematic knowledge of a range of methods of evidence gathering used in advanced research in the social sciences and an ability to select which method(s) is/are most appropriate to a chosen task: 1
Critically reflect on ethical issues involved in conducting social research: 1
Demonstrate self direction and originality in employing strategies to address and resolve problems encountered during practical research: 1
Demonstrate the ability to work as part of a small team: 1
Critically evaluate and reflect on the appropriateness and viability of the chosen research design(s) and evidence gathering strategy/ies: 1
Critically analyse evidence/data collected to reach conclusions about a chosen research topic and question: 1
Communicate appropriately through use of higher level writing skills, with appropriate use of academic referencing: 1

Study hours

Active Learning Hours:
- 11 x 2-hour seminars: 22 hours
- Application for ethical approval (supported by tutor): 8 hours
- Fieldwork (survey work; interviews; or focus groups): 20 hours
Independent Study Hours:
- Preparation for seminars: 20 hours
- Individual and group work on research task (outside of class): 30 hours
- Preparation for and writing of reflective report: 50 hours

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment