Students will be introduced to the fundamental principles and ideas necessary for the instigation and successful completion of an independent (supervised) research project. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods will be introduced and this will include a practical workshop devoted to statistics and theory. There will also be sessions concerned with evaluating literature and project management, ethics, health and safety and practical guidance on writing a dissertation/research paper. The research principles discussed in the sessions will be applied to specific, relevant research areas. These principles will enable the student to complete a piece of independent and critical research in the form of a dissertation or research paper based on primary or secondary research.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
To understand how to develop a research idea and apply relevant research principles to he development of a research proposal for a dissertation or research paper.
To apply appropriate research methods to the hypothesis and research question
To collect and clearly present data sets.
To analyse data using recognised techniques
To discuss the findings in the context of the existing literature and to make recommendations based on the research findings
To effectively plan and manage a research project.
To carry out an independent piece of research in the form of a dissertation or research paper
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessments: Presentation (10 mins plus 5 minutes for questions) 10%
Written dissertation (15000 words) or research paper (7500 words) 90%
Reassessment: Resubmission of written dissertation, final mark capped at 50%
